Maxakalí language

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.

Maxakalí
(Tikmũ'ũn) Yĩy'ax
Native toBrazil
RegionMinas Gerais
Native speakers
1,270 (2011)[1]
Macro-Gê
Language codes
ISO 639-3mbl
Glottologwest2636[2]

Dialects

Mason (1950) identifies six varieties of Maxakali. All but Maxakalí proper are extinct:

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

Distribution

Maxakalí was originally spoken in the Mucuri River, Itanhém River, and Jequitinhonha River areas. Today, Maxakalí is found in four main communities (aldeias) of Minas Gerais, with a total ethnic population of about 2,000:[3]:16

  • Pradinho (Maxakalí name: Pananiy), in Bertópolis, Minas Gerais)
  • Água Boa (Maxakalí name: Kõnãg Mai or Akmamo), in Santa Helena de Minas, Minas Gerais)
  • Aldeia Verde (Maxakalí name: Apne Yĩxux), in Ladainha, Minas Gerais)
  • Cachoeirinha (Maxakalí name: Ĩmmoknãg), in Teófilo Otoni, Minas Gerais)

Old Machacari is attested from the 19th century. Reported varieties include Monoxó, Makoni, Kapoxó, Kumanaxó, and Panhame. After the dispersion of its speakers in the 1750s, they lived between the upper Mucuri River and São Mateus River (near the present-day city of Teófilo Otoni, Minas Gerais), possibly up to Jequitinhonha in the north to the Suaçuí Grande River, a tributary of the Doce River, in the south. After 1750, the southward migration of the Botocudos forced the Machacari to seek refuge in Portuguese settlements on the Atlantic coast (in an area ranging from the mouth of the Mucuri River to the Itanhaém River), in Alto dos Bois (near Minas Novas), and in Peçanha.[4] According to Saint-Hilaire (2000: 170),[5] the Monoxó lived in Cuyaté (Doce River, near the mouth of the Suaçuí Grande River) probably around 1800, before seeking refuge in Peçanha.[4] At the beginning of the 19th century, the Panhame and other Maxakali groups allied with the Portuguese to fight the Botocudos.[4]

Modern Maxakali (called Monaxobm by Curt Nimuendajú) is distinct from Old Machacari. It was historically spoken from the Mucuri River valley up to the headwaters of the Itanhaém River in Minas Gerais.[4]

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

Allophony

The World Atlas of Language Structures claims that Maxakalí has no contrastive fricative or nasal consonants, citing "Gudschinski et al. 1970".[6][7] It is important to note that WALS did not consider [h] to be a true fricative in this judgement.

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."

Word shortening and expanding

Noun compounding

Maxakalí nouns readily form compounds, here are some examples:

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

See also
  • Maxakali Sign Language

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.
  3. Nikulin, Andrey. 2020. Proto-Macro-Jê: um estudo reconstrutivo. Doctoral dissertation, University of Brasília.
  4. Ramirez, H., Vegini, V., & França, M. C. V. de. (2015). Koropó, puri, kamakã e outras línguas do Leste Brasileiro. LIAMES: Línguas Indígenas Americanas, 15(2), 223 - 277. doi:10.20396/liames.v15i2.8642302
  5. Saint-Hilaire, Auguste de. 2000. Viagem pelas províncias do Rio de Janeiro e Minas Gerais. Belo Horizonte: Editora Itatiaia.
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