Xavante language

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Xavante aʼuwẽ
Spoken in:	Brazil
Region:	Mato Grosso
Total speakers:	~10,000
Language family:	Ge  Central   Acua    Xavante
Language codes
ISO 639-1:	none
ISO 639-2:	sai
ISO 639-3:	xav
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode.

The Xavante language is a Ge language spoken by the Xavante people in about 170 villages in the area surrounding Eastern Mato Grosso, Brazil. The Xavante language is unique because of its 13 vowels and matching 13 consonants, its Object-Subject-Verb grammatical organization, and its use of honorary and endearment terms in its morphology.

Contents 1 Sounds 1.1 Vowels 1.2 Consonants 2 Bibliography 3 External links

[edit] Sounds

[edit] Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
High	i, ĩ	ɨ	u
Mid	e	ə	o
Low	ɛ, ɛ̃	a, ã	ɔ, ɔ̃

[edit] Consonants

	Labial		Apical		Velar	Glottal
Plosive	p	b	t	d		ʔ
Nasal	m		n		ŋ
Fricative			s	z		h
Flap			ɾ
Approximant	w

[edit] Bibliography

• McLeod, Ruth & Mitchell, Valerie. (2003) Aspectos da Língua Xavante. SIL publications, Cuiabá, MT.
• Burgess, Eunice. (1988) Foco e Tópico em Xavante. Série Lingüística № 9, Vol. 1: 11-38.
• Hall, Joan; McLeod, Ruth & Mitchell, Valerie. (1987) Pequeno Dicionário: Xavante-Português, Português-Xavante. Sociedade Internacional de Lingüística, Cuiabá, MT.
• McLeod, Ruth. (1974) Fonemas Xavante. Série Lingüística № 3: 131-152.
• Harrison, Alec J. Xavante Morphology and Respect/Intimacy Relationships.

[edit] External links

• Ethnologue
• The Language Museum
• The Rosetta Project
• SIL Brazil