Migueleño Chiquitano (self-denomination: ''ózura'' , literally 'our speech') is a variety of the
Chiquitano language of the
Macro-Jê family, which is remembered by several dozen people of the
Chiquitano ethnicity in
San Miguel de Velasco (
Santa Cruz),
Bolivia
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, as well as in neighboring villages.
Migueleño is closely related to other varieties of the Chiquitano language, such as
Bésɨro and
Eastern Chiquitano.
Its most salient phonological features include the occurrence of the
voiceless velar fricative corresponding to the
retroflex of the other dialects and the merger of the
palatalized counterparts of and as . It is also the only variety of Chiquitano in which distinct
first person First person or first-person may refer to:
* First person (ethnic), indigenous peoples, usually used in the plural
* First person, a grammatical person
* First person, a gender-neutral, marital-neutral term for titles such as first lady and first ...
singular prefixes have been documented for the male and female
genderlect
Research into the many possible relationships, intersections and tensions between language and gender is diverse. It crosses disciplinary boundaries, and, as a bare minimum, could be said to encompass work notionally housed within applied lingui ...
s.
Phonology
Consonants
The consonant inventory of Migueleño Chiquitano is shown below (the orthographic representation is given in italics; the characters in slashes stand for the
IPA values of each consonant).
Vowels
The vowel inventory of Migueleño Chiquitano is shown below (the orthographic representation is given in italics; the characters in slashes stand for the
IPA values of each vowel).
Genderlects
In Migueleño Chiquitano,
male speech is distinct from female speech in exhibiting extra morphological complexity. In particular, the male genderlect distinguishes between three
grammatical genders (
masculine
Masculinity (also called manhood or manliness) is a set of attributes, behaviors, and roles associated with men and boys. Masculinity can be theoretically understood as socially constructed, and there is also evidence that some behaviors con ...
, non-human
animate, and feminine/inanimate), whereas the female genderlect has no grammatical gender distinctions at all (all nouns behave like the feminine/inanimate nouns in the male genderlect).
In addition, the
first person First person or first-person may refer to:
* First person (ethnic), indigenous peoples, usually used in the plural
* First person, a grammatical person
* First person, a gender-neutral, marital-neutral term for titles such as first lady and first ...
singular prefixes are distinct in the male genderlect (underlying form , ij-, ) and in the female genderlect (underlying form , ix-, ).
Female and male speech further differ in using different suffixes (female ''-ki'', male ''-che'') when deriving content interrogative/relative words.
There are also differences in the choice of the demonstratives.
Chiquitano homilies
In
San Miguel de Velasco, Catholic
homilies are traditionally recited in an early form of Migueleño Chiquitano on certain religious occasions. This practice can be traced back to the
Jesuit reductions of the 18th century, and the texts of the homilies have been transmitted (both orally and in the written form) across generations. The homilies have been extensively studied by Severin Parzinger, who has published a compilation thereof.
References
{{Macro-Jê languages
Languages of Bolivia
Indigenous languages of South America (Central)
Language isolates of South America
Jesuit Missions of Chiquitos