Wichí Lhamtés Güisnay Explained

Wichí Lhamtés Güisnay
Nativename:	Wiznay
States:	Argentina
Ethnicity:	Wichí
Speakers:	26,500
Date:	2021
Ref:	e25
Familycolor:	American
Fam1:	Matacoan
Fam2:	Wichi language
Iso3:	mzh
Glotto:	wich1264
Glottorefname:	Wichi Lhamtes Guisnay
Elp:	1850
Elpname:	Wichí (shared)

Wichí Lhamtés Güisnay or Wiznay is a Wichí language. Wichí Lhamtés Güisnay had an estimated 15,000 speakers in 1999 in Argentina. The language is centered in the Pilcomayo River region. Other names for the language include Güisnay, Mataco, Mataco Güisnay, Mataco Pilcomayo, and Wichí Lhamtés. A grammar book has been written for the language.

The Wichí languages are predominantly suffixing and polysynthetic; verbal words have between 2 and 15 morphemes. Alienable and inalienable possession is distinguished. The phonological inventory is large, with simple, glottalized and aspirated stops and sonorants. The number of vowels varies with the language (five or six).

Phonology

Consonants in the Misión La Paz Wichí dialect^[1]

		Labial	Alveolar			Palatal	Velar			Glottal
			central	sibilant	lateral		plain	labial	pal.	plain	labial
Plosive/ Affricate	plain	pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/			pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/
	ejective	pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/			pronounced as /ink/		pronounced as /ink/
Fricative				pronounced as /ink/						pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/
Nasal		pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/
Lateral	voiced				pronounced as /ink/
	voiceless				pronounced as /ink/
Approximant						pronounced as /ink/		pronounced as /ink/

• Aspirated sounds [{{IPAlink|pʰ}}, {{IPAlink|tʰ}}, {{IPAlink|kʰ}}~{{IPAlink|qʰ}}] only occur as allophones of /pronounced as /ink/, pronounced as /ink/, pronounced as /ink//.
• /pronounced as /ink/, pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /ink// can also have allophones of [{{IPA link|q}}, {{IPA link|qʷ}}, {{IPA link|qʼ}}].
• /pronounced as /ink/, pronounced as /ink// can have allophones [{{IPAlink|m̥}}, {{IPAlink|n̥}}, {{IPAlink|n̥ʲ}}] word-medially, when occurring after /pronounced as /ink//. [{{IPAlink|n̥ʲ}}] occurs when /pronounced as /ink// is preceding the sequence pronounced as //nh//.
• /pronounced as /ink// can also be heard as [{{IPAlink|x}}] word-medially and word-finally.

Vowels in the Misión La Paz Wichí dialect!!Front!Central!Back

Close	pronounced as /link/		pronounced as /link/
Mid	pronounced as /link/		pronounced as /link/
Open		pronounced as /link/	(pronounced as /link/)

• /pronounced as /link// can have an allophone of [{{IPA link|ɑ}}].

See also

• Wichí Lhamtés Nocten
• Wichí Lhamtés Vejoz

Notes and References

1. Book: Zdrojkowski-Avram, Megan L. . A Phonological Description of Wichí: The Dialect of Misión La Paz, Salta, Argentina . Eastern Michigan University . 2008.