Terêna 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.

Terena may also refer to TERENA
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

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

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

Consonants
Labial Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
Plosive voiceless p t (tʃ) 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
Front Central Back
High i ĩ iː (ɨ) u ũ uː
Mid e ẽ eː o õ oː
ɛ ɛː ɔ ɔː
Low a ã aː

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

See also

References
  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.
  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. 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." 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.
  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)


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