Terêna language

(Redirected from Tereno language)

Terêna or Etelena is spoken by 15,000 Brazilians. The language has a dictionary and written grammar.[3] Many Terena people have low Portuguese proficiency. It is spoken in Mato Grosso do Sul. About 20% are literate in their language, 80% literate in Portuguese.[citation needed]

Terêna
Native toBrazil
RegionMato Grosso do Sul
EthnicityTerena people
Native speakers
16,000 (2006)[1]
Arawakan
  • Southern
    • Bolivia–Parana
      • Terêna
Language codes
ISO 639-2ter
ISO 639-3Variously:
ter – Terena
gqn – Kinikinao & Guaná
caj – Chané
Glottologtere1279
ELPTerena
 Guana (Brazil)[2]

Terêna has an active–stative syntax[4] and verb-object-subject as default word order.[5]

Varieties

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Terêna had four varieties: Kinikinao, Terena proper, Guaná, and Chané. These varieties have sometimes been considered to be separate languages.[6] Carvalho (2016) has since demonstrated all four to be the same language.[7] Only Terena proper is still spoken.

Language contact

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Terena originated in the Northwestern Chaco.[8] As a result, many Northern Guaicuruan loanwords can be found in Terena.[9]

There are also many Tupi-Guarani loanwords in Terena and other southern Arawakan languages.[10]

Phonology

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Consonants

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Labial Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
Plosive voiceless p t () k ʔ
prenasal ᵐb ⁿd ᵑɡ
Fricative voiceless s ʃ h
prenasal ⁿz ⁿʒ
Nasal m n (ɲ)
Tap ɾ
Lateral l (ʎ)
Approximant w ~ v j

/w, ʃ, n, l/ may often be heard as [v, tʃ, ɲ, ʎ].[11]

Vowels

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Front Central Back
High i ĩ (ɨ) u ũ
Mid e o õ
ɛ ɛː ɔ ɔː
Low a ã

[ɨ] is heard as an allophone of /i/.[12]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Terena at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
    Kinikinao & Guaná at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
    Chané at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. ^ Endangered Languages Project data for Guana (Brazil).
  3. ^ Butler, Nancy Evelyn; Ekdahl, Elizabeth Muriel (1979). Aprenda Terêna, Vol. 1 (in Portuguese). Summer Institute of Linguistics.
  4. ^ Aikhenvald, "Arawak", in Dixon & Aikhenvald, eds., The Amazonian Languages, 1999.
  5. ^ Rosa, Andréa (2010). Aspectos morfológicos do terena (Aruák) (PDF). pp. 71–72. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2024-05-13. Retrieved 2024-05-26.
  6. ^ Aikhenvald 1999
  7. ^ Carvalho, Fernando Orphão de. 2016. Terena, Chané, Guaná and Kinikinau are one and the same language: Setting the Record Straight on Southern Arawak Linguistic Diversity Archived 2023-06-13 at the Wayback Machine. LIAMES: Línguas Indígenas Americanas, 16(1), 39-57. doi:10.20396/liames.v16i1.8646165
  8. ^ Carvalho, Fernando O. de. 2020. Etymology meets ethnohistory: Linguistic evidence for the pre-historic origin of the Guaná-Chané in the Northwestern Chaco. Anthropological Linguistics.
  9. ^ Carvalho, Fernando O. de. 2018. "Arawakan-Guaicuruan Language Contact in The South American Chaco Archived 2023-06-13 at the Wayback Machine." International Journal of American Linguistics 84, no. 2 (April 2018): 243-263. doi:10.1086/696198
  10. ^ Carvalho, Fernando O. de. Tupi-Guarani Loanwords in Southern Arawak: Taking Contact Etymologies Seriously Archived 2023-06-13 at the Wayback Machine.
  11. ^ Silva, Denise (2013). Estudo Lexicografico da Lingua Terena. Araraquara: Universidade estadual paulista julio de mesquita filho.
  12. ^ Nascimento, Gardênia (2012). Aspectos Gramaticais da Língua Terena. Belo Horizonte: Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)