Karajá language

Karajá
Spoken in Brazil
Region Araguaia River
Ethnicity Karajá people
Native speakers 3600  (1999)
Language family
Macro-Gê
  • Karajá
Dialects
Javaé
Xambioá
Language codes
ISO 639-3 kpj
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The Karajá language, also known as Ynã, is spoken by around 3600 Karajá people in some 30 villages in central Brazil. Dialects are North Karaja, South Karaja, Xambioá, and Javaé. There is male and female speech; one of the principal differences is that men drop the sound /k/, which is pronounced by women.

Karaja is a verb-final language, with simple noun and more complex verbal morphology that includes noun incorporation. Verbs inflect for direction as well as person, mood, object, and voice.

Contents

Phonology

Karajá has nine oral vowels, /i e ɛ, ɨ ə a, u o ɔ/, and two nasal vowels, /ə̃ õ/. /a/ is nasalized word initially and when preceded by /h/ or a voiced stop, /aθi/ → [ãθi] 'ɡrass', /ɔha/ → [ɔhã] 'armadillo'; this in turn nasalizes a preceding /b/ or /d/: /bahadu/ → [mãhãdu] 'group', /dadi/ → [nãdi] 'my mother'.

There are only twelve consonants, eight of which are coronal:

lab. dent. post-
alve.		 vel. glot.
tʃ k
b~m d~n dʒ
ɗ
θ ʃ h
l
w ɾ

Men's and women's speech

Women Men Gloss
kɔɗu ɔɗu turtle
kɔlukɔ ɔluɔ labret
kaɾitʃakɾe aɾiakɾe I will walk*
bɛɾaku beɾo river
adõda aõda thinɡ
dõbĩku dõbĩu Sunday (Port. domingo)

* The /itʃa/ derives historically from *ika

References

External links