Trans-Tocantins languages

Trans-Tocantins
Geographic
distribution
Tocantins, Pará, Mato Grosso
Linguistic classificationMacro-Jê
Subdivisions
GlottologNone

The Trans-Tocantins languages are a proposed subgroup of the Northern Jê languages, which comprises four languages spoken to the west of the Tocantins River: Apinajé, Mẽbêngôkre, Kĩsêdjê, and Tapayúna.[1]: 7  It is subdivided in a binary manner into Apinajé, spoken to the east of the Araguaia River, and the Trans-Araguaia subbranch, which includes the remaining three languages. Together with the Timbira dialect continuum, the Trans-Tocantins languages make up the Northern branch of the family.

The defining innovations of the Trans-Tocantins languages include the replacement of Proto-Goyaz Jê and Proto-Northern Jê *a-mbə ‘eat (intransitive)’ (as preserved in Canela/Krahô/Parkatêjê apà, Pykobjê aapỳ, Panará -ânpâ) with Proto-Trans-Tocantins *ap-ku (> Apinajé apku, Mẽbêngôkre aku, Kĩsêdjê/Tapayúna akhu).[2]: 274  as well as the fortition of Proto-Northern Jê *j to in unstressed syllables (except if preceded by the low vowel *a), as shown below.[1]: 234 

Proto-Northern Jê gloss Proto-Trans-Tocantins Apinajé Mẽbêngôkre Kĩsêdjê Tapayúna
*jujarẽñ ‘to narrate (nonfinite) *ĵujarẽñ xujarẽnh djujarẽnh tujarẽn tujarẽj
*jəbir ‘to go up (nonfinite) *ĵəbir xàpir djàbiri tápiri tàwiri

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b Nikulin, Andrey (2020). Proto-Macro-Jê: um estudo reconstrutivo (PDF) (Ph.D. dissertation). Brasília: Universidade de Brasília.
  2. ^ Nikulin, Andrey; Carvalho, Fernando O. de (2019). "Estudos diacrônicos de línguas indígenas brasileiras: um panorama" (PDF). Macabéa – Revista Eletrônica do Netlli. 8 (2): 255–305. Retrieved 6 August 2020.