Antônio Lemos Barbosa

Antônio Lemos Barbosa (15 September 1910 – 5 September 1970) was a Brazilian priest, notably recognized for his contributions to Tupinology, that is, the study of Old Tupi.

Barbosa was born on 15 September 1910, in Três Corações, Minas Gerais, being the second of four children. His father, Luís Barbosa, was a teacher at the house of his grandfather; there, Luís met Júlia Lemos Barbosa (Lemos). Júlia died when Barbosa was 11 years old, during the birth of the couple's fifth child, who also died. Barbosa pursued studies for seven years at the Gregorian University in Rome, where he earned doctoral degrees in Philosophy and Theology. He was ordained priest by Marchetti Selvaggiani on 25 July 1934. Barbosa celebrated his first Low Mass in the Catacombs of Domitilla, and his first High Mass at the.

Barbosa served as professor of Ethnography and Indigenous Languages at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio). In 1956, he published the work Curso de tupi antigo: gramática, exercícios, textos (lit. 'Course of Old Tupi: Grammar, Exercises, Texts'), which received favorable reviews from contemporary critics. , for instance, declared the work constituted a "didactic revolution". It is considered that the work contains "interesting insights", but also that one of its weaknesses lies in the made-up, non-attested examples; it is deemed more reasonable that the description of a dead language contains only attested examples.

Barbosa died on 5 September 1970, after being hospitalized for two months at.