The Tupi or Tupian language family comprises some 70 languages spoken in South America, of which the best known are Tupi language proper and Guarani language.
Homeland and urheimat
Rodrigues (2007) considers the Proto-Tupian
urheimat to be somewhere between the Guaporé and Aripuanã rivers, in the
Madeira River basin.
Much of this area corresponds to the modern-day state of Rondônia, Brazil. Five of the ten Tupian branches are found in this area, as well as some Tupi–Guarani languages (especially Kawahíb), making it the probable
urheimat of these languages and maybe of its speaking peoples. Rodrigues believes the Proto-Tupian language dates back to around 3,000 BC.
Language contact
Tupian languages have extensively influenced many language families in South America. Jolkesky (2016) notes that there are lexical similarities with the
Arawa languages, Bora-Muinane,
Guato language,
Irantxe language,
Jivaro languages,
Karib languages, Kayuvava, Mura-Matanawi,
Taruma language,
Trumai language, Yanomami, Harakmbet, Katukina-Katawixi,
Arawak languages,
Bororo languages,
Karaja languages, Macro-Mataguayo-Guaykuru,
Takana languages, Nadahup, and Puinave-Kak language families due to contact.
History, members and classification
When the
Portugal arrived in
Brazil, they found that wherever they went along the vast coast of South America, most of the indigenous peoples spoke similar languages.
Jesuit missionaries took advantage of these similarities, systematizing common standards then named
lingua geral ("general languages"), which were spoken in that region until the 19th century. The best known and most widely spoken of these languages was Old Tupi, a modern descendant of which is still used today by indigenous peoples around the Rio Negro region, where it is known as
Nheengatu (), or the "good language". However, the Tupi family also comprises other languages.
In the neighbouring Spanish colonies, Guarani language, another Tupian language closely related to Old Tupi, had a similar history, but managed to resist the spread of Spanish language more successfully than Tupi resisted Portuguese. Today, Guarani has seven million speakers, and is one of the official languages of Paraguay. The Tupian family also includes several other languages with fewer speakers. These share irregular morphology with the Je and Carib languages families, and Rodrigues connects them all as a Je–Tupi–Carib family.[Rodrigues A. D., 2000, "‘Ge–Pano–Carib’ X ‘Jê–Tupí–Karib’: sobre relaciones lingüísticas prehistóricas en Sudamérica", in L. Miranda (ed.), Actas del I Congreso de Lenguas Indígenas de Sudamérica, Tome I, Lima, Universidad Ricardo Palma, Facultad de lenguas modernas, p. 95–104.]
Rodrigues & Cabral (2012)
Rodrigues & Cabral (2012) list ten branches of Tupian, which cluster into Western Tupian and Eastern Tupian.
[Rodrigues, Aryon Dall'Igna, and Ana Suelly Arruda Câmara Cabral (2012). "Tupían". In Campbell, Lyle, and Verónica Grondona (eds). The indigenous languages of South America: a comprehensive guide. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.] Within Western and Eastern Tupian, the most divergent branches are listed first, followed by the core branches.
-
Tupian
-
Western Tupian
-
Eastern Tupian
Meira and Drude (2015) posit a branch uniting Mawé and Aweti with Tupi-Guarani, also known as Maweti-Guarani.[Meira, Sérgio and Sebastian Drude (2015). "A preliminary reconstruction of proto-Maweti-Guarani segmental phonology". Boletim do Museu Paraense Emilio Goeldi, série Ciências Humanas, 10(2):275–296. ] Purubora may form a branch together with Ramarama.
Jolkesky (2016)
Internal classification by Jolkesky (2016):
[Jolkesky, Marcelo Pinho De Valhery. 2016. Estudo arqueo-ecolinguístico das terras tropicais sul-americanas. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Brasília.]
(† = extinct)
Galucio et al. (2015)
Galucio et al. (2015) give the following phylogenetic tree of Tupian, based on a computational phylogenetic analysis.
