Kaingang language

Overview

Names

Dialects

Loukotka (1968)

• Kaingán / Caingang / Camé / Taven / Kaingygn / Coroado / Kadyrukré
• *Central - spoken between the Ivaí River and Tiquié River, Paraná State
• *Southern or Iñacoré - spoken in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, now in the villages surrounding the cities of Nonohag and Cáceres.
• *Northern - once spoken on the Tiete River
• *Eastern / Nhakfáteitei / Yakwändatéye / Guayana de Paranapamena - formerly spoken in the state of São Paulo on the Paranapanema River
• Binaré - once spoken on the left shore of the Uruguay River in the state of Rio Grande do Sul
• Xiqui - extinct language from Mato Grosso State, once spoken on the São Francisco River and Piquirí River
• Aweicoma / Bugres / Owaikománg / Xocren - spoken in Santa Catarina State in the hinterland of the cities of Itajaí, Palmas, and Blumenau

  Mason (1950)

• Caingang
• *São Paulo ; Nyacfateitei
• *Paraná
• *Rio Grande do Sul
• Shocleng
• Taven
• *Tain
• *Ingain
• **Patte
• **Chowa
• **Chowaca
• *Ivitorocai
• *Gualacho
• **Gualachí
• **Chiki
• **Cabelludo
• Dorin
• *
• *

Phonology

Consonants

• The oral stops have prenasalized allophones when following a nasal vowel. In unstressed syllables, is furthermore voiced to become.
• The glottal stop and the non-stop consonants are realized as nasalized preceding nasal vowels.
• The phonemes are only realized as voiced oral stops between two oral vowels. They are realized as voiced prenasalized stops when between a nasal and an oral vowel, as well as word-initially before oral vowels. Between an oral and a nasal vowel they are conversely realized as prestopped. Between two nasal vowels, or word-initially before nasal vowels, they are realized as full nasal stops:. The first two types of realization also apply when occurring in the syllable coda and followed by a non-nasal segment; these voiced/prenasalized will however be additionally unreleased:. However, by convention these stop-phonemes are always written as in the orthography.
• When preceded by an oral vowel, the sequences can be realized as geminate stops:.
• is optionally labialized: , etc.
• The non-glottal fricatives can word-initially be optionally realized as affricates
• can optionally be realized as a voiced bilabial fricative, and as a voiced palatal stop. When nasalized, varies between and.
• Word-initially, is preceded by an epenthetic ; it is in tonic syllables and in atonic syllables, and when nasalized, it varies between and. As a syllable coda it is a flap when oral and approximant when nasal, and may optionally be palatalized:.
• Word-initially in a stressed syllable, may vary in realization between dental and alveolar. Following palatal consonants or preceding a close vowel, it can also realized as a palatal stop,.

  Vowels

• Atonic and as well as and are merged; the former pair to, the latter pair to.
• The backness of the unrounded back vowels varies between back and central.
• All of the oral vowels can be realized as voiceless.
• Nasal vowels have the same quality as oral vowels. However, doesn't list a central variant of on his phone chart.

  Orthography

Grammar

Postpositions

• goj: water
• goj ki: in the water

• Mĩg vỹ venhvó tĩ. The jaguar runs.
• Kofá tóg pỹn tãnh. The old man killed the snake.

  Verbs

• rãgró: to plant
• Ti tóg rãgró krãn huri. He planted beans.
• Ẽg tóg rãgró krãn huri. We planted beans.

  Vocabulary