Guarani language
Template:Short description Template:About Template:Distinguish Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox language
Paraguayan Guarani (Avañe'ẽ)Template:Efn is a South American language that belongs to the Tupi–Guarani branch<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> of the Tupian language family. It is one of the two official languages of Paraguay (along with Spanish), where it is spoken by the majority of the population, and where half of the rural population are monolingual speakers of the language.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name="SimonRomero">Template:Cite news</ref>
Variants of the language are spoken by communities in neighboring countries including parts of northeastern Argentina, southeastern Bolivia and southwestern Brazil. It is a second official language of the Argentine province of Corrientes since 2004<ref name="Ley5598">Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and in the Brazilian city of Tacuru since 2010.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Guarani is also one of the three official languages of Mercosur, alongside Spanish and Portuguese.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Guarani is one of the most widely spoken Native American languages and remains commonly used among the Paraguayan people and neighboring communities. This is unique among American languages; language shift towards European colonial languages (in this case, the other official language of Spanish) has otherwise been a nearly universal phenomenon in the Western Hemisphere, but Paraguayans have maintained their traditional language while also adopting Spanish.
The name "Guarani" is generally used for the official language of Paraguay. However, this is part of a dialect chain, most of whose components are also often called Guarani.
History
[edit]While Guarani, in its Classical form, was the only language spoken in the expansive missionary territories, Paraguayan Guarani has its roots outside of the Jesuit Reductions.Template:Citation needed
Modern scholarship has shown that Guarani was always the primary language of colonial Paraguay, both inside and outside the reductions. Following the expulsion of the Jesuits in the 18th century, the residents of the reductions gradually migrated north and west towards Asunción, a demographic shift that brought about a decidedly one-sided shift away from the Jesuit dialect that the missionaries had curated in the southern and eastern territories of the colony.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
By and large, the Guarani of the Jesuits shied away from direct phonological loans from Spanish. Instead, the missionaries relied on the agglutinative nature of the language to formulate new precise translations or calque terms from Guarani morphemes. This process often led the Jesuits to employ complicated, highly synthetic terms to convey European concepts.<ref>Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref> By contrast, the Guarani spoken outside of the missions was characterized by a free, unregulated flow of Hispanicisms; frequently, Spanish words and phrases were simply incorporated into Guarani with minimal phonological adaptation.Template:Citation needed
A good example of that phenomenon is found in the word "communion". The Jesuits, using their agglutinative strategy, rendered this word "Template:Lang", a calque based on the word "Template:Lang", meaning God.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> In modern Paraguayan Guarani, the same word is rendered "Template:Lang".<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Following the out-migration from the reductions, these two distinct dialects of Guarani came into extensive contact for the first time. The vast majority of speakers abandoned the less colloquial, highly regulated Jesuit variant in favor of the variety that evolved from actual use by speakers in Paraguay.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> This contemporary form of spoken Guarani is known as Jopará, meaning "mixture" in Guarani.Template:Citation needed
Political status
[edit]
Template:See also Widely spoken, Paraguayan Guarani has nevertheless been repressed by Paraguayan governments throughout most of its history since independence. It was prohibited in state schools for over 100 years. However, populists often used pride in the language to excite nationalistic fervor and promote a narrative of social unity.Template:Citation needed
During the autocratic regime of Alfredo Stroessner, his Colorado Party used the language to appeal to common Paraguayans although Stroessner himself never gave an address in Guarani.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Upon the advent of Paraguayan democracy in 1992, Guarani was established in the new constitution as a language equal to Spanish.<ref name="SimonRomero"/>
Jopará, the mixture of Spanish and Guarani, is spoken by an estimated 90% of the population of Paraguay. Code-switching between the two languages takes place on a spectrum in which more Spanish is used for official and business-related matters, and more Guarani is used in art and in everyday life.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Guarani is also an official language of Bolivia and of Corrientes Province in Argentina.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Writing system
[edit]Phonology
[edit]Guarani syllables consist of a consonant plus a vowel or a vowel alone; syllables ending in a consonant or two or more consonants together do not occur. This is represented as (C)V.
In the below table, the IPA value is shown. The orthography is shown in angle brackets below, if different.
Consonants
[edit]The voiced consonants have oral allophones (left) before oral vowels, and nasal allophones (right) before nasal vowels. The oral allophones of the voiced stops are prenasalized.
There is also a sequence Template:IPA (written Template:Angbr). A trill Template:IPA (written Template:Angbr), and the consonants Template:IPA, Template:IPA, and Template:IPA (written Template:Angbr) are not native to Guarani, but come from Spanish.
Oral Template:IPA is often pronounced Template:IPAblink, Template:IPAblink, Template:IPAblink, Template:IPAblink, depending on the dialect, but the nasal allophone is always Template:IPAblink.
The dorsal fricative is in free variation between Template:IPAblink and Template:IPAblink.
