Tapayúna Language
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Tapayúna (Kajkwakhrattxi or Kajkwakhratxi, also spelt ''Tapajúna'', Tapayúna: ''Kajkwakhrattxi kawẽrẽ'' ) is a
Northern Jê Northern may refer to the following: Geography * North, a point in direction * Northern Europe, the northern part or region of Europe * Northern Highland, a region of Wisconsin, United States * Northern Province, Sri Lanka * Northern Range, a r ...
language ( , Macro-Jê) spoken in
Mato Grosso Mato Grosso ( – lit. "Thick Bush") is one of the states of Brazil, the third largest by area, located in the Central-West region. The state has 1.66% of the Brazilian population and is responsible for 1.9% of the Brazilian GDP. Neighboring ...
, Brazil by the Tapayúna (Kajkwakhrattxi) people. The Tapayuna historically lived on the
Arinos River The Arinos River is a river in Brazil. It is located east of, and empties into, the Juruena River. Some of the Suyá Indians, a Gê-speaking people of central Brazil, migrated from the state of Maranhão Maranhão () is a state in Brazil. L ...
, in the Tapajós basin, between
Juruena Juruena is a municipality in the state of Mato Grosso in the Central-West Region of Brazil. The city is served by Juruena Airport. See also *List of municipalities in Mato Grosso *Sepotuba River The Sepotuba River is a river in the state of M ...
and
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. They were decimated in mid-20th century as a result of numerous conflicts with Brazilian settlers, rubber tappers, and ranchers; it is estimated that their population declined 90% until reaching 41 individuals in 1969, which has been characterized as an ethnocide. The surviving Tapayúna were then transferred to
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at some point between 1969 and 1970, resulting in 10 more deaths. At first, they stayed with the Kĩsêdjê, speakers of a closely related language. Later, many Tapayúna moved to Terra Indígena Capoto-Jarina, where they went on to live with the Mẽtyktire subgroup of the Kayapó people, speakers of another
Northern Jê Northern may refer to the following: Geography * North, a point in direction * Northern Europe, the northern part or region of Europe * Northern Highland, a region of Wisconsin, United States * Northern Province, Sri Lanka * Northern Range, a r ...
language, Mẽbêngôkre. It is assumed that the Tapayúna language has been influenced both by Kĩsêdjê and Mẽbêngôkre. In 2010, 97 speakers have been reported in the Kawêrêtxikô village ( Capoto-Jarina). In contrast, only a few elders speak the language in the Ngôsôkô village ( Wawi), where the Kĩsêdjê are the ethnic majority. The number of speakers in the Ngôjhwêrê village ( Wawi) is unknown. Tapayúna is closely related to Kĩsêdjê; together, they form the Tapajós branch of Northern Jê. The common past on the
Tapajós River The Tapajós ( pt, Rio Tapajós ) is a river in Brazil. It runs through the Amazon Rainforest and is a major tributary of the Amazon River. When combined with the Juruena River, the Tapajós is approximately long. It is one of the largest cle ...
, shared by the Tapayúna and the Kĩsêdjê, is still part of their oral history. Phonological differences between the languages include the reflexes of Proto-Northern Jê ''*m/*mb'', ''*mr/*mbr'', ''*c'' (in onsets), ''*ñ'' (in codas), and ''*b'' (in stressed syllables). In Tapayúna, these consonants are reflected as ''w'' ( ̃, ''nr'' ( �̃, ''t'' ( ̪, ''j'' ( , and ''w'' ( , respectively, whereas Kĩsêdjê has ''m/mb'', ''mr/mbr'', ''s'', ''n'', and ''p'' in the same words.


Phonology


Consonants

Tapayúna innovated with respect to Proto-Tapajós via the following sound changes: *merger of ''*t̪ʰ'' and ''*t̪'' as ''t'' /t̪ʰ/; *''*p'' > ''w'' /w/; *''*m(b)'', ''*m(b)r'' > ''w'' /w̃/, ''nr'' /ɾ̃/; *''*kʰj'', ''*mbj'' > ''x'' /tʃ/, ''j'' /j/; *''*-m'', ''*-n'', ''-ñ'' > /-p/, /-t/, /-j/.


Vowels

The vowel inventory of Tapayuna is shown below (the orthographic representation is given in italics; the characters in slashes stand for the
IPA IPA commonly refers to: * India pale ale, a style of beer * International Phonetic Alphabet, a system of phonetic notation * Isopropyl alcohol, a chemical compound IPA may also refer to: Organizations International * Insolvency Practitioners ...
values of each vowel).


Echo vowels

Tapayúna has a phenomenon whereby an
echo vowel An echo vowel, also known as a synharmonic vowel, is a paragogic vowel that repeats the final vowel in a word in speech. For example, in Chumash, when a word ends with a glottal stop and comes at the end of an intonation unit, the final vowel is r ...
is inserted in words whose underlying form ends in a consonant. The epenthesized vowels are unstressed, as in ''rowo'' �ɾɔwɔ‘jaguar’, ''tàgà'' �tʌgʌ‘bird’, ''khôgô'' �kʰogo‘wind’.


