Chamacoco language
| Chamacoco | |
|---|---|
| Spoken in | Paraguay |
| Ethnicity | Chamacoco people |
| Native speakers | 1,800 (date missing) |
| Language family |
Zamucoan
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | ceg |
Chamacoco is a Zamucoan language spoken in Paraguay and maybe Brazil by the Chamacoco people. It is also known as Xamicoco or Xamacoco, although the tribe itself prefers the name Ishír, which is also spelled Ishiro or Jewyo.[1] It is spoken by a traditionally hunter-gatherer society that has now turned to agriculture. Its speakers are of all ages, and generally do not speak Spanish or Guarani well.[2]
[edit] Classification
Chamacoco is classified as a Zamucoan language, along with Ayoreo. Both languages are considered endangered.[3] There is relatively little information about the Zamucoan family.
Chamacoco speakers live in the northeastern part of the Chaco Boreal at the origin of the Río Verde in Paraguay.[2] Four dialects of Chamacoco have been identified: Héiwo, in the Fuerte Olimpo area; Ebidóso and Hório, spoken in the Bahía Negra region; and Tomaráho, in the Paraná-Paraíba interior forests.[1]
The speakers of Hório and Ebidóso were estimated to be 800 in 1970. less than 200 people spoke Tomaráho then. Back in 1930, over 2000 people were estimated to speak Chamacoco.[1]
Verb inflection is based on personal prefixes, the language is tenseless.[4] Nouns can be divided into possessable and non-possessable. Possessable nouns are characterized by a prefixation whereby the noun agrees with the possessor or genitival modifier.[5]
[edit] References
- ^ a b c Chamacoco: Orientation. Every Culture. 2008 (retrieved 29 March 2009)
- ^ a b Gordon, Raymond G., Jr., ed. Chamacoco: A Language of Paraguay. Ethnologue. 2005 (retrieved 29 March 2009)
- ^ Sorosoro: Zamucoan family.
- ^ Ciucci, Luca 2009. Elementi di morfologia verbale del chamacoco. Quaderni del Laboratorio di Linguistica della Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa, n.s. 8. [1]
- ^ Ciucci, Luca 2010. La flessione possessiva del chamacoco. Quaderni del Laboratorio di Linguistica della Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa, n.s. 9,2. [2]
[edit] External links
- Chamacoco language at Ethnologue (16th ed., 2009)
- Sorosoro Project
