Kaingang language

Kaingang
kanhgág
Native to Brazil
Region São Paulo, Santa Catarina, Paraná, Rio Grande do Sul
Ethnicity Kaingang people
Native speakers
(18,000 cited 1989)[1]
Macro-Gê
    • Southern
      • Kaingang
Language codes
ISO 639-3 Either:
kgp  Kaingang
zkp  São Paulo Kaingáng
Linguist list
qr7 Wayaná (Guayaná)
Glottolog kain1271[2]

The Kaingang language (also spelled Kaingáng) is an indigenous language spoken in the South of Brazil, belonging to the language family.[3] The Kaingang nation has about 30,000  people, and about from 60% to 65% speak the language. Most also speak Portuguese.

The Kaingang and Xokleng were previously considered a single ethnicity, which went by a number of names, including Amhó, Dorin, Gualachi, Chiqui, Ingain, Botocudo, Ivitorocái (= Amho), Kamé, Kayurukré, Tain (= Ingain), Taven. Some of these may have been tribal names; others were exonyms. Those living along the coast at the time of the Conquest were called Guayaná, and are considered to be the ancestors of the Kaingang.[4] It is unknown to what extent the names might have corresponded to dialectal differences.

Culture

The Kaingang language is classified as a member of the Ge family, the largest language family in the Macro-Ge stock. The Kaingang territory occupies the modern states of São Paulo, Paraná, Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul (and, until the beginning of the 20th century, Misiones, Argentina). Today they live in around 30 indigenous lands (similar to Native American reservations), especially at Rio Grande do Sul and Paraná.

In the 1960s, because of a missionary interest (conducted by the Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL)), the language was studied by Ursula Wiesemann.[5]

Phonology

Consonants

A large number of allophones map to a set of 14 phonemes:[6]

Bilabial Dental/
Alveolar
Palatal Velar Glottal
Stop pm~b tn~d ɲ~ɟ kŋ~g ʔ
Fricative ɸ ç h
Approximant w ɹ j

All consonants have varying allophones depending on their position in the word and on the adjancency of nasal vowels:

Vowels

Vowel phonemes of Kaingang[7]
Front Back
unrounded unrounded rounded
Close oral i u
nasal ĩ i
Close-mid oral e ɤ o
Open-mid ɛ ʌ ɔ
nasal ɛ̃ ʌ̃ ɔ̃
Open oral ɑ

Orthography

Wiesemann proposed an alphabet for the language, which is still in use despite some problems. It is based on the Latin script, and consists of fourteen consonants and fourteen vowels, matching the fourteen consonants and fourteen vowels of the Kaingang language.

VowelsConsonants
LetterSound LetterSound
aɑ fɸ
áʌ gŋ~ɡ
ãɔ̃ hh
ee jj
éɛ kk
ɛ̃ mm~b
ii nn~d
ĩĩ nhɲ~ɟ
oo pp
óɔ rɹ
uu sç
ũũ tt
yɤ vw
ʌ̃ 'ʔ

There are dictionaries and a grammars available for Kaingang. A school was set up in 1969 to teach the Kaingang people to read and write their language. However, the school produced many Kaingang speakers who went back to their reservations to teach others and spread the writing innovations they learned. Only one of the dialects is used as the standard written form, though having the writing system provided a source of pride in the language for the Kaingang people. A Kaingang bible has been published, as well as a dictionary and other publications.

Examples of Kaingang writing can be found on Omniglot.

Grammar

Postpositions

Kaingang makes use of postpositions.

Postpositions are also used to mark subject.

Verbs

Kaingang verbs do not inflect.

References

  1. Kaingang at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
    São Paulo Kaingáng at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
  2. Nordhoff, Sebastian; Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2013). "Kaingangic". Glottolog. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
  3. Rodrigues, Aryon Dall'Igna (1986). Línguas brasileiras. Para o conhecimento das línguas indígenas (in Portuguese). São Paulo: Ed. Loyola.
  4. Enciclopédia dos Povos Indígenas no Brasil - Instituto Socioambiental
  5. Wiesemann, Ursula (1972). Die phonologische und grammatische Struktur der Kaingáng-Sprache (in German). The Hague: Mouton.
  6. Jolkesky, M. P. V. (2009). Fonologia e prosódia do Kaingáng falado em Cacique Doble (RS). Anais do XIV SETA - Seminário de Teses em Andamento, 3:675-685. Campinas: Editora do IEL-UNICAMP. (anexo)
  7. Jolkesky (2009), p. 677.
  8. 1 2 3 Jolkesky (2009), pp. 676 and 682.
  9. Jolkesky (2009), p. 676.

Bibliography

  • D'Angelis, Wilmar R. (1998), Traços de modo e modos de traçar geometrias: línguas Macro-Jê & teoria fonológica, Tese de Doutorado, 2 vols. (in Portuguese), Campinas, Brazil: IEL-Unicamp 
  • Jolkesky, Marcelo Pinho de Valhery (2009), "Fonologia e prosódia do Kaingáng falado em Cacique Doble", Anais do SETA (Campinas: Editora do IEL-UNICAMP) 3: 675–685 

External links

Kaingang language test of Wikipedia at Wikimedia Incubator
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