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