Artificial Indigenous Place Names in Brazil: a Classification of Tupi Origin Names Created in the 19th and 20th Centuries

Abstract

On Brazilian territory there are place names of indigenous origin with over five hundred years of existence, given by
Indians themselves in the past, perhaps even before the Discovery of Brazil, together with artificial indigenous names
having few decades of existence. Such names appeared since the second half of the 19th century and they became
very common until the 1950s. These artificial toponyms are often confused with spontaneous place names of
indigenous origin, deriving from ancient Tupi and the general languages originated from it, i.e. the southern general
language, the general Amazonian language and Nheengatu. The historical reasons for the occurrence of such phenomenon were the strengthening of political nationalisms in the last century, with reflections in Brazil, the advent
of Modernism, with profound effects on Western culture in general and on Brazilian culture in particular. This paper
analyzes such artificial place names, making an attempt to classify them.