Guarani language

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This article is about the Paraguayan language. For other varieties of Guarani, see Guarani dialects. For the currency, see Paraguayan guaraní.
Not to be confused with Huaorani language.
Guarani
Paraguayan Guarani
Avañe'ẽ
Pronunciation [ʔãʋ̃ãɲẽˈʔẽ]
Native to Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Bolivia
Ethnicity Guaraní people
Native speakers
 4.8 million  (1995)[1]
Tupian
  • Tupí–Guaraní
    • Guaraní (I)
      • Guaraní
        • Guarani
Guaraní alphabet (Latin script)
Official status
Official language in
  Paraguay
 Corrientes[2] (Argentina)
 Bolivia
Language codes
ISO 639-1 gn
ISO 639-2 grn
ISO 639-3 gug
Books in Guarani

Guarani (/ˈɡwɑrəniː/ or /ɡwærəˈniː/),[3] specifically the primary variety known as Paraguayan Guarani (endonym avañe'ẽ [aʋãɲẽˈʔẽ] 'Ava language'), is an indigenous language of South America that belongs to the Tupí–Guaraní subfamily of the Tupian languages. It is one of the official languages of Paraguay (along with Spanish), where it is spoken by the majority of the population, and where half of the rural population is monolingual.[4][5] It is spoken by communities in neighbouring countries, including parts of northeastern Argentina, southeastern Bolivia and southwestern Brazil, and is a second official language of the Argentine province of Corrientes since 2004;[6] it is also an official language of Mercosur.[7]

Guarani is the one of the most-widely spoken indigenous language of the Americas and the only one whose speakers include a large proportion of non-indigenous people. This is an anomaly in the Americas where language shift towards European colonial languages (in this case, the other official language of Spanish) has otherwise been a nearly universal cultural and identity marker of mestizos (people of mixed Spanish and Amerindian ancestry), and also of culturally assimilated, upwardly mobile Amerindian people.

Jesuit priest Antonio Ruiz de Montoya, who in 1639 published a book called Tesoro de la lengua guaraní ("The Treasure of the Guaraní Language"), described it as a language "so copious and elegant that it can compete with the most famous [of languages]."

The name "Guarani" is generally used for the official language of Paraguay. However, this is part of a dialect chain, most of whose components are also often called Guarani. See Guarani dialects.

History

Guaraní persisted with enough vigor to be made official because the Jesuits elected it as the language to preach Roman Catholicism to the Indians (Guaraní was the language of the autonomous Jesuit Reducciones) and because Paraguay's dictators for a time shut the country's borders and thereby protected the local culture and language.

Writing system

Guaraní became a written language relatively recently. Its modern alphabet is basically a subset of the Latin script (with "J", "K" and "Y" but not "W"), complemented with two diacritics and six digraphs. Its orthography is largely phonemic, with letter values mostly similar to those of Spanish. The tilde is used with many letters that are considered part of the alphabet. In the case of Ñ/ñ, it differentiates the palatal nasal from the alveolar nasal (as in Spanish), whereas it marks stressed nasalisation when used over a vowel (as in Portuguese): ã, ẽ, ĩ, õ, ũ, ỹ. (Nasal vowels have been written with several other diacritics: ä, ā, â, ã.) The tilde also marks nasality in the case of G̃/g̃, used to represent the nasalized velar approximant by combining the velar approximant "G" with the nasalising tilde. The letter G̃/g̃, which is unique to this language, was introduced into the orthography relatively recently during the mid-20th century and there is disagreement over its use. It is not a precomposed character in Unicode, which can cause typographic inconveniences - such as needing to press "delete" twice - or imperfect rendering when using computers and fonts that do not properly support the complex layout feature of glyph composition.

Only stressed nasal vowels are written as nasal. If an oral vowel is stressed, and it is not the final syllable, it is marked with an acute accent: á, é, í, ó, ú, ý. That is, stress falls on the vowel marked as nasalized, if any, else on the accent-marked syllable, and if neither appears, then on the final syllable.

Phonology

Guaraní only allows syllables consisting of a consonant plus a vowel or a vowel alone; syllables ending in a consonant or two or more consonants together are not possible. This is represented (C)V.

  • Vowels: /a/, /e/, /i/, /o/, /u/ correspond more or less to the Spanish and IPA equivalents, although sometimes the allophones [ɛ], [ɔ] are used more frequently; y is the common South American vowel /ɨ/.
Oral and nasal vowels
Front Central Back
Close /i/, /ĩ/ /ɨ/, /ɨ̃/ /u/, /ũ/
Mid /e/, /ẽ/ /o/, /õ/
Open /a/, /ã/

Consonants:

IPA value is shown. The orthography is shown in angle brackets below, if different.

