The Chaco linguistic area is a

linguistic area A sprachbund (, lit. "language federation"), also known as a linguistic area, area of linguistic convergence, or diffusion area, is a group of languages that share areal features resulting from geographical proximity and language contact. The lang ...

that includes various South American language families and isolates of the Chaco region of South America, in southern

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 ...

, southeastern

Bolivia , image_flag = Bandera de Bolivia (Estado).svg , flag_alt = Horizontal tricolor (red, yellow, and green from top to bottom) with the coat of arms of Bolivia in the center , flag_alt2 = 7 × 7 square p ...

Paraguay Paraguay (; ), officially the Republic of Paraguay ( es, República del Paraguay, links=no; gn, Tavakuairetã Paraguái, links=si), is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to th ...

Uruguay Uruguay (; ), officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay ( es, República Oriental del Uruguay), is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast; while bordering ...

, and

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

. Common Chaco areal features include

SVO word order SVO may refer to: * Saturn Valley Online, an EarthBound MMORPG * Sheremetyevo International Airport, one three major airports serving Moscow, Russia, IATA Airport Code * Social value orientations, a psychological construct * Sparse voxel octree, an ...

and active-stative verb

alignment Alignment may refer to: Archaeology * Alignment (archaeology), a co-linear arrangement of features or structures with external landmarks * Stone alignment, a linear arrangement of upright, parallel megalithic standing stones Biology * Structu ...

Languages

Campbell and Grondona (2012) list the following languages as part of the Chaco linguistic area. * Mataco–Guaicuru **

Matacoan Matacoan (also ''Mataguayan, Matákoan, Mataguayo, Mataco–Mataguayo, Matacoano, Matacoana'') is a language family of northern Argentina, western Paraguay, and southeastern Bolivia. Family division Matacoan consists of four clusters of languag ...

Guaicuruan Guaicuruan (Guaykuruan, Waikurúan, Guaycuruano, Guaikurú, Guaicuru, Guaycuruana) is a language family spoken in northern Argentina, western Paraguay, and Brazil (Mato Grosso do Sul). The speakers of the languages are often collectively called ...

Mascoyan The Mascoian also known as Enlhet–Enenlhet, Lengua–Mascoy, or Chaco languages are a small, closely related language family of Paraguay. Languages The languages are:Unruh, Ernesto; Kalisch, Hannes. 2003. "Enlhet-Enenlhet. Una familia lingüí ...

Zamucoan Zamucoan (also Samúkoan) is a small language family of Paraguay (northeast Chaco Department, Chaco) and Bolivia (Santa Cruz Department (Bolivia), Santa Cruz Department). The family has hardly been studied by linguists (as of Adelaar & Muysken 2 ...

* Lule–Vilelan *some southern Tupi-Guarani languages (

Guarani dialects The Guaraní language belongs to the Tupí-Guaraní branch of the Tupí linguistic family. There are three distinct groups within the Guaraní subgroup, they are: the Kaiowá, the Mbyá and the Ñandeva. In Latin America, the indigenous la ...

) Charruan is sometimes also included. Jorge Suárez includes Charruan with

in a hypothetical ''Waikuru-Charrúa'' stock.

Morris Swadesh Morris Swadesh (; January 22, 1909 – July 20, 1967) was an American linguist who specialized in comparative and historical linguistics. Swadesh was born in Massachusetts to Bessarabian Jewish immigrant parents. He completed bachelor's and mas ...

includes Charruan along with

, and

within his ''Macro-Mapuche'' stock. Both proposals appear to be obsolete. Jolkesky (2016) suggests that Trumai has lexical similarities with the Macro-Mataguayo-Guaykuru and

Tupian 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 ...

language families. These apparent similarities with the Macro-Mataguayo-Guaykuru languages and Tupi-Guarani languages suggest that Trumai had originated in the

Paraguay River The Paraguay River (Río Paraguay in Spanish, Rio Paraguai in Portuguese, Ysyry Paraguái in Guarani) is a major river in south-central South America, running through Brazil, Bolivia, Paraguay and Argentina. It flows about from its headwaters in ...

basin. The Trumai had only arrived in the

Upper Xingu The Xingu Indigenous Park (, pronounced ) is an indigenous territory of Brazil, first created in 1961 as a national park in the state of Mato Grosso, Brazil. Its official purposes are to protect the environment and the several tribes of Xingu in ...

basin via the

Culuene River The Culuene River, or Kuluene River is a 600 km tributary of Xingu River in Mato Grosso, a state in western Brazil. The main economic activities in the region are agriculture and cattle farming. It joins the Xingu from the southeast in the X ...

during the 19th century (Villas Bôas & Villas Bôas 1970:27Villas Bôas, O.; Villas Bôas, C. (1970). ''Xingu: Os Índios, Seus Mitos''. São Paulo: Círculo do livro S.A.). The following language families of the Argentinian

Pampas The Pampas (from the qu, pampa, meaning "plain") are fertile South American low grasslands that cover more than and include the Argentine provinces of Buenos Aires, La Pampa, Santa Fe, Entre Ríos, and Córdoba; all of Uruguay; and Brazil ...

are also included in some classifications. * Huarpean (Allentiac–Millcayac) * Chonan

Linguistic features

Linguistic features that are characteristic of the Chaco linguistic area include: *gender that not overtly marked on nouns, but is present in demonstratives, depending on the gender of the nouns modified *genitive classifiers for possessed domestic animals *SVO word order *active-stative verb alignment *large set of directional verbal affixes *demonstrative system with rich contrasts including visible vs. not visible *some adjectives as polar negatives *resistance to borrowing foreign words

Macro-Chaco hypothesis

Nikulin (2019) suggests a Macro-Chaco hypothesis linking Jê-Tupí-Cariban (including Karirian and Bororoan) with Mataco-Guaicuruan (possibly including Zamucoan):Nikulin, Andrey V. 2019.
The classification of the languages of the South American Lowlands: State-of-the-art and challenges / Классификация языков востока Южной Америки
'. Illič-Svityč (Nostratic) Seminar / Ностратический семинар, Higher School of Economics, October 17, 2019. ;Macro-Chaco * Macro-Guaicurú **

** Guaicurú **(?) Zamuco * Jê-Tupí-Cariban **Macro-Tupian ***

*** Macro-Jê +

Chiquitano The Chiquitano or Chiquitos are an indigenous people of Bolivia, with a small number also living in Brazil. The Chiquitano primarily live in the Chiquitania tropical savanna of Santa Cruz Department, Bolivia, with a small number also living in Be ...

**Macro-Cariban ***

Cariban The Cariban languages are a Language family, family of languages indigenous to northeastern South America. They are widespread across northernmost South America, from the mouth of the Amazon River to the Colombian Andes, and they are also spoken ...

*** Karirí *** Boróro

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chaco Linguistic Area Sprachbund

Languages

Linguistic features

Macro-Chaco hypothesis

See also

References