Maxakalí language

Maxakalí
(Tikmũ'ũn) Yĩy'ax
Native to Brazil
Region Minas Gerais
Native speakers
 1,270 (2011)[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3 mbl
Glottolog west2636[2]

Maxakalí (Yĩy'ax 'language', Tikmũ'ũn Yĩy'ax 'Maxakalí language') is a Maxakalían language spoken in fourteen villages in Minas Gerais, Brazil, by fewer than a thousand people.

Dialects

Mason identifies six varieties of Maxakali. All but Maxakalí proper are extinct:

  • Maxakalí
  • Caposhó (Kapoxo) (†)
  • Cumanashó (Kumanaxo) (†)
  • Maconí (Makuni) (†)
  • Monoshó (Monaxo, Monocho) (†)
  • Panyame (†)

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

Syntax

Word order

The most common word order in Maxakalí is SOV.

   Kakxoptexokhepxo’op
childSUBmilkdrink
"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
   ũgmũgmõgnãpethanũyxahãpxopũmpop
1pl:excl:ABSgomarkettoin-order-to2sg:ERGfoodsomebuy
"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

   tikyũm
mansit (singular)
"The man sits/sat."
   tikmãm
mansit (plural)
"The men sit/sat."

Object number

   tiktekoktixputex
manSUBmonkeykill (singular)
"The man killed a monkey."
   tiktekoktixkix
manSUBmonkeykill (plural)
"The man killed the monkeys."

Noun compounding

Maxakalí nouns readily form compounds, here are some examples:

   yĩykoxxax
speakholecover
"lips"
   ãmotxuxpex
sandtasty
"salt"
   yĩmkutok
handchild
"finger"

References

  1. ↑ "Maxakalí". Ethnologue. Retrieved 2018-07-22.
  2. ↑ Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Western Maxakali". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
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