Enxet language

Enxet
Southern Lengua
Pronunciation [eːnɬet]
Native to Paraguay
Ethnicity 5,840 Enxet people (2002 census)[1]
Native speakers
 3,800 (2002 census)[1]
Mascoian
  • Enxet
Language codes
ISO 639-3 enx
Glottolog sout2989[2]

Enxet, also known as "Lengua Ser," "Lengua," "Vowak," and "Enhlit" is one of twenty languages spoken by the Gran Chaco people of South America.[3] Enxet is isolated to Amerindians of Paraguay and belongs to the Mascoian (Demonym "Mascoian") language family. Once a dialect of the broader language lengua, Enxet (Southern Lengua) and Enhlet (Northern Lengua) diverged as extensive differences between the two were realized.

Classification

Enxet belongs to the Mascoian language family, spoken primarily by Native Americans in the Paraguayan region of the South American Gran Chaco. The South Amerindians living in this region are referred to as Guaycuru.[4]

History

Enxet and Enhlet were once considered dialects of Lengua. They were dubbed "Southern Lengua" and "Northern Lengua," respectively.[4]

The Enxet language was first documented in the late 19th century by explorers from Spain.[5]

Language contents and structure

Enxet contains only three phonemic vowel qualities /e,a,o/, each requiring a certain length such to maximize distinction. Bilingual speakers of Spanish and Enxet purportedly utilize shorter spacing between vowels when speaking the latter compared to the former.[6]

Contemporary issues

The region occupied by the Enxet people is the subject of an ongoing legal dispute with the state of Paraguay.

The Enxet language and people are of interest to Anglican missionaries.

References

  1. 1 2 ISO change request
  2. ↑ Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Southern Lengua". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
  3. ↑ Brenzinger, M. (2008). Language Diversity Endangered (1st ed.). Walter De Gruyter.
  4. 1 2 Campbell, L., & Grondona, V. M. (2012). The indigenous languages of South America: a comprehensive guide. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.
  5. ↑ Samuel A. Lufone Quevedo. (1893). Languages of the Gran Chaco. Science, 21(524), 95-95. Retrieved from https://www.jstor.org/stable/1765332
  6. ↑ Elliott, J. (2016). For bilinguals, Enxet vowel spaces smaller than Spanish. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 140(4), 3107-3107. https://dx.doi.org/10.1121/1.4969702

Further reading

  • Campbell, L. (2013). Language Contact and Linguistic Change in the Chaco. Revista Brasileira de Linguística Antropológica, 5, 2nd ser., 259-292.
  • Cúneo, P. Ethnobiological Classification in Two Indigenous Languages of the Gran Chaco Region: Toba (Guaycuruan) and Maká (Mataco-Mataguayan).
  • Hammarström, H. (2014). Basic vocabulary comparison in South American languages. The Native Languages of South America: Origins, Development, Typology, 56.
  • Kidd, S. (1995). Land, Politics and Benevolent Shamanism: The Enxet Indians in a Democratic Paraguay. Journal of Latin American Studies, 27(01), 43. https://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0022216x00010166
  • Klein, H., & Stark, L. (1977). Indian Languages of the Paraguayan Chaco. Anthropological Linguistics,19(8), 378-401. Retrieved from https://www.jstor.org/stable/30027605
  • Langer, E. (2001). Peoples of the Gran Chaco. American Ethnologist, 28(1), 249-251. https://dx.doi.org/10.1525/ae.2001.28.1.249
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