Monde languages explained

Monde
Region:	Brazil
Familycolor:	American
Fam1:	Tupian
Glotto:	mond1266
Glottorefname:	Monde

The Monde languages of Brazil form a branch of the Tupian language family.

Cinta Larga is a dialect cluster spoken by a thousand people. Other languages are Mondé, Aruáshi, Suruí, Zoro, and Gavião do Jiparaná.

Classification

Internal classification of the Mondé languages according to Moore (2005):^[1]

• Mondé
  • Suruí (Paíter)
    • • • Salamãy (Mondé)
          • • Cinta Larga (3 groups: Kabínééy, Kakínééy, and Maamééy)
              • • Gavião de Rondônia (Ikolééy)
        • Zoró (Pãgɨñééy)
        • Aruá

Unclassified: Arara do Guariba

Varieties

Below is a list of Mondé language varieties listed by Loukotka (1968), including names of unattested varieties.^[2]

• Mondé - spoken on the Ouro River, tributary of the Pimenta Bueno River, Rondônia.
• Sanamaica / Salamay - spoken on the left bank of the Pimenta Bueno River.
• Aruá - spoken on the Branco River near São Luís, Rondônia.
• Digüt - spoken on the left bank of the Machado River.
• Aruáshi - spoken by the neighbors of the Tupari tribe at the sources of the Branco River.

Kabanae (spoken by the "Arara nation" according to Johann Natterer) and Matanau, are both extinct Monde languages that were spoken at the mouth of the Aripuanã River. Word lists of Kabanae and Matanau were collected by Johann Natterer in 1829 during his expedition into the Madeira River (Jolkesky 2016: 640-641).^[3]

Jolkesky (2016) also observed some similarities between the Arara do Rio Branco and the Monde languages; however, Arara do Rio Branco remains unclassified.

Notes and References

1. Moore, Denny. 2005. Classificação interna da família lingüística Mondé. Estudos Lingüísticos 34: 515-520. (PDF)
2. Book: Loukotka, Čestmír . Čestmír Loukotka

   . Čestmír Loukotka . Classification of South American Indian languages . registration . UCLA Latin American Center . 1968 . Los Angeles.

3. Jolkesky, Marcelo Pinho De Valhery. 2016. Estudo arqueo-ecolinguístico das terras tropicais sul-americanas. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Brasília.