Encyclopedic in style, the Kuikuro-Portuguese dictionary was formulated to register the material culture of the Kuikuro people. Arranged by anthropologists Bruna Franchetto and Thiago Braga S\u00e1 (both of the National Museum) and linguist G\u00e9lsama Mara dos Santos of the Federal University of Amap\u00e1 (UNIFAP), the dictionary was produced with the participation of the Kuikuro community and teachers. \u201cThe edition is primarily geared toward the community itself,\u201d says Franchetto. Work on arranging the next volume, a compendium of the flora in the Alto Xingu region of Mato Grosso State, home to the Kuikuro villages, will begin this year.<\/p>\n
The product of documentation work commenced by Franchetto and Santos more than 20 years ago, the dictionary has also been circulated among researchers and the community in countless digital versions. Creation of alphabetic writing of the language, used in the volume, began in the 1990s and was led by Indigenous professors under Franchetto\u2019s guidance.<\/p>\n
According to Braga S\u00e1, one of the main difficulties in this type of work is the complexity involved. \u201cThe dictionary is a means of standardizing the language, but in this case we are dealing with Indigenous culture, underpinned by multiple perspectives,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
Active participation from the community is, thus, a determining factor. According to Braga S\u00e1, the professors from Kuikuro schools were of paramount importance during the research process. \u201cRight from the start, the initial versions of the dictionary were incorporated into education across the villages,\u201d he recalls. \u201cThe idea is for it to be another instrument to bolster the Kuikuro language. Indigenous languages are frequently associated to day-to-day life in the villages, but we cannot forget that, more than anything, in recent years they have also circulated around universities, producing and registering knowledge.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/rpf-dicionario-indigena2_353.jpg\")
Kuikuro-Portuguese dictionary team<\/span>Entries from the first volume of the Kuikuro-Portuguese dictionary, whose title is Inhanhig\u00fc<\/em>, meaning \u201cmade by hand\u201d or \u201cartefact\u201dKuikuro-Portuguese dictionary team<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n The first volume of the dictionary bears the title Inhanhig\u00fc<\/em>, meaning \u201cmade by hand\u201d or \u201cartefact.\u201d There are 363 entries divided among five thematic sections: \u201cKengikogu\u201d (objects), \u201cKengik\u00f5dohogu\u201d (adornments), \u201cT\u00fchatinh\u00fc\u201d (materials), \u201cIku\u201d (paintings or graphics), and \u201c\u00dcne\u201d (home). As well as the translation of the word into Portuguese, each entry comes with usage examples and images, and in the foreword Franchetto explains the structuring phonological and syntax aspects of the Kuikuro language.<\/p>\n The Kuikuro are among the most populous Indigenous peoples of the Alto Xingu, currently with 1,200 people in nine villages. \u201cOur students are first taught to read in their native language, and then in Portuguese,\u201d says Sep\u00e9 Ragati Kuikuro, professor and leader of the Ipatse village, who participated in drafting the content.<\/p>\n In addition to supporting the publication of the Kuikuro-Portuguese dictionary, the Goeldi Museum runs other projects to document Indigenous languages, including free-to-access multimedia dictionaries hosted on the institution\u2019s website. To date, seven languages from the Amazon region are thus registered: Kano\u00e9, Oro Win, Purubor\u00e1, Sakurabiat, Salam\u00e3i, Wanyam, and a dictionary of sacred sites of the Medzeniakonai people.<\/p>\n The project began in 2019 after a request by Jos\u00e9 Augusto Kano\u00e9, chief of the Kano\u00e9 community in the Rio Guapor\u00e9 Indigenous Reserve in Rond\u00f4nia State. \u201cHe asked researchers from the museum for a language study tool that included the option to hear the sound of the words. That\u2019s where the idea of multimedia records comes from,\u201d explains Ana Vilacy, a researcher at the Goeldi and one of the project coordinators. The dictionaries, which can be downloaded in PDF and HTML formats or accessed online, provide the option to listen to the sound and see the images associated to the words.