The Otà language, also known as Chavante or Euchavante, 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 ...
once spoken in the state of São Paulo, Brazil, between the
Peixe and
Pardo
In the former Portuguese and Spanish colonies in the Americas, ''pardos'' (feminine ''pardas'') are triracial descendants of Europeans, Indigenous Americans and Africans.
History
In some places they were defined as neither exclusively ...
rivers. The language became extinct at the beginning of the 20th century. Only a few wordlists are preserved, and Campbell leaves it unclassified due to a paucity of information.
Greenberg classified Oti as a
Macro-Ge language, but he provided almost no supporting data and has not been followed by other researchers.
History
The Oti were largely exterminated in the late 19th century out of fear that they were
Kaingang
The Kaingang people are an Indigenous peoples in Brazil, Indigenous Brazilian ethnic group spread out over the three southern Brazilian states of Paraná (state), Paraná, Santa Catarina (state), Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul and the sout ...
. Nimuendajú estimated that there were some 50 Oti in 1890. By 1903, there were only 8, divided between two locations, one a few kilometers east of
Indiana
Indiana ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Michigan to the northwest, Michigan to the north and northeast, Ohio to the east, the Ohio River and Kentucky to the s ...
and east of
Presidente Prudente, between the Peixe and
Paranapanema rivers, and one in
Platina
Platina is a municipality ''( municÃpio)'' in the state of São Paulo in Brazil. As of 2020 the population is estimated to be 3,578 inside an area of 326.73 km². The elevation of the municipality is 466 meters.
Media
In telecommunications, th ...
, some 50 km northwest of
Ourinhos
Ourinhos is a Municipalities of Brazil, Brazilian municipality in the Interior of São Paulo, interior of the Federative units of Brazil, state of São Paulo (state), São Paulo. Located west of the São Paulo, state capital, it is approximately 3 ...
. The traditional Oti lands up to 1870 had been located between these two places. In 1988, the last Oti died.
Vocabulary
Loukotka (1968)
Loukotka (1968) lists the following basic vocabulary items.
:
Nikulin (2020)
Some Otà words given by Nikulin (2020),
[Nikulin, Andrey. 2020. ]
Proto-Macro-Jê: um estudo reconstrutivo
'. Tese de Doutorado em LinguÃstica, Universidade de BrasÃlia. cited from Quadros (1892), Borba (1908: 73–76), and Ihering (1912: 8).
[Ihering, H. von. A ethnographia do Brazil meridional. Extracto de las ''Actas del XVII° Congreso Internacional de Americanistas'', pág. 250 y siguientes. Buenos Aires: Imprenta de Coni Hermanos, 1912.] For the original word lists by Quadros (1892) and Borba (1908), see the corresponding
Portuguese article.
:
References
External links
*Alain Fabre, 2009, ''Diccionario etnolingüÃstico y guÃa bibliográfica de los pueblos indÃgenas sudamericanos''
Oti
{{Language families
Languages of Brazil
Indigenous languages of South America (Central)
Languages extinct in the 20th century