Suruí (of Jiparaná), also known as Paíter or Suruí-Paíter, is a
Tupian language
The Tupi or Tupian language family comprises some 70 languages spoken in South America, of which the best known are Tupi proper and Guarani.
Homeland and ''urheimat''
Rodrigues (2007) considers the Proto-Tupian urheimat to be somewhere between ...
of
Brazil
Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
. The Suruí of Rondônia call themselves
Paiter, which means “the true people, we ourselves". They speak a language of the Tupi group and Monde language family. There were 1,171 Suruí-Paíter in 2010.
Phonology
Vowels
Consonants
* /β/ can be heard as either
�or
in free variation, and as
�when before voiceless consonants.
* Sounds /p, t, k, m, n, ŋ/, can be heard as
̚, t̚, k̚, m̚, n̚, ŋ̚in word-final position.
* /b/ can be heard as prenasal
��bwhen after a nasal vowel, or when in initial position.
* /h/ can be heard as voiced
�when between vowels. It is also said to be heard as a voiceless lateral
̥ among elder speakers.
* /j/ can be heard as nasal
̃when preceding or in between nasal vowels.
References
External links
*
ELAR archive o
Documentation of Gavião and Suruí Languages in whistled and instrumental speechby Julien Meyer
*
ELAR archive o
Language Documentation of traditional culture among the Gavião and Suruí of Rondôniaby Dennis Moore
Tupian languages
{{tupian-lang-stub
Mamoré–Guaporé linguistic area