HOME
*





Múra Languages
Mura is a language of Amazonas, Brazil. It is most famous for Pirahã, its sole surviving dialect. Linguistically, it is typified by agglutinativity, a very small phoneme inventory (around 11 compared to around 44 in English), whistled speech, and the use of tone. In the 19th century, there were an estimated 30,000–60,000 Mura. It is now spoken by only 300 Pirahã people in eight villages. Dialects Since at least Barboza Rodrigues (1892) eference? there have been three ethnic names commonly listed as dialects of Mura, or even as Muran languages. The names are: * Bohurá, or ''Buxwaray'', the original form of the name 'Mura'; spoken on the Autaz River * Pirahã, or ''Pirahá, Pirahán'', the name the remaining dialect goes by * Yahahí, also spelled ''Jahahi''; spoken on the Branco River On the basis of a minuscule amount of data, it would appear that Bohurá (Mura proper) was mutually intelligible with Pirahã; however, for Yahahí there exists only ethnographic inform ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Mura People
The Muras are an indigenous people who live in the central and eastern parts of Amazonas, Brazil, along the Amazon river from the Madeira to the Purus. They played an important part in Brazilian history during colonial times and were known for their quiet determination and subsequent resistance to the encroaching Portuguese culture. Formerly a powerful people, they were defeated by their neighbors, the Munduruku, in 1788. Of the original diversity of Muran languages, only Pirahã survives today. Historical encounter with the Portuguese According to Adélia Engrácia de Oliveira in ''Autos da devassa contra os índios Mura do Rio Madeira e nações do Rio Tocantins (1738–1739)'' (CEDEAM, 1986:1): "It is known that they, who used their canoes as homes, nomadic indians ("Índios de Corso"), controlled a wide area of land from the border of Peru to River Trombetas, that they stood out for their great effort to repel the encroaching of the Portuguese, that they were valiant and f ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Mutually Intelligible
In linguistics, mutual intelligibility is a relationship between languages or dialects in which speakers of different but related varieties can readily understand each other without prior familiarity or special effort. It is sometimes used as an important criterion for distinguishing languages from dialects, although sociolinguistic factors are often also used. Intelligibility between languages can be asymmetric, with speakers of one understanding more of the other than speakers of the other understanding the first. When it is relatively symmetric, it is characterized as "mutual". It exists in differing degrees among many related or geographically proximate languages of the world, often in the context of a dialect continuum. Intelligibility Factors An individual's achievement of moderate proficiency or understanding in a language (called L2) other than their first language (L1) typically requires considerable time and effort through study and practical application if the two l ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Wiktionary
Wiktionary ( , , rhyming with "dictionary") is a multilingual, web-based project to create a free content dictionary of terms (including words, phrases, proverbs, linguistic reconstructions, etc.) in all natural languages and in a number of artificial languages. These entries may contain definitions, images for illustration, pronunciations, etymologies, inflections, usage examples, quotations, related terms, and translations of terms into other languages, among other features. It is collaboratively edited via a wiki. Its name is a portmanteau of the words ''wiki'' and ''dictionary''. It is available in languages and in Simple English. Like its sister project Wikipedia, Wiktionary is run by the Wikimedia Foundation, and is written collaboratively by volunteers, dubbed "Wiktionarians". Its wiki software, MediaWiki, allows almost anyone with access to the website to create and edit entries. Because Wiktionary is not limited by print space considerations, most of Wiktio ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Curt Nimuendajú
Curt Unckel Nimuendajú (born Curt Unckel; 18 April 1883 – 10 December 1945) was a German- Brazilian ethnologist, anthropologist, and writer. His works are fundamental for the understanding of the religion and cosmology of some native Brazilian Indians, especially the Guaraní people. He received the surname "Nimuendajú" from the Apapocuva subgroup of the Guaraní people, meaning "the one who made himself a home", one year after living among them. Upon taking Brazilian citizenship in 1922, he officially added the Nimuendajú as one of his surnames. On his obituary, his Brazilian-German colleague called him "perhaps the greatest ''Indianista'' of all time". Life and work Nimuendajú was born in Wagnergasse 31, Jena, Germany in 1883 and he lost either one of or both his parents in his childhood. From an early age, he dreamed of living among a 'primitive people'. Still in school, together with other students they organized an 'Indian gang' to go hunting in the woods outside the ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  




Čestmír Loukotka
Čestmír Loukotka (12 November 1895 – 13 April 1966) was a Czechoslovak linguist. His daughter was Jarmila Loukotková. Career Loukotka proposed a Classification of indigenous languages of the Americas#Loukotka (1968), classification for the languages of South America based on several previous works. This classification contained a lot of unpublished material and was therefore superior to all previous classifications. He divided the languages of South America and the Caribbean into 77 different families, based upon similarities of vocabulary and available lists. His classification of 1968 is the most influential and was based upon two previous schemes (1935, 1944), which were similar to those proposed by Paul Rivet (whom he was a student of), although the number of families was increased to 94 and 114. References

