Mẽbêngôkre ( ), sometimes referred to as Kayapó, is a Northern Jê language (Jê, Macro-Jê) spoken by the Kayapó and the Xikrin people in the north of Mato Grosso and Pará in Brazil. There are around 8,600 native speakers since 2010 based on the 2015 Ethnologue 18th edition. Due to the number of speakers and the influence of Portuguese speakers, the language stands at a sixth level of endangerment; in which the materials for literacy and education in Mẽbêngôkre are very limited.
Ethnography The Mẽbêngôkre language is currently spoken by two ethnic groups, the Kayapó and the Xikrin, which, besides sharing a language in common, both use the endonym Mẽbêngôkre (literally “those from the hole of the water”Verswijver, Gustaff. "Kayapó." Enciclopédia dos Povos Indígenas no Brasil. 2002. https://pib.socioambiental.org/en/povo/Kayapô/print Accessed 30 September 2016. "Although there are differences between the dialects spoken among the various ethnic groups, all recognize themselves as participants in a common culture."“Kayapô/Mebengokre” Encontro Do Culturas. 2012.
http://www.encontrodeculturas.com.br/2012/artista/Kayapô-mebengokre Accessed 30 September 2016.) to refer to themselves and to their language. They are also sometimes regarded as major subdivisions of a single ethnic group, the Mẽbêngôkre.
The label Kayapó (also spelled Caiapó or Kayapô) has at times been used synonymously with Mẽbêngôkre in the literature — that is, it has been taken to refer both to the Kayapó (stricto sensu) and to the Xikrin, as well as to the linguistic varieties spoken by these groups. In order to avoid ambiguity (and further confusion with the Southern Kayapó, yet another ethnic group which spoke a not very closely related language of the Jê family), the term Mẽbêngôkre is preferred in this article (unless a reference is made to the Kayapó as opposed to the Xikrin). The term Kayapó, whose original reference was restricted to the aforementioned Southern Kayapó, is an exonym of unknown origin. It has been sometimes etymologized as a Tupi-Guarani word meaning “those who look like monkeys”,Turner, Terence. “Os Mebengokre Kayapô: Historia E Mudança Social, De comunidades autónomas para a coexistência interétnica.” 1992. Translated by Beatriz Moises. http://etnolinguistica.wdfiles.com/local--files/hist%3Ap311-338/p311-338_Turner_Os_Mebengokre_Kayapô.pdf Accessed 30 September 2016. but this has been disputed.
The first historical records of the Mẽbêngôkre language and culture made by Westerners date back to the end of the 19th century, when the French explorer Henri Coudreau came in contact with the Mẽbêngôkre-speaking Irã'ãmrãnhre group. Some records were made by the missionaries who arrived to Brazil later in the century to Christianize the indigenous people. Known authors of that period include Father Sebastião and Reverend Horace Banner, who lived among another Mẽbêngôkre (Kayapó) group known as Gorotire between 1937 and 1951. Although, “the Mebengokre [have been in] permanent contact with the surrounding non-indigenous population at various times, in most cases [there have been] catastrophic consequences. The Irã'ãmrãnhre are now extinct, and the population of the Gorotire group decreased by 80% during the first years of contact. Following such brutal experiences, some small groups refused to be approached by investigators and remain uncontacted around the Xingu and Curuá rivers.
Since the exploration period, academic linguists and anthropologists have investigated the Mẽbêngôkre and have successfully acquired a body of knowledge about this indigenous group. Since the early writings on the grammar of Mẽbêngôkre by the Summer Institute of Linguistics missionaries Stout and Thomson (1974), multiple academic researchers have worked on the language, including Marília Ferreira, Maria Amélia Reis Silva, Andrés Pablo Salanova, Lucivaldo Silva da Costa, and Edson de Freitas Gomes. A translation of the New Testament into Mẽbêngôkre was published in 1996, and there are literary works including myth and ritual stories and descriptions of the Mẽbêngôkre speaking communities.