  Labial Alveolar (Alveolo-)
Palatal		 Velar Lab. Velar Glottal
Stop Voiceless p t   k kʷ
«ku»		 ʔ
«'»
Nasal/Voiced ᵐb ~ m
«mb» ~ «m»		 ⁿd ~ n
«nd» ~ «n»		 ᵈj ~ ɲ
«j» ~ «ñ»		 ᵑɡ ~ ŋ
«ng»		 ᵑɡʷ ~ ŋʷ
«ngu»		  
Fricative   s ɕ
«ch»		 x ~ h
«h»
Approximant ʋ ~ ʋ̃
«v»		     ɰ ~ ɰ̃
«g» ~ «g̃» 		w ~ w̃
«gu» ~ «g̃u»		  
Flap   ɾ ~ ɾ̃
«r»		        

The voiced consonants have oral allophones (left) before oral vowels, and nasal allophones (right) before nasal vowels. The oral allophones of the voiced stops are prenasalized.

There is also a sequence /nt/ (written «nt»). A trill /r/ (written «rr») and the consonants /l/, /f/, and /j/ (written «ll») are not native to Guarani, but come from Spanish.

Oral [ᵈj] is often pronounced [dʒ], [ʒ], [j], depending on the dialect, but the nasal allophone is always [ɲ].

The dorsal fricative is in free variation between [x] and [h].

The glottal stop is only written between vowels, but occurs phonetically before vowel-initial words.

«g», «gu» are approximants, not fricatives, but are sometimes transcribed [ɣ], [ɣʷ], as is conventional for Spanish. «gu» is also transcribed [ɰʷ], which is essentially identical to [w].

All syllables are open, viz. CV or V, ending in a vowel.

Nasal harmony

Guaraní displays an unusual degree of nasal harmony. A nasal syllable consists of a nasal vowel, and if the consonant is voiced, it takes its nasal allophone. If a stressed syllable is nasal, the nasality spreads in both directions until it bumps up against a stressed syllable that is oral. This includes affixes, postpositions, and compounding. Voiceless consonants do not have nasal allophones, but they do not interrupt the spread of nasality.

For example,

/ndo+ɾoi+nduˈpã+i/ → [nõɾ̃õĩnũˈpãĩ]
/ro+mbo+poˈrã/ → [ɾ̃õmõpõˈɾ̃ã]

However, a second stressed syllable, with an oral vowel, will not become nasalized:

/idjaˈkãɾaˈku/ → [ʔĩɲãˈkãɾ̃ãˈku]
/aˈkãɾaˈwe/ → [ʔãˈkãɾ̃ãˈwe][8]

That is, for a word with a single stressed vowel, all voiced segments will be either oral or nasal, while voiceless consonants are unaffected, as in oral /mbotɨ/ vs nasal /mõtɨ̃/.

Grammar

Guaraní is a highly agglutinative language, often classified as polysynthetic. It is a fluid-S type active language and it has been classified as a 6th class language in Milewski's typology. It uses subject–verb–object word order usually, but object–verb when the subject is not specified.[citation needed]

The language lacks gender and has no definite article, but due to influence from Spanish, la is used as a definite article for singular reference, and lo for plural reference. These are not found in pure Guaraní (Guaraniete).

Nouns

Guaraní exhibits nominal tense: past, expressed with -kue, and future, expressed with -rã. For example, tetã ruvichakue translates to "ex-president" while tetã ruvicharã translates to "president-elect." The past morpheme -kue is often translated as “ex-,” “former,” “abandoned,” “what was once,” or “one-time." These morphemes can even be combined to express the idea of something that was going to be but didn't end up happening. So for example, pa'irãgue is "a person who studied to be a priest but didn't actually finish," or rather, "the ex-future priest." Note that some nouns use -re instead of -kue and others use -guã instead of -rã.[9]

Pronouns

Guaraní distinguishes between inclusive and exclusive pronouns of the first person plural.

first second third
singular che nde ha'e
plural ñande (inclusive),
ore (exclusive)		 peẽ ha'ekuéra/ hikuái (*)
  • Hikuái is a Post-verbal pronoun (oHecha hikuái – they see )

Reflexive pronoun: je: ahecha ("I look"), ajehecha ("I look at myself")

Conjugation

Guaraní stems can be divided into a number of conjugation classes, which are called areal (with the subclass aireal) and chendal, respectively. The names for these classes stem from the names of the prefixes for 1st and 2nd person singular.

