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The Ofayé or Opaye language, also ''Ofaié-Xavante, Opaié-Shavante'', is a language spoken in
Mato Grosso do Sul Mato Grosso do Sul ( ) is one of Federative units of Brazil, Brazil's 27 federal units, located in the southern part of the Central-West Region, Brazil, Central-West Region, bordering five Brazilian states: Mato Grosso (to the north), Goiás and ...
,
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 ...
which forms its own branch of the Macro-Jê languages. It is spoken by only a couple of the small Ofayé people, though language revitalization efforts are underway.


Documentation

Grammatical descriptions have been made by the Pankararú linguist Maria das Dores de Oliveira (Pankararu), as well as by Sarah C. Gudschinsky and Jennifer E. da Silva, from the Universidade Federal do Mato Grosso do Sul.


Geographical distribution

It was spoken on the Ivinhema River, Pardo River, and Nhandú River in
Mato Grosso do Sul Mato Grosso do Sul ( ) is one of Federative units of Brazil, Brazil's 27 federal units, located in the southern part of the Central-West Region, Brazil, Central-West Region, bordering five Brazilian states: Mato Grosso (to the north), Goiás and ...
. ''Guachi'', spoken on the Vacaria River in Mato Grosso do Sul, is a dialect.


Language contact

Jolkesky (2016) notes that there are lexical similarities with the Macro-Mataguayo-Guaykuru languages due to contact.


Phonology

The consonantal inventory of Ofayé is as follows. The vowel inventory of Ofayé is as follows.


Vocabulary

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


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ofaye language Nuclear Macro-Jê languages Languages of Brazil Indigenous languages of South America (Central) Endangered Indigenous languages of the Americas