Kaiwá is a Guarani language spoken by about 18,000 Kaiwá people in Brazil in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul and 510 people in northeastern Argentina. Literacy is 5-10% in Kaiwá and 15–25% in Portuguese. Kaiwá proper is 70% lexically similar with the Pai Tavytera language, and its similarity to its linguistic cousin Guaraní, one of the two national-languages of Paraguay alongside the Spanish language, means it is even sometimes considered mutually intelligible.[1]
| Kaiwá | |
|---|---|
| Kayova | |
| Native to | Argentina, Brazil |
| Ethnicity | Kaiwá |
Native speakers | 18,000 (2003)[1] |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | kgk |
| Glottolog | kaiw1246 |
| ELP | Kaiwá |
Phonology
editVowels
edit| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i ĩ | ɨ ɨ̃ | u ũ |
| Close-mid | e ẽ | o õ | |
| Open | a ã |
- /e/ can also be heard as [ɛ].
Consonants
edit| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| plain | lab. | ||||||
| Stop | voiceless | p | t | k | ʔ | ||
| voiced | ɡ | ɡʷ | |||||
| prenasal | ᵐb ~ m | ⁿd ~ n | ᶮdʲ ~ ɲ | ||||
| Fricative | v | s | ʃ | h | |||
| Rhotic | ɾ | ||||||
| Approximant | (j) | (w) | |||||
- Prenasalized stops can also be heard as nasal sonorants.
- [w] is heard as an allophone of /v/ or /u/.
- [j] is heard as an allophone of /i/.[2]
Sample text
editOriginal Kaiwá text:
Eregwata-ramo ka'agwy-rupi erehexa gwa'a. Hagwe pytã porã. Oveve áry-rupi gwa'a. Oveve-ramo, "Kaa! Kaa!" he'i. Heta oĩ gwa'a ka'agwy-rupi.[3]
Guarani translation:
Reguatáramo ka'aguýre rehecháta gua'a pytã. Hague pytã porã. Oveve yvatetere'i yvágare. Ovevẽro "Kaa! Kaa!" he'i. Heta oĩ gua'a pytã ka'aguýre.
Portuguese translation:[3]
Quando você passeia no mato, você vê a arara. A plumagem dela é dum vermelho bonito. A arara voa no céu. Quando voa, grita "Kaa! Kaa!" Há muitas araras no mato.
Rough English translation:
When you walk in the bush, you see the macaw. The plumage is a beautiful red. The macaw flies in the sky. When it flies, it shouts "Kaa! Kaa!" There are many macaws in the bush.
Notes
edit- ^ a b Kaiwá at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
- ^ Bridgeman, Loraine I. (1961). "Kaiwa (Guarani) Phonology". International Journal of American Linguistics. 27 (4): 329–334. doi:10.1086/464654.
- ^ a b Te'ýi nhe'ẽ. 5 Cartilha Kaiwá, pg 2.
Bibliography
edit- Summer Institute of Linguistics (1980) Te'ýi nhe'ẽ. 5 Cartilha Kaiwá, SIL, Brasilia, DF.
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