Eduardo de Almeida Navarro (born 20 February 1962) is a Brazilian
philologist and
lexicographer, specialist in
Old Tupi and
Nheengatu. He is a full professor at the
University of São Paulo,[1] where he has been teaching Old Tupi since 1993,[2] and Nheengatu since 2009.[2][3][4][5] Eduardo Navarro is also the author of the books Método moderno de tupi antigo (Modern Method of Old Tupi), 1998, and Dicionário de tupi antigo (Dictionary of Old Tupi), 2013, important works on the Tupi language.[6][7][8][9]
Biography
Eduardo de Almeida Navarro was born on 20 February 1962 in the city of
Fernandópolis, being the second son of Gabriel Navarro and Dalva de Almeida.[10][11][12] He graduated in
Geography from the
São Paulo State University and in
Classics from the University of São Paulo.[2] In 1995, he received his PhD with a thesis on the issue of languages in the Renaissance.[2][7] In 1997, he published Anchieta: vida e pensamentos (Anchieta, Life and Thinking), a book about the Spanish Jesuit priest
José de Anchieta, author of
the first grammar of Old Tupi and one of the first authors of
Brazilian literature.[13]
In 1998, Navarro launched the book Método moderno de tupi antigo: a língua do Brasil dos primeiros séculos (Modern Method of Old Tupi: The Language of Brazil in the First Centuries), which aims to enable students to read 16th and 17th century texts in this language, showing the penetration of Old Tupi in
Brazilian culture.[1][14] In April 2000, on the occasion of the celebration of the 500 years since the discovery of Brazil, Navarro gave a lecture to 800 people at Unigranrio.[15][16] In 2005 he did a post-doctorate in India, where he went to study the origins of the myth of
São Tomé in Brazil.[2]
In 2013, Navarro released Dicionário de tupi antigo: a língua indígena clássica do Brasil (Dictionary of Old Tupi: the Classic Indigenous Language of Brazil), in which he describes almost eight thousand words of this language, thus surpassing
Tesoro de la lengua guaraní, by
Antonio Ruiz de Montoya, which displays about five thousand entries.[2][17][18] He is currently preparing a
Nheengatu dictionary.[3]
Contributions
Tupi literature
Eduardo Navarro was the organizer and main translator of the books Poemas: lírica portuguesa e tupi (Poems: Portuguese and Tupi poetry), of 1997, and Teatro, of 1999, in which he wrote explanatory notes and modernized the original spelling of the texts, most of which had been written in Old Tupi by José de Anchieta.[2][19][20][21]
He was also responsible for writing the preface and footnotes of the reedition of
Ferdinand Denis [
fr]' book
Uma festa brasileira [
pt], and translated part of it directly from Old Tupi. The first edition of this book had been published in 1850 in Paris. The new edition was launched in October 2007, with a bilingual version in French and Portuguese. The excerpt translated by Navarro was Poemas brasílicos (Brazilian Poetry), by Father Cristóvão Valente.[22]
In 2021, Eduardo Navarro announced that he had translated the six letters of the Camarão
Indians, discovered more than 130 years ago in the
Netherlands, where they have been kept for almost 400 years. The letters, all in
Tupi, are the only record of literate Indians writing in the colonial period. The transcription and annotated full translation of the Camarão Indians' letters were published in the periodical Boletim do
Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi in October 2022.[4][23][24][25][26]
Tupi language revival
Since the year 2000, Eduardo Navarro has been training teachers of Old Tupi for
indigenous schools in Paraíba, in an initiative called Projeto Poti.[27] The first course in Old Tupi, held in
Baía da Traição,[4] lasted two years and trained 17 monitors to act as teachers in
Potiguaras schools, aiming to multiply the knowledge about this language in order to
recover it.[28][29]
There was also the institutionalization of the Tupi language in the curriculum of the indigenous schools. In fact, the subject is taught from the early years to high school.[30]
Hans Staden (film)
Eduardo Navarro was responsible for the translation into Tupi of the entire script of the
film [
pt] about the German adventurer
Hans Staden, who visited Brazil twice in the 16th century.[31] The feature film, directed by
Luiz Alberto Pereira [
pt], was released in 1999 on the occasion of the celebrations for
Brazil's 500th anniversary.[32]
2013 — Los Destacados de ALIJA, awardes by Asociación de Literatura Infantil y Juvenil Argentina, for the translation of
Cabeza hueca, cabeza seca.[34]
Selected works
ANCHIETA, José de (2004). Poemas: lírica portuguesa e tupi (in Brazilian Portuguese). Translated by NAVARRO, Eduardo de Almeida (2.ª ed.). São Paulo:
Martins Fontes. p. 240.
ISBN9788533619562.
NAVARRO, Eduardo de Almeida (2005). Método moderno de tupi antigo: a língua do Brasil dos primeiros séculos (in Brazilian Portuguese) (3.ª ed.). São Paulo:
Global. p. 464.
ISBN9788526010581.
NAVARRO, Eduardo de Almeida (2013). Dicionário de tupi antigo: a língua indígena clássica do Brasil (in Brazilian Portuguese) (1.ª ed.). São Paulo:
Global. p. 624.
ISBN9788526019331.
NAVARRO, Eduardo de Almeida (2016). Curso de língua geral (nheengatu ou tupi moderno): a língua das origens da civilização amazônica (2.ª ed.). São Paulo: Centro Angel Rama. p. 112.
ISBN9788591262021.
Histórias em língua geral da Amazônia (in Brazilian Portuguese) (1.ª ed.). São Paulo: Centro Angel Rama. 2017. p. 112.
ISBN9788591262038.[35]