During the formation of the imperial state of Brazil, the issue of language tinged the discussions on nationality and representations on social and racial mixing. This essay discusses aspects of the polemic over Brazil's national language in the mid-nineteenth century, based on three articles: "A Response", by Joaquim Caetano Fernandes Pinheiro, "The Brazilian Language", by Joaquim Norberto de Sousa e Silva, and a "Brazilian Poetry", by Juan Valera, all published in the literary and scientific magazine Guanabara (Rio de Janeiro, 1849-1856). The analysis permits the uncovering of the political, social and cultural tensions involved in the process of the formation of a national language.
Socio-cultural history; history of imperial Brazil; languages; nationality; racial mixing.