Wichí Lhamtés Güisnay or Wiznay is a
Wichí language. Wichí Lhamtés Güisnay had an estimated 15,000 speakers in 1999 in Argentina. The language is centered in the
Pilcomayo River
Pilcomayo (in Hispanicized spelling) (Quechua Pillkumayu or Pillku Mayu, ''pillku'' red, ''mayu'' river, "red river", Guarani Ysyry Araguay ) is a river in central South America. At long, it is the longest western tributary of the Paraguay River ...
region. Other names for the language include Güisnay, Mataco, Mataco Güisnay, Mataco Pilcomayo, and Wichí Lhamtés. A grammar book has been written for the language.
["Wichí Lhamtés Güisnay."]
''Ethnologue.'' Retrieved 30 Jan 2012.
The Wichí languages are predominantly
suffixing and
polysynthetic
In linguistic typology, polysynthetic languages, formerly holophrastic languages, are highly synthetic languages, i.e. languages in which words are composed of many morphemes (word parts that have independent meaning but may or may not be able t ...
; verbal words have between 2 and 15 morphemes. Alienable and inalienable
possession is distinguished. The phonological inventory is large, with simple,
glottalized
Glottalization is the complete or partial closure of the glottis during the articulation of another sound. Glottalization of vowels and other sonorants is most often realized as creaky voice (partial closure). Glottalization of obstruent consona ...
and
aspirated stop
Stop may refer to:
Places
* Stop, Kentucky, an unincorporated community in the United States
* Stop (Rogatica), a village in Rogatica, Republika Srpska, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Facilities
* Bus stop
* Truck stop, a type of rest stop for truck d ...
s and
sonorants. The number of
vowel
A vowel is a syllabic speech sound pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract. Vowels are one of the two principal classes of speech sounds, the other being the consonant. Vowels vary in quality, in loudness and also in quantity (leng ...
s varies with the language (five or six).
Phonology
* Aspirated sounds
, ~only occur as allophones of /, , /.
* /, , / can also have allophones of
,
* /, / can have allophones
, word-medially, when occurring after //. [] occurs when // is preceding the sequence .
* // can also be heard as [] word-medially and word-finally.
* // can have an allophone of [].
See also
*Wichí Lhamtés Nocten
*
Wichí Lhamtés Vejoz
Wichí Lhamtés Vejoz is a Mataco-Guaicuru language of Argentina and Bolivia. Speakers are concentrated in northern parts of Chaco, Formosa, Salta, Jujuy Provinces, as well as west of Toba, the upper Bermejo River valley, and Pilcomayo River. Th ...
Notes
Matacoan languages
Languages of Argentina
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