Wayoró (also Wayoro, Ajurú, Wajuru; Wayoró: ''wayoro emẽto'' ) is a moribund Tuparian language (

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 ...

family), which is spoken in the state of

Rondônia Rondônia () is one of the 26 states of Brazil, located in the northern subdivision of the country (central-western part). To the west is a short border with the state of Acre, to the north is the state of Amazonas, in the east is Mato Grosso, ...

, in the Amazon region of

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 ...

. As of 2019, there were reported to be 3 speakers (all above 70 years old) and 11 semispeakers out of the ethnic population of approximately 250.

Dialects

The Wajuru people is subdivided into three subgroups: the Ngwayoroiat (‘those from the Stone’), the Ngwãkũyãian (‘the

Agouti The agouti (, ) or common agouti is any of several rodent species of the genus ''Dasyprocta''. They are native to Middle America, northern and central South America, and the southern Lesser Antilles. Some species have also been introduced else ...

ones’), and the Kupndiiriat (‘the Forest ones’). Some lexical and phonological differences have been reported between the varieties spoken by the Ngwayoroiat (Wayoroiat) and by the Kupndiiriat.

Phonology

Consonants

The consonantal inventory of Wayoró is as follows. The graphemes which correspond to each phoneme are given in

chevrons Chevron (often relating to V-shaped patterns) may refer to: Science and technology * Chevron (aerospace), sawtooth patterns on some jet engines * Chevron (anatomy), a bone * ''Eulithis testata'', a moth * Chevron (geology), a fold in rock lay ...

. Underlying nasal consonants may be partially or fully oralized in oral environments. Nogueira (2019) describes the following allophones: * /m/ → ‹m›, b‹mb› * /n/ → ‹n›, d‹nd› * /ɲ/ → �, j, j̃, j^t‹y›, dʒ, dʒ‹dj› * /ŋ/ → �, ŋg‹ng›, ‹g› * /ŋʷ/ → �ʷ, ŋgʷ‹ngw›, ʷ‹gw› The phonological status of the

glottal stop The glottal plosive or stop is a type of consonantal sound used in many spoken languages, produced by obstructing airflow in the vocal tract or, more precisely, the glottis. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents thi ...

� which occurs in the onset position only (e.g. ''o’uwa'' ʔʉβa‘my pot’, ''o’ega'' ʔɛga‘my hiccup’, ''apa’a'' paʔa‘to weave a hammock horizontally’), is given as uncertain by Nogueira (2019).

Vowels

The vowel inventory of Wayoró is as follows.

Syntax

As in other Tuparian languages, the main clauses of Wayoró follow the cross-linguistically rare nominative–absolutive pattern. Person prefixes on the verb are

absolutive In grammar, the absolutive case (abbreviated ) is the case of nouns in ergative–absolutive languages that would generally be the subjects of intransitive verbs or the objects of transitive verbs in the translational equivalents of nominative– ...

, i.e., they index the sole

argument An argument is a statement or group of statements called premises intended to determine the degree of truth or acceptability of another statement called conclusion. Arguments can be studied from three main perspectives: the logical, the dialectic ...

of an

intransitive verb In grammar, an intransitive verb is a verb whose context does not entail a direct object. That lack of transitivity distinguishes intransitive verbs from transitive verbs, which entail one or more objects. Additionally, intransitive verbs are ...

(S) and the

patient A patient is any recipient of health care services that are performed by healthcare professionals. The patient is most often ill or injured and in need of treatment by a physician, nurse, optometrist, dentist, veterinarian, or other health c ...

argument ('direct object') of a transitive verb (P). Person pronouns, which follow the verb (either cliticizing to it or not) are

nominative In grammar, the nominative case (abbreviated ), subjective case, straight case or upright case is one of the grammatical cases of a noun or other part of speech, which generally marks the subject of a verb or (in Latin and formal variants of Engl ...

: they may encode the sole

of an

(S) or the

agent Agent may refer to: Espionage, investigation, and law *, spies or intelligence officers * Law of agency, laws involving a person authorized to act on behalf of another ** Agent of record, a person with a contractual agreement with an insuranc ...

argument of a

transitive verb A transitive verb is a verb that accepts one or more objects, for example, 'cleaned' in ''Donald cleaned the window''. This contrasts with intransitive verbs, which do not have objects, for example, 'panicked' in ''Donald panicked''. Transitiv ...

(A), but not the patient of a transitive verb (P). This is exemplified below.

References

External links

* ELAR archive o
Documentation of Urgently Endangered Tupian Languages (including Ajuru)

TuLaR (Tupian Languages Resources)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wayoro language Tupian languages Languages of South America Mamoré–Guaporé linguistic area