Fulniô, or Yatê, is a

language isolate A language isolate is a language that has no demonstrable genetic relationship with any other languages. Basque in Europe, Ainu and Burushaski in Asia, Sandawe in Africa, Haida and Zuni in North America, Kanoê in South America, and Tiwi ...

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

, and the only indigenous language remaining in the northeastern part of that country. The two dialects, Fulniô and Yatê, are very close. The Fulniô dialect is used primarily during a three-month religious retreat. Today, the language is spoken in

Águas Belas Águas Belas (literally ''Beautiful Waters'') is a Brazilian municipality in the state of Pernambuco. History The region where Águas Belas is located was originally inhabited by the Tupiniquim, who were expelled by the Carnijó tribe. The ...

Pernambuco Pernambuco ( , , ) is a States of Brazil, state of Brazil located in the Northeast Region, Brazil, Northeast region of the country. With an estimated population of 9.5 million people as of 2024, it is the List of Brazilian states by population, ...

. The language is also called ''Carnijó'', and alternate spellings are ''Fornió'', ''Furniô,'' ''Yahthe'', and ''Iatê''.

Classification

Kaufman (1990) classified Fulniô as one of the Macro-Gê languages. However, Eduardo Ribeiro of the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...

, who is working on large-scale classification of Brazilian languages, finds no evidence to support this, and treats it as an isolate. Jolkesky (2016) again has it as Macro-Je, but Nikulin (2020) again excludes it.

Phonology

Fulniô has the following sounds:

Consonants

is rare. * A glottal stop occurs, but is considered

epenthetic In phonology, epenthesis (; Greek ) means the addition of one or more sounds to a word, especially in the first syllable ('' prothesis''), the last syllable ('' paragoge''), or between two syllabic sounds in a word. The opposite process in whi ...

. * can be heard as a velar nasal before a velar stop. * can be heard as a palatal lateral before a post-alveolar affricate, and can be heard as an alveolar lateral flap when following fricatives, nasals or stops.

Vowels

Fulniô has 8 vowels. * can be heard as a nasalized sound when preceding a nasal consonant in closed syllables, or word-finally after a nasal consonant. There are few contrasts between and , suggesting is a recent addition, perhaps from Portuguese. All seven have

nasalized In phonetics, nasalization (or nasalisation in British English) is the production of a sound while the velum is lowered, so that some air escapes through the nose during the production of the sound by the mouth. An archetypal nasal sound is . ...

and

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 conso ...

allophones, depending on adjacent consonants. Vowels occur long and short. However, long vowels result from assimilation of , are pronounced in one dialect, and so are analyzed as sequences. Tones are high and low. Contour tones occur allophonically adjacent to voiced consonants. Final syllables tend to lack a tone contrast, and final vowels may be devoiced or dropped. There are no vowel sequences; vowels either coalesce or are separated by a glottal stop. Consonant clusters are limited to two consonants, apart from a possible additional , with the maximum syllable being CCCVC; reduced vowels between consonants are analyzed as by Meland & Meland: 'crossing over', 'rotten'.

Vocabulary

Loukotka (1968)

Loukotka (1968) lists the following basic vocabulary items. :

Nikulin (2020)

Some Yaathê words given by Nikulin (2020),Nikulin, Andrey. 2020.
Proto-Macro-Jê: um estudo reconstrutivo
'. Tese de Doutorado em Linguística, Universidade de Brasília. cited from Lapenda (1965, 2005

968 Year 968 ( CMLXVIII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar. Events By place Byzantine Empire * Emperor Nikephoros II receives a Bulgarian embassy led by Prince Boris (the son of Tsar Peter I of Bulgaria), wi ...

, Barbosa (1991), Costa (1999), F. Silva (2011a, 2011b), and Branner (1887).Branner, J. C
Os Carnijós de Aguas Bellas
otas sobre uma língua indigena brasilieira ''Revista do Instituto Historico e Geographico Brasileiro'', Rio de Janeiro, v. 94, n. 148, p. 359–365, 1929. :

Bibliography

''Fulniô (Yahthe) Syntax Structure''
Meland & Meland (2009

''Phonemic Statement of the Fulniô Language''
Meland & Meland (2010

967 Year 967 ( CMLXVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar. Events By place Europe * Spring – Emperor Otto I (the Great) calls for a council at Rome, to present the new government under Pope John XIII. He ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fulnio language Language isolates of South America Macro-Jê languages Indigenous languages of Northeastern Brazil