Tupian languages

Tupian languages

Infobox Language family
name=Tupian language
familycolor=American
pronunciation=
region=Bolivia, Paraguay
speakers=Native speakers: ca. 7 million
fam1=Je-Tupi-Carib?
script=Latin alphabet (German variant)
nation=BOL
PAR
iso2=tup
child1=Arikem
child2="Awetï"
child3=Mawé-Sateré
child4=Mondé
child5=Mundurukú
child6="Puruborá"
child7=Ramarama
child8=Tuparí
child9=Tupi-Guarani
child10=YurunaThe Tupi or Tupian language family comprises some 70 languages spoken in South America, of which the best known are Tupi proper and Guarani.

History, members, and classification

When the Portuguese arrived in Brazil, they found that wherever they went along the vast coast of this newly discovered land, most natives spoke similar languages. Jesuit missionaries took advantage of these similarities, systematizing common standards then named "línguas gerais" "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 descendent of which is still used today by Indians around the Rio Negro region, where it is known as "Nheengatu" (IPA| [ɲɛʔẽŋaˈtu] ), or the "fine language". However, the Tupi family comprises also other languages.

In the neighbouring Spanish colonies, Guarani, another Tupian language closely related to Old Tupi, had a similar history, but managed to resist the spread of Spanish more successfully than Tupi resisted Portuguese. Today, Guarani has 7 million speakers, and is one of the official languages of Paraguay and Bolivia.

The Tupian family includes also several other languages with fewer speakers. These share irregular morphology with the Ge and Carib families, and Ribeiro connects them all as a Je-Tupi-Carib family.

*Tupi-Guarani (50 languages: Tupinambá [extinct] , Guaraní [7 million speakers] , etc.)
*Arikem
*"Awetï"
*Mawé [9000 speakers]
*Mondé (6 languages)
*Munduruku (2 languages)
*"Puruborá"
*Ramarama (Rôndonia) (2 languages)
*Tuparí (4 languages)
*Yurúna (2 languages)

List of Tupian languages

The largest subgroup within the Tupi language family is Tupi-Guarani, which should not be confused with Tupi or Guarani themselves. Members of this subfamily are:

* Cocoma
* Guarani
* Lingua geral
* Nheengatu
* Old Tupi
* Omagua
* Potiguara
* Tupiniquim
* Xipaya

Other members of the Tupi language family include:

* Kanoé
* Munduruku

ee also

*
* Lingua Geral
* List of Spanish words of Indigenous American Indian origin
* Indigenous languages of the Americas
* Languages of Brazil
* Apapocuva

External links

* [http://www.ethnologue.com/show_family.asp?subid=90616 Ethnologue classification for Tupi]
* [http://paginas.terra.com.br/educacao/GICLI/ListasEnglish.htm Swadesh Lists of Brazilian Native Languages]

Bibliography


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