The areal conjugation is used to convey that the participant is actively involved, whereas the chendal conjugation is used to convey that the participant is the undergoer. Note that transitive verbs can take either conjugation, intransitive verbs normally take areal, but can take chendal for habitual readings. Nouns can also be conjugated, but only as chendal. This conveys a predicative possessive reading.[10]

Furthermore, the conjugations vary slightly according to the stem being oral or nasal.

person areal aireal chendal
walk use be.big
1s a-guata ai-poru che-tuicha
2s re-guata rei-poru nde-tuicha
3s o-guata oi-poru i-tuicha
1pi ja-guata jai-poru ñande-tuicha
1px ro-guata roi-poru ore-tuicha
2p pe-guata pei-poru pende-tuicha
3p o-guata oi-poru i-tuicha

Verb root ñe'ẽ ("speak"); nasal verb.

Singular Plural
Person Prefix Person Prefix
1 che
     'I' 		a- a-ñe'ẽ 1 ñande (incl.)
'we all'
1 ore (excl.)
'we (just us)' 		ña-

ro-

 ña-ñe'ẽ

ro-ñe'ẽ

2 nde
'You' 		re- re-ñe'ẽ 2 peẽ
'You all' 		pe- pe-ñe'ẽ
3 ha'e
'S/he' 		o- o-ñe'ẽ 3 ha'ekuéra
'They' 		o- o-ñe'ẽ

Negation

Negation is indicated by a circumfix n(d)(V)-...-(r)i in Guaraní. The preverbal portion of the circumfix is nd- for oral bases and n- for nasal bases. For 2nd person singular, an epenthetic e is inserted before the base, for 1st person plural inclusive, an epenthetic a is inserted.

The postverbal portion is -ri for bases ending in -i, and -i for all others

Oral verb

japo (do, make)

 Nasal verb

kororõ (roar, snore)

 With ending in "i"

jupi (go up, rise)

nd-ajapó-i n-akororõ-i nd-ajupí-ri
nde-rejapó-i ne-rekororõ-i nde-rejupí-ri
nd-ojapó-i n-okororõ-i nd-ojupí-ri
nda-jajapó-i na-ñakororõ-i nda-jajupí-ri
nd-orojapó-i n-orokororõ-i nd-orojupí-ri
nda-pejapó-i na-pekororõ-i nda-pejupí-ri
nd-ojapó-i n-okororõ-i nd-ojupí-ri

The negation can be used in all tenses, but for future or irrealis reference, the normal tense marking is replaced by mo'ã, resulting in n(d)(V)-base-mo'ã-i as in Ndajapomo'ãi, "I won't do it".

There are also other negatives, such as: ani, ỹhỹ, nahániri, naumbre, na'anga.

Tense and aspect morphemes

  • -ramo: marks extreme proximity of the action, often translating to "just barely": Oguahẽramo, "He just barely arrived."[11]:198
  • -kuri: marks proximity of the action. Ha'ukuri, "I just ate" (ha'u irregular first person singular form of u, "to eat"). It can also be used after a pronoun, ha che kuri, che po'a, "and about what happened to me, I was lucky"
  • -va'ekue: indicates a fact that occurred long ago and asserts that it's really truth. Okañyva'ekue, "he/she went missing a long time ago"
  • -ra'e: tells that the speaker was doubtful before but he's sure at the moment he speaks. Nde rejoguara'e peteĩ ta'angambyry pyahu, "so then you bought a new television after all"
  • -raka'e: expresses the uncertainty of a perfect-aspect fact. Peẽ peikoraka'e Asunción-pe, "I think you lived in Asunción for a while". Nevertheless nowadays this morpheme has lost some of its meaning, having a correspondence with ra'e and va'ekue

The verb form without suffixes at all is a present somewhat aorist: Upe ára resẽ reho mombyry, "that day you got out and you went far"

  • -ta: is a future of immediate happening, it's also used as authoritarian imperative. Oujeýta ag̃aite, "he/she'll come back soon".
  • -ma: has the meaning of "already". Ajapóma, "I already did it".

These two suffixes can be added together: ahátama, "I'm already going"

  • -va'erã: indicates something not imminent or something that must be done for social or moral reasons, in this case corresponding to the German modal verb sollen. Péa ojejapova'erã, "that must be done"
  • -ne: indicates something that probably will happen or something the speaker imagines that is happening. It correlates in certain way with the subjunctive of Spanish. Mitãnguéra ág̃a og̃uahéne hógape, "the children are probably coming home now"
  • -hína, ína after nasal words: continual action at the moment of speaking, present and pluperfect continuous or emphatic. Rojatapyhína, "we're making fire"; che ha'ehína, "it's ME!"
  • -vo: it has a subtle difference with hína in which vo indicates not necessarily what's being done at the moment of speaking. amba'apóvo, "I'm working (not necessarily now)"
  • -pota: indicates proximity immediately before the start of the process. Ajukapota, "I'm near the edge in which I will start to kill". (A particular sandhi rule is applied here: if the verbs ends in "po", the suffix changes to mbota; ajapombota, "I'll do it right now")
  • -pa: indicates emphatically that a process has all finished. Amboparapa pe ogyke, "I painted the wall completely"

This suffix can be joined with ma, making up páma: ñande jaikuaapáma nde remimo'ã, "now we became to know all your thought".

