Terêna or Etelena is spoken by 15,000

Brazilians Brazilians ( pt, Brasileiros, ) are the citizens of Brazil. A Brazilian can also be a person born abroad to a Brazilian parent or legal guardian as well as a person who acquired Brazilian citizenship. Brazil is a multiethnic society, which ...

. The language has a dictionary and written grammar. Many

Terena people The Terena people are an indigenous people of Brazil. Their traditional language is Terena. They live in the states of Mato Grosso, Mato Grosso do Sul, and São Paulo. History and society With the establishment of the Serviço de Proteção aos ...

have low

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

proficiency. It is spoken in

Mato Grosso do Sul Mato Grosso do Sul () is one of the Midwestern states of Brazil. Neighboring Brazilian states are (from north clockwise) Mato Grosso, Goiás, Minas Gerais, São Paulo and Paraná. It also borders the countries of Paraguay, to the southwest, and ...

. 20% are literate in their language, 80% literate in Portuguese. Terêna has an active–stative syntax.

Varieties

There were once four varieties, Kinikinao, Terena proper, Guaná, and

Chané Chané is the collective name for the southernmost Arawakan-speaking peoples. They lived in the plains of the northern Gran Chaco and in the foothills of the Andes in Paraguay, Brazil, Bolivia, and Argentina. The historical Chané are divided i ...

, which were sometimes considered to be separate languages (Aikhenvald 1999). Carvalho (2016) has since demonstrated that all four of them are the same language. Only Terena proper is still spoken.

Language contact

Terena originated in the Northwestern Chaco. As a result, many Northern

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 call ...

loanwords can be found in Terena. There are also many Tupi-Guarani loanwords in Terena and other southern Arawakan languages.

Phonology

Consonants

/w, ʃ, n, l/ may often be heard as , tʃ, ɲ, ʎ

Vowels

�is heard as an allophone of /i/.

References