Morphology


Inflectional morphology


Finiteness

As in all other Northern Jê languages, verbs inflect for finiteness and thus have a basic opposition between a ''finite'' form (also ''Short Form'' and ''main form'') and a ''nonfinite form'' (also ''Long Form''). Finite forms are used in matrix clauses only, whereas nonfinite forms are used in all types of subordinate clauses as well as in some matrix clauses (including negated, future, and progressive clauses). Nonfinite forms are most often formed via suffixation and/or prefix substitution. Some verbs (including all descriptives with the exception of ''katho'' ‘to leave’, whose nonfinite form is ''kathoro'') lack an overt finiteness distinction. The available nonfinite suffixes are ''/-ɾ/'' (the most common option, found in many transitive and intransitive verbs), ''/-j/'' (found in transitive verbs and in some intransitives whose stem ends in the vowel ''/a/''), as well as ''/-k/'' and ''/-p/'' (found in a handful of intransitive verbs which take a nominative subject when finite), as shown in the table below. In Proto-Northern Jê, several verbs derived their finite forms by means of leniting the stem-final consonant (''*-t'', ''*-c'', ''*-k'' → ''*-r'', ''*-j'', ''*-r''). In Tapayúna, at least two verbs retain this pattern, though the relation between the finite and nonfinite forms has been obfuscated by a series of regular sound changes, including ''*-ôj'' > ''-wâj'' (''-âj'' after a labial), ''*-c'' > ''-t''.


The erstwhile palatalizing prefix

In Proto-Northern Jê, a small set of verbs formed their nonfinite forms by employing one of the aforementioned processes and a morphophonological process whereby the onset of the stressed syllable became palatal, and the nucleus of the stressed syllable was raised (if possible); this has been attributed to the influence of an underlying palatalizing nonfinite prefix. In Tapayúna, at least two verbs still follow the archaic pattern.


Prefix substitution or loss

In addition to the aforementioned processes, the finiteness inflection may involve prefix substitution or loss. For example, the valency-reducing prefixes are ''a(j)-'' ( anticausative) and ''a-'' (
antipassive The antipassive voice (abbreviated or ) is a type of grammatical voice that either does not include the object or includes the object in an oblique case. This construction is similar to the passive voice, in that it decreases the verb's valency ...
) in finite verb forms, but ''wi-'' and ''tá-/tu-'', respectively, in the nonfinite forms. In addition, some verbs which denote physiological activities or movement have a prefix (''i-'' and ''a-'', respectively) in their finite forms but not in the nonfinite form. Some examples are given below.


Nominal number

Nouns which denote human beings may receive the plural suffix ''-jê'', as in ''wẽwyjê'' ‘men’ (← ''wẽwy'') ‘man’.


Derivational morphology


Productive affixes

Tapayúna makes use of the
diminutive A diminutive is a root word that has been modified to convey a slighter degree of its root meaning, either to convey the smallness of the object or quality named, or to convey a sense of intimacy or endearment. A (abbreviated ) is a word-formati ...
suffixes ''-tĩ'' and ''-re'', as well as of the augmentative suffix ''-txi''. Examples include: ''taratĩ'' ‘its small wing’ or ''taratĩre'' ‘its tiny wing’ (← ''tara'' ‘its wing’, an inflected form of ''jara'' ‘wing’), ''hrytĩ'' ‘small, narrow path’ or ''hrytĩre'' ‘a very narrow path’ (← ''hry'' ‘path’), ''thêtxi'' ‘tick’ (← ''thê''), ''wĩtxi'' ‘alligator’ (← ''wĩ'').
Nominalization In linguistics, nominalization or nominalisation is the use of a word that is not a noun (e.g., a verb, an adjective or an adverb) as a noun, or as the head of a noun phrase. This change in functional category can occur through morphological tr ...
s which denote instruments and places are formed by means of attaching the suffix ''-tà'' to the nonfinite form of a verb: ''kahõ'' ‘to sweep’ → ''kahõj'' ‘to sweep ''(nonfinite)''’ → ''kahõjtà'' ‘broom’; ''wẽ'' ‘people’ + ''khrĩ'' ‘to sit ''(plural, finite = nonfinite)''’ → ''wẽkhrĩtà'' ‘seat’.
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nominalization In linguistics, nominalization or nominalisation is the use of a word that is not a noun (e.g., a verb, an adjective or an adverb) as a noun, or as the head of a noun phrase. This change in functional category can occur through morphological tr ...
s are formed by means of attaching the suffix ''-kanê'' to the nonfinite form of a verb: ''hwitô'' ‘leaf; paper’ + ''tôk'' ‘to paint; to write’ → ''hwĩtôtôkkanê'' ‘teacher’.


Lexicon


Predicate number

Tapayúna commonly employs different
lexeme A lexeme () is a unit of lexical meaning that underlies a set of words that are related through inflection. It is a basic abstract unit of meaning, a unit of morphological analysis in linguistics that roughly corresponds to a set of forms taken ...
s for the so called singular and plural predicates (see Northern Jê languages#Verbal number for more information about the semantic counterparts of this distinction in the Northern Jê languages).


References


External links

* Lapierre, Myriam. 2018.
Kajkwakhrattxi Field Materials
'.
Survey of California and Other Indian Languages The Survey of California and Other Indian Languages (originally the Survey of California Indian Languages) at the University of California at Berkeley documents, catalogs, and archives the indigenous languages of the Americas. The survey also hosts ...
. {{Macro-Jê languages Jê languages Languages of Brazil