The Xerénte or Akwẽ-Xerénte language is an Akuwẽ (Central Jê) language ( Jê, Macro-Jê) of

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

. It is spoken by the Xerente people in the

Tocantins Tocantins () is one of the 26 states of Brazil. It is the newest state, formed in 1988 and encompassing what had formerly been the northern two-fifths of the state of Goiás. Tocantins covers and had an estimated population of 1,496,880 in 2014 ...

state between Rio do Sono and

Rio Tocantins The Tocantins River ( , Parkatêjê: ''Pyti'' ɨˈti is a river in Brazil, the central fluvial artery of the country. In the Tupi language, its name means "toucan's beak" (''Tukã'' for "toucan" and ''Ti'' for "beak"). It runs from south to nort ...

Phonology

* Vowels /i, ɨ, u, a/ when occurring in unstressed syllables can be heard as �, ɨ̞, ʊ, ɐ * A �sound is heard as an allophone of /k/ when preceding another consonant. * /d/ can be heard as dental ̪when preceding /i/. * /s/ can be heard as a post-alveolar or retroflex sibilant sound �~ʂwhen preceding /i/. * /h/ when preceding /i/ can be heard as a voiced velar or glottal fricative sound �~ɦ * /h/ when preceding /k/ can be heard as a velar fricative sound * /n/ when preceding the following vowels /i, õ, ɔ/ can be heard as a palatal nasal � * /ɾ/ may also be heard as a retroflex flap �

Grammar

Personal pronouns

The nominative and emphatic forms are free morphemes with the function of subject of transitive or intransitive sentences. The absolutive pronoun prefixes mark possessors, objects of postpositions, direct objects, subjects of nominal predicates and subjects of intransitive verbs with post-verbal operators.

Notes

Jê languages Languages of Brazil {{Macro-Jê-lang-stub