Furthermore, the Brazilian organization ProDocult began a documentation project of the Kayapó language and culture in April 2009 and thus far have produced "150 hours of video recording, 15 hours of audio recording and more than 6,000 digital photos, in addition to ... films [containing] records of "culture" Mebengokre, and how could it be ... highly dynamic [in its] creative aspect."Kayapó." ProDocult. 2015.http://prodocult.museudoindio.gov.br/etnias/Kayapô/projeto Accessed 30 September 2016.
Phonology The phonological inventory of Mẽbêngôkre is composed of 16 consonants and 17 vowels, including oral and nasal vowels. Mẽbêngokre has a series of voiced oral stops, which makes it unique among the Northern Jê languages in employing the feature [voice] for establishing phonological oppositions. All other Northern Jê languages lost Proto-Northern Jê voiced obstruents through devoicing.
Consonants LabialAlveolarPalatalVelarGlottalStop Nasal Liquid
The consonant /d/ (as in 'short', 'beak') is exceedingly rare; /t͡ʃ/ (as in 'cat', 'naughtly') is rare in the onset position. The consonant /ɾ/ in the coda position is always followed by an epenthetic echo vowel, which may be an exact copy of the preceding vowel or [i] (if the preceding vowel is /a/ or sometimes /ɔ ʌ/). That way, the words /paɾ/ 'his/her foot' and /puɾ/ 'garden' are pronounced [ˈpaɾi], [ˈpuɾu] (and written ).
Vowels
OralNasal
The vowels /ã/ (as in 'to walk', 'cat') and /ũ/ (as in 'old') are rare and mostly go back to earlier oral vowels /a/ and /u/ in certain environments. The vowel /ɯ̃/ (as in 'to sit') is also somewhat rare.
In some analyses, Mẽbêngôkre has five diphthongs which occur word-finally only: /uᵊ/, /iᵊ/, /ɛᵊ/, /oᵊ/, /ĩᵊ/. These are realized phonetically as [ˈuwa], [ˈija], [ˈɛjɛ], [ˈowa], [ˈĩj̃ã]. Other authors analyze them as monophthongs followed by a glide (/w/ or /j/) in the coda position, which is followed by an epenthetic echo vowel. Some examples follow.
+ Diphthongs alternatively analyzed as sequences of vowels and glides spelling pronunciation diphthong analysis vowel + glide analysis translation /muᵊ/ /muw/ to cry /kɾuᵊ/ /kɾuw/ arrow /kɾiᵊ/ /kɾij/ to raise (pets) /ŋiᵊ/ /ŋij/ large American opossum /jabɛᵊ/ /jabɛj/ to look for /ŋɾoᵊ/ /ŋɾow/ moriche palm /wapĩᵊ/ /wapĩj/ black caracara or , /ɔ=nĩᵊ/, /nĩᵊ-ɾi/ /ɔ=nĩj/, /nĩj-ɾi/ far (Kayapó dialect)
Syllable structure The maximal syllable structure of Mẽbêngôkre is /CCCVC/. Any consonant may occur as a simple onset. Complex onsets may by formed by a combination of one of /p b m k ŋ/ and one of /ɾ j/ (pr-, br-, mr-, kr-, ngr-, pj-, mj-, bj-, kj-, ngj-); /t n ɾ t͡ʃ d͡ʒ ɲ k ŋ kɾ ŋɾ/ can also combine with /w/ (tw-, nw-, rw-, xw-, djw-, nhw-, kw-, ngw-, krw-, ngrw-). The coda may be any of /p t t͡ʃ k m n ɲ ɾ j/ (in analyses which do not recognize the existence of diphthongs, also /w/).
Stress In Mẽbêngôkre, the stress is fixed on the final underlying syllable. Epenthetic vowels (echo vowels) are absent from the phonological representation and are thus unstressed (as in /paɾ/ [ˈpaɾi] 'his/her foot'). In diphthongs, the leftmost element is stressed (as in /ŋiᵊ/ [ˈŋija] 'skunk'). The diminutive clitic is unstressed, as in [ˈŋoɾɛ] 'his/her louse'.
