Ava Guarani language explained

Chiripá
Nativename:	Ava
States:	Paraguay, Brazil, Argentina
Ethnicity:	Ava Guarani
Speakers:	16,350
Date:	1995–2012
Ref:	e25
Familycolor:	American
Fam1:	Tupian
Fam2:	Tupí–Guaraní
Fam3:	Guaraní (I)
Fam4:	Guaraní
Iso3:	nhd
Glotto:	chir1286
Glottorefname:	Chiripá

Chiripá Guarani (Tsiripá, Txiripá), also known as Ava Guarani and Nhandéva (Ñandeva), is a Guaraní language spoken in Paraguay, Brazil, and also Argentina. Nhandéva is closely connected to Mbyá Guaraní, as intermarriage between speakers of the two languages is common. Speakers of Nhandéva and Mbyá generally live in mountainous areas of the Atlantic Forest, from eastern Paraguay through Misiones Province of Argentina to the southern Brazilian states of Paraná, Santa Catarina, and Rio Grande do Sul.^[1] There are approximately 4,900 speakers in Brazil and 7,000 in Paraguay.

Nhandéva is also known as Chiripá. The Spanish spelling, Ñandeva, is used in the Paraguayan Chaco to refer to the local variety of Eastern Bolivian, a subdialect of Avá.

Phonology

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/
Open-mid	pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/		pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/
Open		pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/

Vowel sounds /ɛ, a, ɨ, ɔ/ may also have realizations of [e, ɐ, ɯ, o].

Consonants

		Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar		Glottal
		Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	plain	lab.	Glottal
Plosive	voiceless	pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/		pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/
	voiced				pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/
	prenasal	pronounced as /link/ ~ pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/ ~ pronounced as /link/
Affricate			pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/
Tap			pronounced as /link/
Approximant				pronounced as /link/ ~ pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/

Prenasal sounds /ᵐb, ⁿd/ may also be realized as nasal sonorants [m, n] in front of nasal vowels.
/j/ can be heard as [ɲ] within nasal syllables, and as a prenasal affricate [ⁿdʒ] when /j/ precedes nasal syllables in coda position.
/j/ can be heard as [dʒ] within syllable onset before oral vowels.
/k, kʷ/ can be heard as [ᵑɡ, ᵑɡʷ] between or after nasal vowels.
/ts/ can also be heard as pronounced as /link/ word-medially in free variation.
/w/ can be heard in free variation between labiodental sounds pronounced as /link/ or pronounced as /link/ among speakers of different areas.
Sonorant sounds /w, ɾ, j/ within nasal syllables are realized as nasalized [w̃, ɾ̃, j̃].^[2]

Notes and References

Web site: Guarani Mbya. Ladeira. Maria Inês. 2018-03-26. Povos Indígenas no Brasil. Instituto Socioambiental. 2019-02-01.
Book: Godinho Costa, Consuelo de Paiva . Nhandewa Aywu . Universidade Estadual de Campinas . 2003.