-
Tupian
-
Western (40.6% probability)
-
Karo; Puruborá
-
Mondé
-
Suruí
-
Nuclear Mondé
-
Salamãy
-
Aruá; Gavião, Zoró
-
Eastern (40.6% probability)
-
Arikém
-
Tuparí
-
Makuráp
-
Nuclear Tuparí
-
Akuntsú, Mekéns
-
Wayoró, Tuparí
-
Mundurukú
-
Jurúna
-
Mawetí–Guaraní
-
Mawé
-
Awetí–Guaraní
-
Awetí
-
Tupí–Guaraní
-
Parintintín
-
Tapirapé; Urubú-Ka'apór, Paraguayan Guaraní
Vocabulary
Loukotka (1968) lists the following basic vocabulary items.
|
| mbohapüi | kuñá | ü | tatá | itá | abai | tapüíra |
| musaput | kuñá | ü | tatá | itá | auvati | tapirusu |
| mosapür | kuña | üü | tataː | itaː | | |
| musapeire | kuñan | üüg | tatá | itá | auati | tapira |
| mbhápira | kuñá | ü | tatá | itá | avatí | tapií |
| moapi | kuña | ü | tatá | | | |
| | | ü | tata | | avati | mborevi |
| mbohapi | koñá | ü | tatá | itá | avachi | mborevi |
| mboapü | kuña | ü | tatá | itá | avachi | tapií |
| | uainvi | üg | | itá | avashi | |
| ñiiru | kuñá | ü | tată | itá | avachi | tapi |
| mágatei | koːña | hoːñe | agel'á | iːtá | nutya | telaːgoi |
| tanã | kuña | ü | dadá | itá | waté | mberevi |
| mãpít | kudzá | ü | tatá | itá | awachí | tapiíra |
| moapit | kuña | ü | tata | ita | avatsi | tapiít |
| munitaruka | kuñá | ü | tara | ita | avachi | tapií |
| | | | | | | |
| muhapi | kuña | ü | tata | ita | awat | tapiri |
| | kuñá | | tatá | ika | | tapií |
| nairúi | kuñã | ü | tatá | itá | awachí | tapiíra |
| moãpi | kuzá | ü | tatá | itá | awachi | tapihir |
| moapi | kuyi | ü | tatá | itá | awachí | tapihi |
| moapiri | kuñá | üa | tatá | itá | awachi | tapiíra |
| oapíre | kuza | üg | tata | itá | | tapira |
| moapét | kuñá | ih | tatá | | avatí | tapiít |
| | kuñá | auü | tatá | | uachi | |
| irumaé | kuñá | ü | tatá | | abachi | tapiít |
| | kuñá | iü | tatá | itakí | avaté | tapiíd |
| | kuñá | üü | tatá | itá | abasí | tapiít |
| | kuñá | üa | tatá | | abatí | tapi |
| | kunya | üü | tatá | itá | | tapiíra |
| | | uhehü | | | | |
| mapur | nimene | heː | tata | ita | abati | tapiira |
| maʔapuit | waimid | ih | tata | | auasi | |
| boapui | koñá | ih | tatar | ita | auasi | tapüra |
| mosapröke | uainú | úni | táta | itáke | awáti | tapíra |
| motsapwöka | wáina | úni | táta | itáki | abati | tapíra |
| motsapölika | wáina | úni | dzata | idzáki | awáchi | tapíra |
| mbapui | kúña | ü | tatá | itá | avatí | mboreví |
| mosapĩ | kuñá | ü | tatá | itá | avatí | mborevi |
| hebü | ekúre | ü | tatá | itá | ahuati | |
| maʔap | tapipé | ö | tata | itakí | oati | orebi |
| mboapi | arekóva | ü | tatá | íta | avatí | boreví |
| dedemu | kuña | ine | tatén | ita | ibashi | eãnkwãntoy |
| | etú | in | tatá | yiwit | yuáshi | ngitíd |
| nauámbo | kuñá | iyá | ashí | koapá | makatí | tõá |
| mévau | uamiá | iyá | ashí | kuapasá | makati | masaká |
| | kuñá | hidarú | hadzú | ita | maidzú | |
| chebapitá | awiyá | hü | tasha | witáa | muirará | piho |
| teboazem | áu | ü | titi | wítaʔa | mára | bíu |
| muén | oñañá | üü | äria | no | awatí | wewató |
| pairóbtem | mapái | ichi | chaná | iyá | nayá | iti |
| | mapoia | utii | tianá | iá | nanian | nató |
| itamaiun | | | shamon | | noiábá | |
| pagodnóbtem | vochái | ichí | chaná | yáa | náya | natoː |
| koirẽm | | | | | | |
| moyúm | uspára | esé | somi | isoá | ngiyó | iruba |
| | bisam | seː | isoː | pomo | | irípo |
| | arapíñam | ihi | ucha | éki | atiti | yahi |
| kwaikärum | anamína | äkü | itaːtʔ | heːk | atsitsi | kwayatsu |
| kwaikiä | anamina | iki | utaːt | äk | | |
| | | ikí | | | | |
