Wichí Lhamtés Güisnay

Wichí Lhamtés Güisnay or Wiznay is a Wichí language. Wichí Lhamtés Güisnay had an estimated 15,000 speakers in 1999 in Argentina. The language is centered in the Pilcomayo River region. Other names for the language include Güisnay, Mataco, Mataco Güisnay, Mataco Pilcomayo, and Wichí Lhamtés. A grammar book has been written for the language.[1]

Wichí Lhamtés Güisnay
Wiznay
Native toArgentina
EthnicityWichí
Native speakers
26,500 (2021)[1]
Matacoan
Language codes
ISO 639-3mzh
Glottologwich1264
ELPWichí (shared)

The Wichí languages are predominantly suffixing and polysynthetic; verbal words have between 2 and 15 morphemes. Alienable and inalienable possession is distinguished. The phonological inventory is large, with simple, glottalized and aspirated stops and sonorants. The number of vowels varies with the language (five or six).

Phonology
Consonants in the Misión La Paz Wichí dialect[2]
Labial Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
central sibilantlateral plain labialpal. plainlabial
Plosive/
Affricate		 plain p t ts k kʷ kʲ ʔ
ejective pʼ tʼ tsʼ kʼ kʲʼ
Fricative s h hʷ
Nasal m n
Lateral voiced l
voiceless l̥
Approximant j w
  • Aspirated sounds [pʰ, tʰ, kʰ~qʰ] only occur as allophones of /p, t, k/.
  • /k, kʷ, kʼ/ can also have allophones of [q, qʷ, qʼ].
  • /m, n/ can have allophones [m̥, n̥, n̥ʲ] word-medially, when occurring after /h/. [n̥ʲ] occurs when /i/ is preceding the sequence /nh/.
  • /h/ can also be heard as [x] word-medially and word-finally.
Vowels in the Misión La Paz Wichí dialect[2]
Front Central Back
Close i u
Mid e o
Open a (ɑ)
  • /a/ can have an allophone of [ɑ].

See also

Notes
  1. Wichí Lhamtés Güisnay at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022) closed access
  2. Zdrojkowski-Avram, Megan L. (2008). A Phonological Description of Wichí: The Dialect of Misión La Paz, Salta, Argentina. Eastern Michigan University.


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