Maxakalí language

Maxakalí
Spoken in Brazil
Region Minas Gerais
Native speakers 728  (date missing)
Language family
Maxakalían
  • Maxakalí
Language codes
ISO 639-3 mbl
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Maxakalí is a Maxakalían language spoken in fourteen villages in Minas Gerais, Brazil, by fewer than a thousand people.

Contents

Phonology

Maxakalí has five vowels, occurring in both oral and nasal form.

Vowels

Front Central Back
High i, ĩ ɯ, ɯ̃
Mid ɛ, ɛ̃ o, õ
Low a, ã

Consonants

Bilabial Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
Stop p t k ʔ
Nasal m ~ b n ~ d ɡ ~ ŋ
Fricative ʃ j ~ ʒ h

Allophony

Syntax

Word order

The most common word order in Maxakalí is SOV.

    Kakxop te xokhep xo’op
child SUB milk drink
"The child drinks milk"

Morphosyntactic alignment

Maxakalí is an ergative language. The ergative case covers transitive subjects as well as indirect objects. The absolutive case covers intransitive subjects and transitive objects.

Person Ergative Absolutive
1st sing ã ũg
2nd sing xa ã
3rd sing tu ũ
1st plur incl yũmũ’ã yũmũg
1st plur excl ũgmũ’ã ũgmũg
    ũgmũg mõg nãpet ha nũy xa hãpxop ũm pop
1pl:excl:ABS go market to in-order-to 2sg:ERG food some buy
"We (excluding you) are going to the market to buy you (indirect object) some food."

Morphology

Suppletive verb number

For some verbs, number is shown not by conjugation, but by suppletive verb stems. These verb stems can show number differences either for the subject or for the object.

Subject number

    tik yũm
man sit (singular)
"The man sits/sat."
    tik mãm
man sit (plural)
"The men sit/sat."

Object number

    tik te koktix putex
man SUB monkey kill (singular)
"The man killed a monkey."
    tik te koktix kix
man SUB monkey kill (plural)
"The man killed the monkeys."

Word shortening and expanding

Noun compounding

Maxakalí nouns readily form compounds, here are some examples:

    yĩy kox xax
speak hole cover
"lips"
    ãmot xuxpex
sand tasty
"salt"
    yĩm kutok
hand child
"finger"

External links