| wärehät | aramirá | ögö | agukáp | äk | atití | ikuáit |
| | anamina | ügükap | äkügükab | äk | | |
| hürünoːm | ãramĩrã | yü | koːbkaːb | äk | opab | takara |
| sete-pangue | buhi | amãni | garämbi | ok | zyaoːpá | uíto |
| paiwutwuy | manzet | ü | kaing | ek | maikeː | uasá |
| waikun | chipakchí | ü | kaːi | ä | maʔä | waːsaː |
| wauːm | | ü | kaʔin | äk | | |
| | manzéyã | ipáva | pokáing | dzáb | máinkin | wachá |
| | mansät | ü | kain | äk | | |
See also
-
Apapocuva
-
Indigenous languages of the Americas
-
Languages of Brazil
-
Língua Geral
-
List of Spanish words of Indigenous American Indian origin
Further reading
-
Rodrigues, Aryon Dall'Igna (2007). "As consoantes do Proto-Tupí". In Ana Suelly Arruda Câmara Cabral, Aryon Dall'Igna Rodrigues (eds). Linguas e culturas Tupi, p. 167–203. Campinas: Curt Nimuendaju; Brasília: LALI.
-
Ana Vilacy Galucio & al., “ Genealogical relations and lexical distances within the Tupian linguistic family,” Boletim do Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi. Ciências Humanas 10, no. 2 (2015): 229–274.
-
Ferraz Gerardi, F., Reichert, S., Blaschke, V., DeMattos, E., Gao, Z., Manolescu, M., and Wu, N. (2020) Tupían lexical database. Version 0.8. Tübingen: Eberhard-Karls University.
- Lexicons
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Alves, P. (2004). O léxico do Tupari: proposta de um dicionário bilíngüe. Doctoral dissertation. São Paulo: Universidade Estadual Paulista.
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Corrêa Da Ssila, B. C. (2010). Mawé/Awetí/Tupí-Guaraní: Relações Linguísticas e Implicações Históricas. Brasília: Universidade de Brasília. (Doctoral dissertation).
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Landin, D. J. (2005). Dicionário e léxico Karitiana / Português. Cuiabá: SIL.
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Lévi-Strauss, C. (1950). Documents Rama-Rama. Journal de la Société des Américanistes, 39:73–84.
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Mello, A. A. S. (2000). Estudo histórico da família lingüística Tupí-Guaraní: aspectos fonológicos e lexicais. Florianópolis: Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina. (Doctoral dissertation).
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Monserrat, R. F. (2000). Vocabulário Amondawa-Português, Vocabulário e frases em Arara e Português, Vocabulário Gavião-Português, Vocabulário e frases em Karipuna e Português, Vocabulário e frases em Makurap e Português, Vocabulário e frases em Suruí e Português, Pequeno dicionário em Tupari e Português. Caixas do Sul: Universidade do Caixas do Sul.
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Monserrat, R. F. (2005). Notícia sobre a língua Puruborá. In: A. D. Rodrigues & A. S. A. C. Cabral (eds.), Novos estudos sobre línguas indígenas, 9–22. Brasília: Brasilia: Editor UnB.
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Pacheco Ribeiro, M. J. (2010). Dicionário Sateré-Mawé/Português. Guajará-Mirim: Universidade Federal de Rondônia.
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Rodrigues, A. D. (2007). As consoantes do Proto-Tupí. In: A. S. A. C. Cabral & A. D. Rodrigues (eds.), Línguas e culturas tupí, 167–203. Campinas: Curt Nimuendaju.
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Rodrigues, A. D.; Cabral, A. S. (2012). Tupían. In: L. CAMPBELL & V. GRONDONA, (eds.), The indigenous languages of South America: a comprehensive guide, 495–574. Berlin/ Boston: Walter de Gruyter.
External links
