Xerénte language explained

Xerénte
States:	Brazil
Region:	Tocantins
Ethnicity:	Xerente people
Speakers:	1,810
Date:	2000
Ref:	e18
Familycolor:	American
Fam1:	Macro-Jê
Fam2:	Jê
Fam3:	Cerrado
Fam4:	Akuwẽ (Central Jê)
Nation:	Brazil (Tocantínia)
Iso3:	xer
Glotto:	xere1240
Glottorefname:	Xerente

The Xerénte or Akwẽ-Xerénte language is an Akuwẽ (Central Jê) language (Jê, Macro-Jê) of Brazil. It is spoken by the Xerente people in the Tocantins state between Rio do Sono and Rio Tocantins.

Phonology

Vowels!!Front!Central!Back

Close	i ĩ	ɨ	u ũ
Close-mid	e ẽ		o õ
Mid		ə ə̃
Open-mid	ɛ		ɔ
Open		a

• Vowels /i, ɨ, u, a/ when occurring in unstressed syllables can be heard as [ɪ, ɨ̞, ʊ, ɐ].

!Bilabial!Alveolar!Palatal!Velar!Glottal

Stop	voiceless	p	t		k
	voiced	b	d
Fricative	voiceless		s			h
	voiced		z
Nasal		m	n
Approximant				j	w
Flap			ɾ

• A [ɡ] sound is heard as an allophone of /k/ when preceding another consonant.
• /d/ can be heard as dental [d̪] when preceding /i/.
• /s/ can be heard as a post-alveolar or retroflex sibilant sound [ʃ~ʂ] when preceding /i/.
• /h/ when preceding /i/ can be heard as a voiced velar or glottal fricative sound [ɣ~ɦ].
• /h/ when preceding /k/ can be heard as a velar fricative sound [x].
• /n/ when preceding the following vowels /i, õ, ɔ/ can be heard as a palatal nasal [ɲ].
• /ɾ/ may also be heard as a retroflex flap [ɽ].^[1]

Grammar

Personal pronouns^[2]

Person	Nominative	Emphatic	Absolutive	Tense-Aspect-Mood-Person markers
1S	wa	wahã	ĩ-	wa-
1P	wanõrĩ (nĩ)	-	wa-
2S	ka, toka	kahã	ai-	bî-, te-
2P	kanõrĩ (kwa), tokanõrĩ	-
3S	ta	tahã	Ø-, ã-, ti-, t-	Ø-, mã-, te-
3P	tanõrĩ	tahãnõrĩ

The nominative and emphatic forms are free morphemes with the function of subject of transitive or intransitive sentences. The absolutive pronoun prefixes mark possessors, objects of postpositions, direct objects, subjects of nominal predicates and subjects of intransitive verbs with post-verbal operators.

Notes and References

1. Book: de Souza, Shelton Lima. Descrição fonético-fonológica da língua Akwen-Xerente. Universidade de Brasília, Brasília. 2008.
2. Filho. Sinval Martins Sousa. 2011-07-05. Padrões de alinhamento morfossintáticos em Akwe?-Xerente (Jê). LIAMES: Línguas Indígenas Americanas. pt. 11. 1. 115–128. 10.20396/liames.v0i11.1498. 2177-7160. free.