| Maká | |
| Nativename: | Maká |
| Pronunciation: | pronounced as /maˈka/ |
| States: |
|
| Region: | Presidente Hayes Department, Asunción |
| Speakers: | 1,500 |
| Date: | 2000 |
| Ref: | e18 |
| Familycolor: | American |
| Fam1: | Matacoan |
| Iso3: | mca |
| Glotto: | maca1260 |
| Glottorefname: | Maca |
| Notice: | IPA |
Maká is a Matacoan language spoken in Argentina and Paraguay by the Maká people. Its 1,500 speakers live primarily in Presidente Hayes Department near the Río Negro, as well as in and around Asunción.
| Labial | Dental | Alveolar | Palatal/ Velar | Uvular | Glottal | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||||
| Plosive | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||
| pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||
| Fricative | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||
| Approximant | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||||
Velar consonants alternate with palatal consonants before pronounced as /link/ and sometimes before pronounced as /link/. Examples include pronounced as //keɬejkup// ~ pronounced as /[ceɬejkup]/ and pronounced as //exeʔ// ~ pronounced as /[eçeʔ]/ . The palatal approximant pronounced as /link/ is realised as a palatal fricative pronounced as /link/ before pronounced as /link/, as in pronounced as //inanjiʔ// ~ pronounced as /[inançiʔ]/.
| High | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mid | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |
| Low | pronounced as /link/ | ||
Syllables in Maká may be of types V, VC, CV, CCV, and CCVC. When a consonant cluster appears at the beginning of a syllable, the second consonant must be pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/, or pronounced as /link/.
Maká has two genders—masculine and feminine. The demonstratives reflect the gender of a noun.
In the plural the gender distinction is neutralized, and the plural demonstrative is the same as the feminine singular:
Maká nouns inflect for plurality. There are several distinct plural endings: -l, -wi, -Vts, and -Vy. All plants take the -wi plural, but otherwise the choice seems to be unpredictable.
| singular | plural | gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| sehe | sehe-l | ||
| naxkax | naxkax-wi | ||
| tenuk | tenuk-its |
Maká does not have any overt case marking on nouns. Consider the following sentence, where neither the subject nor object shows any case.
Nouns agree with their possessor in person.
Verbs agree with their subject and object in a rather complex system. Gerzenstein (1995) identifies five conjugation classes for intransitive verbs. The following two examples show intransitive verbs from conjugation classes 1 and 3.
| tremble (conjugation class 3) | dance (conjugation class 1) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| '''tsi'''-kawelik | '''hoy'''-otoy | ||||
| '''łan'''-kawelik | '''ł'''-otoy | ||||
| '''yi'''-kawelik | '''t'''-otoy | ||||
| . | '''xiyi'''-kawelik | '''xit'''-otoy |
Transitive verbs belong to a different conjugation class, Conjugation 6. The following forms show a transitive verb with a 3rd person object:
| love (conjugation class 6) | ||
|---|---|---|
| '''hi'''-su'un | ||
| '''łi'''-su'un | ||
| '''yi'''-su'un | ||
| '''xite'''-su'un |
If the object of the transitive verb is 1st or 2nd person, then certain combinations of subject and object are shown by a portmanteau morpheme.
| love (conjugation class 6) | subject/object combination | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| '''k{{` | 1SUBJ›2OBJ | ||
| '''tsi'''-su'un | 3SUBJ›1OBJ | ||
| '''ne'''-su'un | 3SUBJ›2OBJ |
Other combinations involve an object agreement marker which may either precede or follow the subject marker.
Verbs in Maká have a series of suffixes called 'postpositions' in Gerzenstein (1995), which have the effect of introducing new oblique objects into the sentence.
The following examples show the applicative suffixes -ex and -m
In noun phrases, the possessor precedes the possessed noun.
Noun phrases show the order (Demonstrative) (Numeral) (Adjective) N.
The basic word order for a transitive clause in Maká is subject–verb–object, as seen in the following example.
For intransitive clauses, the basic order is verb-subject.
In yes–no questions, the usual subject–verb–object order changes to verb-subject-object following an initial particle me.
Sentences with wh-questions show a sentence-initial question word. Maká has a very small inventory of question words, with only three members: łek, pan, and inhats'ek . The following example shows an interrogative sentence with an initial question word.