  • -mi: customary action in the past: Oumi, "He used to come a lot".

These are unstressed suffixes: ta, ma, ne, vo, "mi"; so the stress goes upon the last syllable of the verb or the last stressed syllable.

Other verbal morphemes

  • -se: desiderative suffix: "Che a studiase", "I want to study".[12]
  • te-: desiderative prefix: Ahasa, "I pass", Tahasa, "I would like to pass." Note that te- is the underlying form. It is similar to the negative in that it has the same vowel alternations and deletions, depending on the person marker on the verb.[11]:108

Determiners

Guarani English Spanish
1 – Demonstratives:
(a) With near objects and entities (you see it)
Ko this este, esta
Pe that ese, esa
Amo that/yonder aquel, aquella
Peteĩ-teĩ (+/- va) each cada uno
Ko'ã, ã, áã these estos, estas
Umi those esos, esas, aquellos, aquellas
(b) Indefinite, with far objects and entities (you do not see it -remembering demonstratives ):
Ku that (singular) aquel, aquella
Akói those (plural) aquellos, as
(c) Other usual demonstratives determiners:
Opa all todo, toda, todos, todas (with all entities)
Mayma all todos, todas (with people)
Mbovy – some, a few, determinate
Heta a lot of, very much muchos, muchas
Ambue ( +/- kuéra) other otros, otras
Ambue another otro, otra
Ambueve: The other el otro, la otra
Ambueve other, another otro, otros, (enfático) –
Oimeraẽ either cualquiera
Mokoĩve both ambos, ambas
Ni peteĩ (+/- ve) neither ni el uno ni el otro

Guaraní loans to English

English has adopted a small number of words from Guaraní (or perhaps the related Tupi) via Portuguese, mostly the names of animals. "Jaguar" comes from jaguarete and "piranha" comes from pira aña. Other words are: "agouti" from akuti, "tapir" from tapira and "açaí" from ïwasa'i. The name of Paraguay is itself a Guaraní word, as is the name of Uruguay. However, the exact meaning of either placename is up to varied interpretations. (See: List of country-name etymologies)

Example text

Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Guaraní:

Mayma yvypóra ou ko yvy ári iñapyty'yre ha eteîcha tekoruvicharenda ha akatúape jeguerekópe; ha ikatu rupi oikuaa añetéva ha añete'yva, iporâva ha ivaíva, tekotevê pehenguéicha oiko oñondivekuéra.[13]

(All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.)

Literature

The translation of the Bible into Guaraní is known as Ñandejara Ñe'ê.[14]

See also

Sources

  1. ↑ Guarani reference at Ethnologue (17th ed., 2013)
  2. ↑ Ley Nº 5598 Poder Legislativo de Corrientes, 28 September 2004 (Spanish)
  3. ↑ Laurie Bauer, 2007, The Linguistics Student’s Handbook, Edinburgh
  4. ↑ Mortimer, K 2006 "Guaraní Académico or Jopará? Educator Perspectives and Ideological Debate in Paraguayan Bilingual Education" Working Papers in Educational Linguistics 21/2: 45-71, 2006
  5. ↑ http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/12/world/americas/in-paraguay-indigenous-language-with-unique-staying-power.html?ref=global-home&pagewanted=all
  6. ↑ Website of Indigenous Peoples' Affairs which contains this information (Spanish)
  7. ↑ Incorporación del Guaraní como Idioma del Mercosur MERCOSUR official page (Spanish)
  8. ↑ Walker (2000) Nasalization, neutral segments, and opacity effects, p. 210
  9. ↑ Guasch, P. Antonio (1956). El Idioma Guarnai: Gramática e Antología de Prosa y Verso. Asuncion: Casa América. p. 53. 
  10. ↑ Caralho, Jao de(1993) Peixes de Ámérica do Sul, Universidade de Rio de Janeiro
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 Graham, Charles R. (1969). Guarani Intermediate Course. Provo: Brigham Young University. 
  12. ↑ Blair, Robert; et al. (1968). Guarani Basic Course: Book 1. p. 50. 
  13. ↑ "Guarani language, alphabet and pronunciation". Omniglot.com. Retrieved 2013-08-26. 
  14. ↑ "Guaraní Bible officially included in the Vatican". Última Hora. 2012-10-23.  (Spanish)

External links

Guarani edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Resources


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