Tupian languages

The Tupi or Tupian language family comprises some 70 languages spoken in South America, of which the best known are Tupi proper and Guarani.

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, Bora-Muinane, Guato, Irantxe, Jivaro, Karib, Kayuvava, Mura-Matanawi, Taruma, Trumai, Yanomami, Harakmbet, Katukina-Katawixi, Arawak, Bororo, Karaja, Macro-Mataguayo-Guaykuru, Takana, Nadahup, and Puinave-Kak language families due to contact.

History, members and classification

When the Portuguese 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 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 descendant of which is still used today by indigenous peoples around the Rio Negro region, where it is known as Nheengatu ([ɲɛʔẽŋaˈtu]), or the "good language". However, the Tupi family also comprises 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 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 families, and Rodrigues connects them all as a Je–Tupi–Carib family.

Rodrigues & Cabral (2012)

Rodrigues & Cabral (2012) list ten branches of Tupian, which cluster into Western Tupian and Eastern Tupian. Within Western and Eastern Tupian, the most divergent branches are listed first, followed by the core branches.

• Tupian Western Tupian Arikém (2 languages) Tuparí (6 languages) Mondé (6 languages) Puruborá Ramaráma (Rondônia) (2 languages) Eastern Tupian Yurúna (Jurúna) (3 languages) Mundurukú (2 languages) Mawé Awetï Tupi–Guarani (50 languages: Tupí [extinct], Guaraní (5 million speakers), etc.)

Meira and Drude (2015) posit a branch uniting Mawé and Aweti with Tupi-Guarani, also known as Maweti-Guarani. Purubora may form a branch together with Ramarama.

Jolkesky (2016)

Internal classification by Jolkesky (2016):

(† = extinct)

• Tupi family Arikem Arikem † Karitiana Monde Paiter Monde, Nuclear Monde Cinta-Larga-Zoro Arua Cinta-Larga Gavião; Zoro Ramarama-Purubora Purubora Ramarema: Karo; Urumi Tupari Makurap Tupari, Nuclear Sakurabiat-Akuntsu Akuntsu Sakurabiat Kepkiriwat † Tupari Wayoro Tupi, Nuclear Juruna Juruna Manitsawa † Shipaya Munduruku Kuruaya Munduruku Mawe-Aweti-Tupi-Guarani Satere-Mawe Aweti-Tupi-Guarani Aweti Tupi-Guarani (see)

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 Karitiána Tuparí Makuráp Nuclear Tuparí Akuntsú, Mekéns Wayoró, Tuparí Mundurukú Mundurukú Kuruáya Jurúna Jurúna Xipáya Mawetí–Guaraní Mawé Awetí–Guaraní Awetí Tupí–Guaraní Parintintín Tapirapé; Urubú-Ka'apór, Paraguayan Guaraní

Vocabulary

Loukotka (1968) lists the following basic vocabulary items.

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., “,” Boletim do Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi. Ciências Humanas 10, no. 2 (2015): 229–274. doi:
• 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. doi:

Lexicons

• Alves, P. (2004). O léxico do Tupari: proposta de um dicionário bilíngüe. Doctoral dissertation. São Paulo: Universidade Estadual Paulista.
• Corrêa Da Ssila, B. C. (2010). Mawé/Awetí/Tupí-Guaraní: Relações Linguísticas e Implicações Históricas. Brasília: Universidade de Brasília. (Doctoral dissertation).
• Landin, D. J. (2005). Dicionário e léxico Karitiana / Português. Cuiabá: SIL.
• Lévi-Strauss, C. (1950). Documents Rama-Rama. Journal de la Société des Américanistes, 39:73–84.
• Mello, A. A. S. (2000). Estudo histórico da família lingüística Tupí-Guaraní: aspectos fonológicos e lexicais. Florianópolis: Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina. (Doctoral dissertation).
• 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.
• 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.
• Pacheco Ribeiro, M. J. (2010). Dicionário Sateré-Mawé/Português. Guajará-Mirim: Universidade Federal de Rondônia.
• 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.
• 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

• Swadesh lists of Tupi–Guarani basic vocabulary words (from Wiktionary's Swadesh-list appendix)