The Otí language, also known as Chavante or Euchavante, is a
language isolate once spoken in the state of São Paulo, Brazil, between the
Peixe and
Pardo
''Pardos'' (feminine ''pardas'') is a term used in the former Portuguese and Spanish colonies in the Americas to refer to the triracial descendants of Southern Europeans, Amerindians and West Africans. In some places they were defined as ne ...
rivers. The language became extinct at the beginning of the 20th century, and the last ethnic Oti died in 1988. Only a few word lists are preserved.
Greenberg classified Oti as a
Macro-Ge language, but he provided almost no supporting data and has not been followed by other researchers.
History
The Oti were largely exterminated in the late 19th century out of fear that they were
Kaingang
The Kaingang (also spelled ''caingangue'' in Portuguese (language), Portuguese or ''kanhgág'' in the Kaingang language) people are an Indigenous peoples in Brazil, Indigenous Brazilian ethnic group spread out over the three southern Brazilian s ...
. Nimuendajú estimated that there were some 50 Oti in 1890. By 1903, there were only 8, divided between two locations, one a few kilometers east of
Indiana
Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...
and east of
Presidente Prudente, between the Peixe and
Paranapanema
Paranapanema is a municipality in the state of São Paulo (state), São Paulo in Brazil. The population was estimated at 20,395 in 2020, in an area of 1019 km². The elevation is 610 m.
References
Municipalities in São Paulo (state) ...
rivers, and one in
Platina
Platina is a municipality ''( município)'' in the state of São Paulo in Brazil
Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and ...
, some 50 km northwest of
Ourinhos
Ourinhos is a municipality in the state of São Paulo in Brazil
Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 mil ...
. The traditional Oti lands up to 1870 had been located between these two places.
Vocabulary
Loukotka (1968)
Loukotka (1968) lists the following basic vocabulary items.
:
Nikulin (2020)
Some Otí words given by Nikulin (2020),
[Nikulin, Andrey. 2020. ]
Proto-Macro-Jê: um estudo reconstrutivo
'. Tese de Doutorado em Linguística, Universidade de Brasília. cited from Quadros (1892), Borba (1908: 73–76), and Ihering (1912: 8).
[Ihering, H. von. A ethnographia do Brazil meridional. Extracto de las ''Actas del XVII° Congreso Internacional de Americanistas'', pág. 250 y siguientes. Buenos Aires: Imprenta de Coni Hermanos, 1912.] For the original word lists by Quadros (1892) and Borba (1908), see the corresponding
Portuguese article.
:
References
External links
*Alain Fabre, 2009, ''Diccionario etnolingüístico y guía bibliográfica de los pueblos indígenas sudamericanos''
Oti
{{South American languages
Language isolates of South America
Languages of Brazil
Indigenous languages of South America (Central)
Languages extinct in the 20th century