| Trans-Tocantins | |
| Region: | Tocantins, Pará, Mato Grosso |
| Familycolor: | American |
| Fam1: | Macro-Jê |
| Fam2: | Jê |
| Fam3: | Cerrado |
| Fam4: | Jê of Goyaz |
| Fam5: | Northern Jê |
| Child1: | Apinajé |
| Child2: | Trans-Araguaia (Mẽbêngôkre, Kĩsêdjê, Tapayúna) |
| Glotto: | none |
The Trans-Tocantins languages are a proposed subgroup of the Northern Jê languages, which comprises four languages spoken to the west of the Tocantins River: Apinajé, Mẽbêngôkre, Kĩsêdjê, and Tapayúna.[1] It is subdivided in a binary manner into Apinajé, spoken to the east of the Araguaia River, and the Trans-Araguaia subbranch, which includes the remaining three languages. Together with the Timbira dialect continuum, the Trans-Tocantins languages make up the Northern branch of the Jê family.
The defining innovations of the Trans-Tocantins languages include the replacement of Proto-Goyaz Jê and Proto-Northern Jê *a-mbə ‘eat (intransitive)’ (as preserved in Canela/Krahô/Parkatêjê apà, Pykobjê aapỳ, Panará -ânpâ) with Proto-Trans-Tocantins *ap-ku (> Apinajé apku, Mẽbêngôkre aku, Kĩsêdjê/Tapayúna akhu).[2] as well as the fortition of Proto-Northern Jê *j to *ĵ in unstressed syllables (except if preceded by the low vowel *a), as shown below.[1]
| gloss | Proto-Trans-Tocantins | Tapayúna | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ‘to narrate (nonfinite)’ |
| xujarẽnh | djujarẽnh | tujarẽn | tujarẽj | |
| ‘to go up (nonfinite)’ |
| xàpir | djàbiri | tápiri | tàwiri |