1895 births 1958 deaths Linguists from the Czech Republic Paleolinguists Linguists of indigenous languages of the Americas 20th-century linguists { ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Huarpe Language
Huarpe (''Warpe'') was a small language family of central Argentina (historic Cuyo Province) that consisted of two closely related languages. They are traditionally considered dialects, and include Allentiac (Alyentiyak, Huarpe) and Millcayac (Milykayak). A third, Puntano of San Luis, was not documented before the languages became extinct. Kaufman (1994) tentatively linked Huarpe to the Mura-Matanawi languages in a family he called ''Macro-Warpean''. However, he noted that "no systematic study" had been made, so that it is best to consider them independent families. Swadesh and Suárez both connected Huarpe to Macro-Jibaro, a possibility that has yet to be investigated. Varieties Loukotka (1968) Varieties classified by Loukotka (1968) as part of the Huarpe language cluster (all unattested unless noted otherwise, i.e. for Chiquiyama and Comechingon): *Oico / Holcotian - once spoken in Mendoza Province in the Diamante Valley. *Orcoyan / Oscollan - once spoken in the souther ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Matanawi Language
Matanawi (''Matanauí, Mitandua, Moutoniway'') was a divergent Amazonian language that appears to be distantly related to the Muran languages. It was originally spoken on the Castanha River and Madeirinha River in Amazonas State. Vocabulary The only existing word list for Matanawi is that of Curt Nimuendajú Curt Unckel Nimuendajú (born Curt Unckel; 18 April 1883 – 10 December 1945) was a German- Brazilian ethnologist, anthropologist, and writer. His works are fundamental for the understanding of the religion and cosmology of some native Brazilia ... (1925).Nimuendajú, Curt. 1925As Tribus do Alto Madeira ''Journal de la Société des Américanistes'' XVII. 137-172.PDF Loukotka (1968) lists the following basic vocabulary items for Matanawí. : References Indigenous languages of the Americas Extinct languages Language isolates of South America {{na-lang-stub ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Torá Language
Torá (Toraz) is an extinct Chapacuran language that was once spoken along the lower stretches of the Marmelos River in Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area .... SIL reported 40 speakers in 1990, but by 2009 declared it extinct. References Chapacuran languages {{na-lang-stub Languages of Brazil ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  




Dos Marmelos River
Dos Marmelos River ( pt, Rio dos Marmelos) is a river of Amazonas state in north-western Brazil. It is a tributary of the Madeira River, and merges into this river about upstream from the town of Manicoré. The headwaters of the river are in the Campos Amazônicos National Park, a protected area created in 2006 that holds an unusual enclave of cerrado The ''Cerrado'' (, ) is a vast ecoregion of tropical savanna in eastern Brazil, particularly in the states of Goiás, Mato Grosso do Sul, Mato Grosso, Tocantins, Minas Gerais, and the Federal District. The core areas of the Cerrado biome are the ... vegetation in the Amazon rainforest. See also * List of rivers of Amazonas References Brazilian Ministry of Transport Rivers of Amazonas (Brazilian state) {{AmazonasBR-river-stub es:Río Marmelos ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


João Barbosa Rodrigues
João Barbosa Rodrigues (June 22, 1842 – March 6, 1909) was considered one of Brazil's greatest botanists, known especially for his work on orchids and palms. For nearly two decades he was director of the Botanic Garden of Rio de Janeiro. Something of a polymath, he was a prolific botanical artist who also made contributions to his country's ethnography, geography, linguistics, zoology, and literature. Early life and education Rodrigues was born on June 22, 1842, in São Gonçalo do Sapucaí, Brazil, and was initially raised in Campanha, in the state of Minas Gerais, before the family returned to Rio in 1858. His father was a Portuguese merchant, and his mother was a Brazilian of Indian descent. He had several siblings: brothers João Baptista and Arthur and sisters Maria and Olympia. He showed early ability as a writer and he was always interested in natural science, particularly in collecting insects and plants. However, he went to the Central School of Engineering in Rio de ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Branco River
The Branco River ( pt, Rio Branco; Engl: ''White River'') is the principal affluent of the Rio Negro from the north. Basin The river drains the Guayanan Highlands moist forests ecoregion. It is enriched by many streams from the Tepui highlands which separate Venezuela and Guyana from Brazil. Its two upper main tributaries are the Uraricoera and the Takutu. The latter almost links its sources with those of the Essequibo; during floods headwaters of the Branco and those of the Essequibo are connected, allowing a level of exchange in the aquatic fauna (such as fish) between the two systems. The Branco flows nearly south, and finds its way into the Negro through several channels and a chain of lagoons similar to those of the latter river. It is long, up to its Uraricoera confluence. It has numerous islands, and, above its mouth, it is broken by a bad series of rapids. Water chemistry As suggested by its name, the Branco (literally "white" in Portuguese) has whitish water that ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]