I was about to e-mail you about that mytho-phonetic rendering.

So Esperanto has maybe four more centuries to go before it, too, will be fully embraced as a native language by steadily multiplying remote communities in Europe?

I must disagree with the NWT article. NHEENGATU is a tupi guarani language. Portuguese priests developed a writting for this language based on portuguese fonetics and grammar as NHEENGATU was only oral, not written.
Tupí guaraní was a language spread from Caribe to Argentina. It is still the most frequent language in Paraguay. Tribal guaraní is spoken by Chiriguanos, Tapietes, PaîTavyterâs, Avakatuetes and Guayakis and belongs belongs to the arawak family.

Jagua oñarõ jepéro, ndoporosu'uvéima
A barking dog does not bite.

http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenguas_tup%C3%AD-guaran%C3%AD

Without any knowledge of the subject, I did immediately associate the story with the myth of Shakespearean English in Appalachia. Simarillion's comments seem to establish this as another case. Any more information or opinions out there?

Just another mistake in NYT.
The"Misiones Jesuíticas" were established in the borderline between the bolivian, brazilian, paraguayan and argentinian actual territory. So it is highly improbable that missionaries as shown in Jeremy Irons movie had spoken Nheengatú.

http://www.staff.uni-mainz.de/lustig/guarani/

The ruins of São Miguel das Missões in Brazil, and those of San Ignacio Miní, Santa Ana, Nuestra Señora de Loreto and Santa María la Mayor in Argentina, lie at the heart of a tropical forest. They are the impressive remains of five Jesuit missions, built in the land of the Guaranis during the 17th and 18th centuries. Each is characterized by a specific layout and a different state of conservation.

http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/291

Rio Babel: a História das Línguas na Amazônia ISBN 8588080044.

Thanks!

Alain Fabre 2005- Diccionario etnolingüístico y guía bibliográfica de los pueblos indígenas
sudamericanos. TUPI
http://butler.cc.tut.fi/~fabre/BookInternetVersio/Dic=Tupi.pdf

OT, but Braudel wrote a fascinating essay about his experience of the Brazilian boonies (near the Amazon). Os Sertaos (tr. Rebellion in the Backlands) is a fascinating story about a religiously-based rebellion in the XIXc Brazilian bush. Sort of a backwater of history, but far more interesting than most of the mainline stuff.

A guerra dos canudos also is central theme in Mario Vargas Llosa novel "La guerra del fin del mundo".
On Antonio Conselheiro an Nova Jerusalem,
http://educaterra.terra.com.br/voltaire/500br/canudos2.htm

For the record, the Braudel essay and Os Sertaoes are two different things.

Parabéns!
Visit:
www.gustavodourado.com.br
Gustavo Dourado

The 05 September 2005 edition of "The New York Times" devoted an article to the subject entitled "A Colonial Language Resurfaces".

I am very pleased to read this article! Unfortunately, this very interesting subject, i.e., that Brazil had another language, is unknown to most Brazilians.

For the record the tupi guarani language ñengatu, means "an easier language to be understood". The Jesuitas misioneros where stablish also in Colombia at the amazonian region, that is to say five states. The Ñengatu language has being replaced by Tukano which is the lengua general used these days.
By the way, the enormous damage made by any religious institution to the Amazonian region it is somenthing we, no indigenous pople, should lament!