The Tuparí languages of Brazil form a branch of the Tupian language family.
The Tupari languages are:[1] [2]
None are spoken by more than a few hundred people.
A more recent internal classification by Nikulin & Andrade (2020) is given below:[3]
Below is a list of Tupari language varieties listed by Loukotka (1968), including names of unattested varieties.[4]
| Proto-Tupari | |
| Familycolor: | American |
| Ancestor: | Proto-Tupian |
| Target: | Tupari languages |
Proto-Tuparí reconstructions by Moore and Vilacy Galucio (1994):[5]
| gloss | Proto-Tuparí | |
|---|---|---|
| ‘sweet potato’ |
| |
| ‘tapir’ |
| |
| ‘macaw’ |
| |
| ‘one’ |
| |
| ‘small’ |
| |
| ‘fish’ |
| |
| ‘fowl’ |
| |
| ‘seed’ |
| |
| ‘neck’ |
| |
| ‘heart’ |
| |
| ‘to know’ |
| |
| ‘to give’ |
| |
| ‘to speak’ |
| |
| ‘sun, year’ |
| |
| ‘stone’ |
| |
| ‘earth’ |
| |
| ‘fire; firewood’ |
| |
| ‘mountain’ |
| |
| ‘person’ |
| |
| ‘mother’ |
| |
| ‘husband’ |
| |
| ‘hammock’ |
| |
| ‘seat’ |
| |
| ‘seat’ |
| |
| ‘hair’ |
| |
| ‘tooth’ |
| |
| ‘hand’ |
| |
| ‘nail’ |
| |
| ‘skin’ |
| |
| ‘liver’ |
| |
| ‘foot’ |
| |
| ‘breast’ |
| |
| ‘blood (n)’ |
| |
| ‘blood (n)’ |
| |
| ‘tobacco’ |
| |
| ‘maize’ |
| |
| ‘axe’ |
| |
| ‘knife’ |
| |
| ‘timbo’ |
| |
| ‘mortar’ |
| |
| ‘salt’ |
| |
| ‘meat’ |
| |
| ‘water (n)’ |
| |
| ‘basin’ |
| |
| ‘dust’ |
| |
| ‘path’ |
| |
| ‘night’ |
| |
| ‘leaf’ |
| |
| ‘Brazil nut tree’ |
| |
| ‘Brazil nut tree’ |
| |
| ‘assai (palm)’ |
| |
| ‘banana’ |
| |
| ‘cotton’ |
| |
| ‘genipap’ |
| |
| ‘peanut’ |
| |
| ‘pepper’ |
| |
| ‘armadillo’ |
| |
| ‘tail’ |
| |
| ‘snake’ |
| |
| ‘lizard’ |
| |
| ‘turtle’ |
| |
| ‘caiman’ |
| |
| ‘crab’ |
| |
| ‘achiote’ |
| |
| ‘horn’ |
| |
| ‘paca’ |
| |
| ‘deer’ |
| |
| ‘dog’ |
| |
| ‘ocelot’ |
| |
| ‘agouti’ |
| |
| ‘bat’ |
| |
| ‘coati’ |
| |
| ‘capuchin monkey’ |
| |
| ‘spider monkey’ |
| |
| ‘honey marten’ (kinkajou?) |
| |
| ‘peccary’ |
| |
| ‘collared peccary’ |
| |
| ‘louse’ |
| |
| ‘flea’ |
| |
| ‘wasp’ |
| |
| ‘termite’ |
| |
| ‘big ant’ |
| |
| ‘cockroach’ |
| |
| ‘cockroach’ |
| |
| ‘cicada’ |
| |
| ‘scorpion’ |
| |
| ‘snail’ |
| |
| ‘piranha’ |
| |
| ‘surubim’ |
| |
| ‘mandi’ |
| |
| ‘toucan’ |
| |
| ‘toucan’ |
| |
| ‘duck’ |
| |
| ‘vulture’ |
| |
| ‘vulture’ |
| |
| ‘hawk’ |
| |
| ‘hummingbird’ |
| |
| ‘owl’ |
| |
| ‘partridge’ |
| |
| ‘basket, big’ |
| |
| ‘canoe’ |
| |
| ‘clothing’ |
| |
| ‘to drink’ |
| |
| ‘to take’ |
| |
| ‘to blow’ |
| |
| ‘to vomit’ |
| |
| ‘to push’ |
| |
| ‘to swim’ |
| |
| ‘to see’ |
| |
| ‘to see’ |
| |
| ‘hot’ |
| |
| ‘good’ |
| |
| ‘new’ |
| |
| ‘old’ |
| |
| ‘name’ |
| |
| ‘sour’ |
| |
| ‘other’ |
| |
| ‘smooth’ |
| |
| ‘rotten’ |
| |
| ‘rotten’ |
| |
| ‘straight’ |
| |
| ‘distant’ |
| |
| ‘2nd person’ |
|
In all Tuparian languages, the main clauses follow the cross-linguistically rare nominative–absolutive pattern. Person prefixes on the verb are absolutive, i.e., they index the sole argument of an intransitive verb (S) and the patient argument ('direct object') of a transitive verb (P). Person pronouns, which follow the verb (either cliticizing to it or not) are nominative: they may encode the sole argument of an intransitive verb (S) or the agent argument of a transitive verb (A), but not the patient of a transitive verb (P). The example below is from Wayoró.[6]
V:verb
. Čestmír Loukotka . Classification of South American Indian languages . registration . UCLA Latin American Center . 1968 . Los Angeles.