Morphology Finiteness morphology As in all other Northern Jê languages, Mẽbêngôkre verbs inflect for finiteness and thus have a basic opposition between a finite form and a nonfinite form. Finite forms are used in matrix clauses only, whereas nonfinite forms are used in all types of subordinate clauses as well as in some matrix clauses (with a particular aspectual interpretation). The morphology associated with the finite/nonfinite distinction includes suffixation and/or prefix substitution. Some verbs lack an overt finiteness distinction.
The following nonfinite suffixes occur in the language: -rV (the most common option, found in many transitive and intransitive verbs) and its allomorph -n (following front nasal vowels), -nh (found chiefly in transitive verbs), as well as -k, -m, and -x (found in a handful of intransitive verbs).
+ Nonfinite suffixes in Mẽbêngôkre finite nonfinite gloss suffix -rV to go () to weed to chase to exit to cry suffix to eat () to kill () suffix to walk to chew to break to dry in the sun to tear suffix to die to descend suffix to go () to drink to stand () suffix to enter ()
In a handful of verbs, all of which end in an underlying stop, the nonfinite form does not receive any overt suffixes, but it is nevertheless distinct from the finite form because the latter lenites the stem-final consonant (-t, -k → -rV, -rV).
+ Nonfinite suffixes in Mẽbêngôkre finite nonfinite gloss to burn to sleep to cough to belch to burn, to ignite to yawn
Erstwhile palatalizing prefix A small set of verbs form their nonfinite forms by employing one of the aforementioned processes and a morphophonological process whereby the onset of the stressed syllable changes to , or is deleted, whereas the nucleus of the stressed syllable is raised (if possible). This has been attributed to the influence of an underlying palatalizing nonfinite prefix in Proto-Northern Jê.
+ Erstwhile palatalizing prefix in Mẽbêngôkre finite nonfinite gloss to extract () to roast () ( ) ( ) to ignite to grind, to pound to break into pieces to push, to move away to sleep (Kayapó), (Xikrin) to give to cut off () to do so, to say so
Prefix substitution or loss In addition to the aforementioned processes, the finiteness inflection may involve prefix substitution or loss. For example, the valency-reducing prefixes are (anticausative) and (antipassive) in finite verb forms, but and , respectively, in the nonfinite forms. In addition, some verbs which denote physiological activities or movement have a prefix ( and , respectively) in their finite forms but not in the nonfinite form.
+ Finiteness and prefix alternationsin Mẽbêngôkre finite nonfinite gloss anticausatives to tear () to hide () to get lost antipassives to block to whistle to tell, to narrate physiological verbs to drink to urinate to defecate to fart movement verbs to hang () to enter () to enter ()
Person inflection and case In Mẽbêngôkre, postpositions, and relational nouns inflect for person of their internal argument by taking absolutive or accusative person prefixes. The accusative series is required by a subclass of transitive verbs (in finite clauses only) as well as by some postpositions; the absolutive series is the default one and is found with most transitive and all intransitive verbs in finite clauses, with all verbs in nonfinite clauses, with all relational nouns, and with some postpositions. External arguments of verbs are not indexed by person prefixes but are rather encoded by nominative (unmarked) noun phrases (including personal pronouns) in finite clauses, or by ergative phrases in nonfinite clauses. In nouns, nominative, absolutive and accusative are unmarked, whereas the ergative case is marked by the ergative postposition .
The person prefixes which index the internal argument of verbs, postpositions, and nouns are as follows.
Absolutive Accusative singular paucal plural singular paucal plural 1st person exclusive inclusive 2nd person 3rd person (+ elision of a stem-initial ) (+ elision of a stem-initial ) (+ elision of a stem-initial )
The nominative and ergative forms of the pronouns are as follows.
Nominative Ergative singular paucal plural singular paucal plural 1st person exclusive inclusive 2nd person 3rd person
The pronouns have also an emphatic form, which is used when a pronoun is focalized and can also be considered a grammatical case on its own.
Emphatic singular paucal plural 1st person exclusive inclusive 2nd person 3rd person
Nominative case The nominative case expresses the subject of a transitive or intransitive verb.
Ergative case