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Maxakalí (Yĩy'ax 'language', Tikmũ'ũn Yĩy'ax 'Maxakalí language') is a Maxakalían language spoken in fourteen villages in Minas Gerais, Brazil, by fewer than a thousand people.
Dialects
Mason identifies six varieties of Maxakali. All but Maxakalí proper are extinct:
Maxakalí
Caposhó (Kapoxo) (†)
Cumanashó (Kumanaxo) (†)
Maconí (Makuni) (†)
Monoshó (Monaxo, Monocho) (†)
Panyame (†)
Phonology
Maxakalí has five vowels, occurring in both oral and nasal form.
Maxakalí is an ergative language. The ergative case covers transitive subjects as well as indirect objects. The absolutive case covers intransitive subjects and transitive objects.
"We (excluding you) are going to the market to buy you (indirect object) some food."
Morphology
Suppletive verb number
For some verbs, number is shown not by conjugation, but by suppletive verb stems. These verb stems can show number differences either for the subject or for the object.
Subject number
tik
yũm
man
sit (singular)
"The man sits/sat."
tik
mãm
man
sit (plural)
"The men sit/sat."
Object number
tik
te
koktix
putex
man
SUB
monkey
kill (singular)
"The man killed a monkey."
tik
te
koktix
kix
man
SUB
monkey
kill (plural)
"The man killed the monkeys."
Word shortening and expanding
Noun compounding
Maxakalí nouns readily form compounds, here are some examples:
