The Tupi or Tupian language family comprises some 70 languages spoken in

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the sout ...

, of which the best known are Tupi proper and Guarani.

Homeland and ''urheimat''

Rodrigues (2007) considers the Proto-Tupian

urheimat In historical linguistics, the homeland or ''Urheimat'' (, from German '' ur-'' "original" and ''Heimat'', home) of a proto-language is the region in which it was spoken before splitting into different daughter languages. A proto-language is the r ...

to be somewhere between the Guaporé and

Aripuanã Aripuanã is a municipality in the state of Mato Grosso in the Central-West Region of Brazil. It is located on the banks of the Aripuanã River Aripuanã River ( pt, Rio Aripuanã) is a river in the Mato Grosso and Amazonas states in north-w ...

rivers, in the

Madeira River The Madeira River ( pt, Rio Madeira, link=no ) is a major waterway in South America. It is estimated to be in length, while the Madeira-Mamoré is estimated near or in length depending on the measuring party and their methods. The Madeira is ...

basin. Much of this area corresponds to the modern-day state of Rondônia, Brazil. 5 of the 10 Tupian branches are found in this area, as well as some

Tupi–Guarani languages Tupi–Guarani () is the most widely distributed subfamily of the Tupian languages of South America. It consists of about fifty languages, including Guarani and Old Tupi. The words ''petunia, jaguar, piranha, ipecac, tapioca, jacaranda, a ...

(especially Kawahíb), making it the probable

of these languages and maybe of its speaking peoples. Rodrigues believes the

Proto-Tupian language Proto-Tupian (PT) is the reconstructed common ancestor of all the Tupian languages. It consists, therefore, of a hypothetical language, reconstructed by the comparative method from data of the descendant languages. In Brazil, Tupian historical- ...

dates back to around 3,000 BC.

Language contact

Tupian languages have extensively influenced many language families in South America. Jolkesky (2016) notes that there are lexical similarities with the Arawa, Bora-Muinane, Guato, Irantxe, Jivaro, Karib, Kayuvava, Mura-Matanawi, Taruma, Trumai,

Yanomami The Yanomami, also spelled Yąnomamö or Yanomama, are a group of approximately 35,000 indigenous people who live in some 200–250 villages in the Amazon rainforest on the border between Venezuela and Brazil. Etymology The ethnonym ''Yanomami' ...

, Harakmbet, Katukina-Katawixi,

Arawak The Arawak are a group of indigenous peoples of northern South America and of the Caribbean. Specifically, the term "Arawak" has been applied at various times to the Lokono of South America and the Taíno, who historically lived in the Great ...

Bororo The Bororo are indigenous people of Brazil, living in the state of Mato Grosso. They also extended into Bolivia and the Brazilian state of Goiás. The Western Bororo live around the Jauru and Cabaçal rivers. The Eastern Bororo ( Orarimogodoge) ...

, Karaja, Macro-Mataguayo-Guaykuru, Takana, Nadahup, and Puinave-Kak language families due to contact.

History, members and classification

When the

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 ...

arrived 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 ...

, they found that wherever they went along the vast coast of this newly discovered land, most natives spoke similar languages. Jesuit missionaries took advantage of these similarities, systematizing

common standards A list of international common and basic technical standards, which have been established worldwide and are related by their frequent and widespread use. These standards are conventionally accepted as best practice and used globally by industry a ...

then named '' línguas gerais'' ("general languages"), which were spoken in that region until the 19th century. The best known and most widely spoken of these languages was Old Tupi, a modern descendant of which is still used today by

indigenous peoples Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...

around the Rio Negro region, where it is known as ''

Nheengatu The Nheengatu language (Tupi: , nheengatu rionegrino: ''yẽgatu'', nheengatu tradicional: ''nhẽẽgatú'' e nheengatu tapajoawara: ''nheẽgatu''), often written Nhengatu, is an indigenous language of the Tupi-Guarani family, being then der ...

'' (), or the "good language". However, the Tupi family also comprises other languages. In the neighbouring Spanish colonies, Guarani, another Tupian language closely related to Old Tupi, had a similar history, but managed to resist the spread of

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

more successfully than Tupi resisted

. Today, Guarani has 7 million speakers, and is one of the official languages of

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 ...

. The Tupian family also includes several other languages with fewer speakers. These share irregular morphology with the Je and Carib families, and Rodrigues connects them all as a Je–Tupi–Carib family.Rodrigues A. D., 2000, "‘Ge–Pano–Carib’ X ‘Jê–Tupí–Karib’: sobre relaciones lingüísticas prehistóricas en Sudamérica", in L. Miranda (ed.)
''Actas del I Congreso de Lenguas Indígenas de Sudamérica,'' Tome I
Lima, Universidad Ricardo Palma, Facultad de lenguas modernas, p. 95-104.

Rodrigues & Cabral (2012)

Rodrigues & Cabral (2012) list 10 branches of Tupian, which cluster into Western Tupian and Eastern Tupian.Rodrigues, Aryon Dall'Igna, and Ana Suelly Arruda Câmara Cabral (2012). "Tupían". In Campbell, Lyle, and Verónica Grondona (eds)
''The indigenous languages of South America: a comprehensive guide''
Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. Within Western and Eastern Tupian, the most divergent branches are listed first, followed by the core branches. *Western Tupian ** Arikém (2 languages) ** Tuparí (6 languages) ** Mondé (6 languages) ** Puruborá ** Ramaráma (Rondônia) (2 languages) *Eastern Tupian ** Yurúna (Jurúna) (3 languages) ** Mundurukú (2 languages) ** Mawé ** Awetï ** Tupi–Guarani (50 languages:

Tupí Tupí, also known as ''formatge de tupí'', is a fermented cheese of a certain area of the Pyrenees and Pre-Pyrenees made from cows' or sheep's milk. It is a cheese traditionally prepared in the mountainous Pallars region, as well as in the Cerda ...

xtinct

Guaraní Guarani, Guaraní or Guarany may refer to Ethnography * Guaraní people, an indigenous people from South America's interior (Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Bolivia) * Guaraní language, or Paraguayan Guarani, an official language of Paraguay * ...

(5 million speakers), etc.) Meira and Drude (2015) posit a branch uniting Mawé and Aweti with Tupi-Guarani, also known as Maweti-Guarani.Meira, Sérgio and Sebastian Drude (2015). "A preliminary reconstruction of proto-Maweti-Guarani segmental phonology". ''Boletim do Museu Paraense Emilio Goeldi, série Ciências Humanas'', 10(2):275-296. Purubora may form a branch together with Ramarama.

Jolkesky (2016)

Internal classification by Jolkesky (2016):Jolkesky, Marcelo Pinho De Valhery. 2016.
Estudo arqueo-ecolinguístico das terras tropicais sul-americanas
'. Ph.D. dissertation,

University of Brasília The University of Brasília ( pt, Universidade de Brasília, UnB) is a federal public university in Brasília, the capital of Brazil. It was founded in 1960 and has since consistently been named among the top five Brazilian universities and the ...

. († = extinct) ;Tupi family * Arikem **'' Arikem'' † **'' Karitiana'' *

Monde A ''monde'', meaning 'world' in French, is an orb located near the top of a crown. It represents, as the name suggests, the world that the monarch rules. It is the point at which a crown's half arches meet. It is usually topped off either w ...

**''

Paiter The Paiter, also known as Suruí, Suruí do Jiparaná, and Suruí de Rondônia, are an indigenous people of Brazil, who live in ten villages near the Mato Grosso– Rondônia border. They are farmers, who cultivate coffee. Language The Paiter ...

'' **Monde, Nuclear ***''

'' ***Cinta-Larga-Zoro ****'' Arua'' ****'' Cinta-Larga'' ****'' Gavião''; '' Zoro'' *Ramarama-Purubora **'' Purubora'' ** Ramarema: '' Karo''; ''

Urumi Urumi (Malayalam: ''uṟumi''; Sinhalese: ''ethunu kaduwa''; Hindi: ''āra'') is a sword with a flexible, whip-like blade, originating in modern-day Kerala in the Indian subcontinent. It is thought to have existed from as early as the Sangam per ...

'' * Tupari **'' Makurap'' **Tupari, Nuclear ***Sakurabiat-Akuntsu ****''

Akuntsu The Akuntsu (also known as Akunt'su or Akunsu) are an indigenous people of Rondônia, Brazil. Their land is part of the Rio Omerê Indigenous Territory, a small indigenous territory which is also inhabited by a group of Kanoê. The Akuntsu we ...

'' ****'' Sakurabiat'' ***'' Kepkiriwat'' † ***'' Tupari'' ***'' Wayoro'' *Tupi, Nuclear ** Juruna ***'' Juruna'' ***'' Manitsawa'' † ***'' Shipaya'' **

Munduruku The Munduruku, also known as Mundurucu or Wuy Jugu or BMJ, are an indigenous people of Brazil living in the Amazon River basin. Some Munduruku communities are part of the Coatá-Laranjal Indigenous Land. They had an estimated population in 2014 ...

***'' Kuruaya'' ***''

'' ** Mawe-Aweti-Tupi-Guarani ***'' Satere-Mawe'' ***Aweti-Tupi-Guarani ****''

Aweti The Aweti people are a group of Native Americans living in the Xingu Indigenous Park, close to the headwaters of the Xingu River in Brazil. The Aweti inhabit two villages in the region. One is called Tazu’jyretam, and the other is unnamed. ...

'' **** Tupi-Guarani (see)

Galucio et al. (2015)

Galucio et al. (2015) give the following phylogenetic tree of Tupian, based on a

computational phylogenetic Computational phylogenetics is the application of computational algorithms, methods, and programs to phylogenetic

analysis. ;Tupian *Western (40.6% probability) **'' Karo''; '' Puruborá'' ** Mondé ***'' Suruí'' ***Nuclear Mondé ****'' Salamãy'' ****'' Aruá''; '' Gavião'', '' Zoró'' *Eastern (40.6% probability) ** Arikém ***'' Karitiána'' ** Tuparí ***'' Makuráp'' ***Nuclear Tuparí ****'' Akuntsú'', '' Mekéns'' ****'' Wayoró'', '' Tuparí'' ** Mundurukú ***'' Mundurukú'' ***'' Kuruáya'' ** Jurúna ***'' Jurúna'' ***'' Xipáya'' ** Mawetí–Guaraní ***'' Mawé'' ***Awetí–Guaraní ****'' Awetí'' **** Tupí–Guaraní *****''

Parintintín The Parintintin are an indigenous people who live in Brazil in the Madeira River basin. They refer to themselves as Cabahyba, Kagwahiva’nga, or Kagwahiva, which means "our people." As of 2010, the Parintintin have a population of around 418 and ...

'' *****'' Tapirapé''; '' Urubú-Ka'apór'', ''

Paraguayan Guaraní The guaraní (, plural: ''guaraníes''; sign: ₲; code: PYG) is the national currency unit of Paraguay. The guaraní was divided into 100 céntimos but, because of inflation, céntimos are no longer in use. The currency sign is ; if unavailab ...

Vocabulary

Loukotka (1968) lists the following basic vocabulary items.

References

External links

TuLaR (Tupían Language Resources)
* Swadesh lists of Tupi–Guarani basic vocabulary words (from Wiktionary's Swadesh-list appendix)
"A Arte da Língua Brasílica", grammar of Tupi, by Father Luiz Figueira, in Portuguese
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tupian Languages Language families Indigenous languages of Central Amazonia Indigenous languages of Western Amazonia