Nambikwara language

The Nambikwara language (Southern Nambikwara or Kitãulhu, contrasting with Northern Nambikwara or Mamaindé; also spelled Nambikuára, Nhambikwara or Nambiquara) is an indigenous language of Brazil, spoken by about 1200 Nambikwara people in the Mato Grosso state. It forms a small Nambikwaran language family, which are often considered dialects of a single language despite not being mutually intelligible. They are a language isolate; Joseph Greenberg had included in his Gê–Pano–Carib phylum,^[3] but this has not been followed by other linguists. Nambikwara is in vigorous use in the Nambikwara communities and in spite of having few speakers the language is not endangered. The name Nambikwara is of Tupi origin.

Most Nambikwara are monolingual but some young men speak Portuguese.^[4]

Phonology

Nambikwara phonology is complex: it distinguishes aspirated, glottalized and plain consonants, and also has two different phonation types of vowels, nasal vowels and three tones.

Vowels

Kroeker (2001) distinguishes 19 different vowel sounds for Kitãulhu, based on six vowel qualities:^[5]

Apart from /ʌ/, these have creaky counterparts, /ḭ ɛ̰ a̰ o̰ ṵ/, and apart also from /o/, nasal and creaky nasal counterparts, /ĩ ɛ̃ ã ũ/, /ḭ̃ ɛ̰̃ ã̰ ṵ̃/.

Lowe (1999), on the other hand, does not recognize /ʌ/.^[6] He describes /u/ as varying as [u-ʊ-ɨ-ə] in unstressed syllables, and unstressed /a/ as [ɜ].

Tone

Each syllable is marked for either falling, rising, or level tone; the three tones are marked with superscript numbers: ¹, ² and ³ respectively.

Consonants

In Kroeker's analysis, Southern Nambikwara distinguishes 29 different consonant phonemes. The language contains an additional implosive alveolar stop [ɗ] which is only used by elderly people and is becoming obsolete.^[7]

Lowe (1999), however, analyzes many of these are sequences. For example, analyzing the aspirates as stop + /h/ simplifies the morphophonemic description of the language.

(f) and (m) are in parentheses as they only occur in loanwords.

Lowe describes aspiration on the voiceless stops p, t, k, and on n, l, but not on w. Because he breaks up Kroeker's complex consonants into clusters, he posits a more complex syllable structure, with up to four initial consonants and up to a single coda consonant, which can only be t, k, x, h, n. The initial clusters can consist of any consonant at onset, but subsequent slots can only be w, h, x. A maximal CCCCVC syllable is seen in kwhxax³kax³li³su² (sp. deer).

Allophones

The plosives p, t, k are freely voiced in all positions: [p~b], [t~d], [k~ɡ]. A syllable-final n within a word when preceded by a nasal vowel assimilates to the following consonant as [m], [n], [ŋ], and when preceded by an oral vowel it is also prestopped ([ᵇm], [ᵈn], [ᶢŋ]). L is a lateral [l] before the back vowels [o], [u], and a flap [ɾ] before the non-back vowels [i], [e], [a].

Grammar

The grammar of Nambikwara is polysynthetic and mostly suffixing. It uses active–stative alignment. Its basic word order is SOV. It has four word classes: verbs, nouns, adverbs and interrogative pronouns. Nambikwara has a complex system for expressing evidentiality.

Sample text

Ha³txa² khon³kxi³jau³xa^2[8]

Ha³txa² kox³khaix¹toh³na²hẽ³ra². Nx³ha²kxai³, yã¹ti³na²hẽ³ra².

—Yxo²hxa³ti³li³a¹tũ¹xã¹, na¹tãu³ã¹, txa²se³kxa³lxa² ã³nũ¹xa³kxi²sa³na²hẽ³ra². Ha³txa² tĩn³ka³khai¹xai²la¹wa², nxe³ha²kxai³, yã¹ti³na²hẽ³ra². Nxe³ha²kxai³, ju³txa² yah³lo²nã³xa² ai³ka³tai²la¹wa². Nxe³ha²kxai³, yã¹ti³na²hẽ³ra². Ju³txa² tau³ka² sa²tã³nhxa³ti³na¹hẽ³ra², sũn²ta³ti³hĩ¹nai³ta²sa². Ka³ja³la² o²lha²ha²kxai³ yuh³lxi³jau³kxai³la¹ i³sxã³ tĩ³hẽ¹ra². Nai¹na¹ta¹, ya³lo³jãx¹na¹ka³tu³, Ro³ber²jah³la² tau³ka² sa²tã³nhxa³ja³ha¹hẽ¹ra². Nxe³ha²kxai³, hĩ¹na² tẽ¹ha² xai³la¹ju³txa² wi¹khai¹xn²na³ra². Nxe³ha²kxai³ kãi²ka³li³khaix¹sa³nha²wa².

Translation (in Portuguese):^[9]

Fazendo uma ponte

A ponte estava muito ruim, por isso eu me apressei. Minha esposa caiu na água enquanto estava atravessando. O pau da ponte era muito velho. As pessoas velhas sempre andaram neste lugar e por isso eu me apressei. Derrubei uma árvore ontem à tarde. Os civilizados estavam com medo e saíram, mas o Roberto me ajudou. Agora passar por lá é muito bom. Por isso estou muito alegre.

Rough English translation:

Building a bridge

The bridge was very bad, so I hurried up. My wife fell in the water while she was passing through. The planks of the bridge were too old. The old people always walked here place and so I hurried up. I felled a tree yesterday afternoon. The civilized ones were afraid and left, Roberto helped me. Now going that way is very good. So I am very happy.

References

Bibliography

• Campbell, Lyle (1997). American Indian languages: the historical linguistics of Native America. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-509427-1
• Kroeker, Menno (2001) A Descriptive Grammar of Nambikuara, International Journal of American Linguistics, Vol. 67 No. 1. January. pp. 1–87.
• Kroeker, Menno (1975) Thematic Linkage in Nambiquara. The thread of discourse by Joseph E. Grimes The Hague, Mouton.
• Lowe, Ivan (1972) "On the relation of formal to sememic matrices with illustrations from Nambiquara". Foundations of Language 8, 360–390.
• McQuown, Norman and Joseph Greenberg (1960) "In Sol Tax: Aboriginal Languages of Native America". Current Anthropology 1, 431–436.
• Price, P. David (1976) "Southern Nambiquara Phonology", International Journal of American Linguistics, Vol. 42, No. 4, pp. 338–348
• Telles, Stella & Leo Wetzels (2006) "The System of Evidentiality in Lakondê (Nambikwara)", in Whats in a Verb? Studies in the Verbal Morphology of the languages of the Americas Grażyna J. Rowicka & Eithne B. Carlin (Eds.). LOT: Utrecht.
• Summer Institute of Linguistics (1978) Txa²wã¹ha³txeh³nxãn³su², Livro de leitura Nambikwara, Edição Experimental. SIL, Brasilia, DF.