<\/p>\n For Lidia Sakurabiat, who lives in the Koopi village on the Rio Mequ\u00e9ns Indigenous Reservation in Rond\u00f4nia State and helped to formulate the Sakurabiat-Portuguese dictionary, the possibility of accessing sounds and images enables the material to be used not only by those attending Indigenous schools, but also by their families: \u201cAs well as the teachers, older parents and siblings teach the children,\u201d she says. She worked for seven years as an Indigenous healthcare agent in her own community, and today uses the multimedia dictionary to pass the language along to her son, her siblings, and anyone else interested in learning it.<\/p>\n According to Vilacy, the Goeldi multimedia dictionaries are seen as social technology, developed in dialogue with the communities to help meet local requirements. The methodology of researchers at the institution also includes the writing of open-source software. A manual with scripts or semiautomated steps is available to anyone wishing to replicate the model, so there\u2019s no need for advanced knowledge of programming.<\/p>\n In April this year, a group of Indigenous students reading intercultural Indigenous affairs at the Federal University of Maranh\u00e3o (UFMA) approached the museum to use the methodology in producing their own dictionaries. The researchers at the Goeldi also work on this front: training members of Indigenous communities to document their own languages. Through the partnership with UFMA, a workshop was offered to professors of the text production discipline so that they can advise the students on reproducing the methodology for formulating the dictionaries.<\/p>\n Collection from the Makurap language & culture documentation project\u2002| Collection from the Purubor\u00e1 language documentation projects<\/span>Documentation of the languages of the Makurap (left<\/em>) and Purubor\u00e1 peoples in Rond\u00f4nia by the Goeldi MuseumCollection from the Makurap language & culture documentation project\u2002| Collection from the Purubor\u00e1 language documentation projects<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n According to Brazilian linguist Joshua Birchall of the University of New Mexico in the US, who co-coordinates the multimedia dictionary project with Vilacy, the documentation of oral languages frequently involves the creation of an alphabet, a process which evolved over centuries in languages such as Portuguese and English. \u201cIn this case, we need to reproduce this historical transformation in just a few years, which involves a lot of joint work by linguists, anthropologists, professors, and the whole community,\u201d says Birchall in an interview for Pesquisa FAPESP<\/em>.<\/p>\n Despite the efforts of researchers, the preservation of Indigenous languages in Brazil faces challenges. According to linguist Altaci Kokama, head of the Office for Promotion of Linguistic Policy at the Brazilian Ministry of Indigenous Peoples (CPPL-MPI), in addition to recognition and symbolic value, it is essential to progress the implementation of structuring, continuous, and regionalized public policies. Among key measures, he emphasizes the co-officialization of Indigenous languages in municipalities with native peoples, and the hiring of bilingual agents for accessibility purposes. Such initiatives are essential for guaranteeing access to the legal system, healthcare, and education for these peoples.<\/p>\n Kokama sits on the advisory board of the Ant\u00f4nio Kanaj\u00f3 Center for Documentation of Indigenous Languages and Cultures, inaugurated this May in the city of S\u00e3o Paulo. The institution was created through a partnership between the University of S\u00e3o Paulo\u2019s Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology (MAE-USP) and the Portuguese Language Museum (MLP), with the support of FAPESP. The idea was conceived by the foundation itself as part of the International Decade of Indigenous Languages instituted in 2022 by the UN.<\/p>\n The aim is for the center to act along three lines: research and documentation; construction of a free-to-access digital repository; and intercultural mediation and dissemination actions. According to anthropologist Maria Lu\u00edsa Lucas, a professor at MAE and head of the center\u2019s anthropology department, liaison with Indigenous communities and researchers has been the watchword through all stages of the institution\u2019s creation, from formation of the advisory board to calls for master\u2019s and PhD scholarship entries, with Indigenous candidates to be prioritized.<\/p>\n The first year of work will be focused on building the digital repository, but an international seminar will take place in November at the Portuguese Language Museum, as part of Brazil-France Cultural Year 2025. \u201cThe preservation of Indigenous languages is not only a technical action, but an ethical and political commitment,\u201d says Kokama.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/rpf-dicionario-indigena-Makurap-Purubora.jpg\")