Template:Angbr, Template:Angbr are approximants, not fricatives, but are sometimes transcribed Template:IPAblink, Template:IPAblink, as is conventional for Spanish. Template:Angbr is also transcribed Template:IPA, which is essentially identical to Template:IPAblink.
All syllables are open, viz. CV or V, ending in a vowel.
Glottal stop
[edit]The glottal stop, called Template:Lang in Guarani, is only written between vowels, but occurs phonetically before vowel-initial words. Because of this, some words have several glottal stops near each other that consequently undergo a number of different dissimilation techniques. For example, "I drink water" Template:Lang is pronounced Template:Lang. This suggests that irregularity in verb forms derives from regular sound change processes in the history of Guarani. There also seems to be some degree of variation between how much the glottal stop is dropped (for example Template:Lang for "I bring"). It is possible that word-internal glottal stops may have been retained from fossilized compounds where the second component was a vowel-initial (and therefore glottal stop–initial) root.<ref name=Ayala>Template:Cite book</ref>
Vowels
[edit]Template:IPA correspond more or less to the Spanish and IPA equivalents, although sometimes the open-mid allophones Template:IPAblink, Template:IPAblink are used more frequently. The grapheme Template:Angbr represents the vowel Template:IPAslink (as in Polish). Considering nasality, the vowel system is perfectly symmetrical, each oral vowel having its nasal counterpart (most systems with nasals have fewer nasals than orals).
Nasal harmony
[edit]Guarani displays an unusual degree of nasal harmony. A nasal syllable consists of a nasal vowel, and if the consonant is voiced, it takes its nasal allophone. If a stressed syllable is nasal, the nasality spreads in both directions until it bumps up against a stressed syllable that is oral. This includes affixes, postpositions, and compounding. Voiceless consonants do not have nasal allophones, but they do not interrupt the spread of nasality.
For example,
However, a second stressed syllable, with an oral vowel, will not become nasalized:
- Template:IPA → Template:IPA
- Template:IPA → Template:IPA<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
That is, for a word with a single stressed vowel, all voiced segments will be either oral or nasal, while voiceless consonants are unaffected, as in oral Template:IPA vs nasal Template:IPA.
Grammar
[edit]Guarani is a highly agglutinative language, often classified as polysynthetic. It is a fluid-S type active language, and it has been classified as a 6th class language in Milewski's typology. It uses subject–verb–object (SVO) word order usually, but object–verb when the subject is not specified.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
Nouns
[edit]Guarani exhibits nominal tense: past, expressed with Template:Lang, and future, expressed with Template:Lang. For example, Template:Lang translates to "ex-president" while Template:Lang translates to "president-elect." The past morpheme Template:Lang is often translated as "ex-", "former", "abandoned", "what was once", or "one-time". These morphemes can even be combined to express the idea of something that was going to be but did not end up happening. So for example, Template:Lang is "a person who studied to be a priest but didn't actually finish", or rather, "the ex-future priest". Some nouns use Template:Lang instead of Template:Lang and others use Template:Lang instead of Template:Lang.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Pronouns
[edit]Guarani distinguishes between inclusive and exclusive pronouns of the first person plural.
| singular | plural | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st person | inclusive | Template:Lang | Template:Lang |
| exclusive | Template:Lang | ||
| 2nd person | Template:Lang | Template:Lang | |
| 3rd person | Template:Lang | Template:ItcoTemplate:Efn-lr | |
Reflexive pronoun: Template:Lang: Template:Lang ("I look"), Template:Lang ("I look at myself")
Conjugation
[edit]Guarani stems can be divided into a number of conjugation classes, which are called Template:Lang (with the subclass Template:Lang) and Template:Lang. The names for these classes stem from the names of the prefixes for 1st and 2nd person singular.
The Template:Lang conjugation is used to convey that the participant is actively involved, whereas the Template:Lang conjugation is used to convey that the participant is the undergoer. However, the Template:Lang conjugation is also used if an intransitive verb expresses an event as opposed to a state, for example Template:Lang 'die', and even with a verb such as Template:Lang 'sleep'. In addition, all borrowed Spanish verbs are adopted as Template:Lang as opposed to borrowed adjectives, which take Template:Lang.<ref>Template:Cite thesis</ref> Intransitive verbs can take either conjugation, transitive verbs normally take Template:Lang, but can take Template:Lang for habitual readings. Nouns can also be conjugated, but only as Template:Lang. This conveys a predicative possessive reading.<ref name=Nordhoff2004>Template:Cite journal</ref>
Furthermore, the conjugations vary slightly according to the stem being oral or nasal.
Negation
[edit]Negation is indicated by a circumfix Template:Lang in Guarani. The preverbal portion of the circumfix is Template:Lang for oral bases and Template:Lang for nasal bases. For 2nd person singular, an epenthetic Template:Lang is inserted before the base, for 1st person plural inclusive, an epenthetic Template:Lang is inserted.
The postverbal portion is Template:Lang for bases ending in Template:Lang, and Template:Lang for all others. However, in spoken Guarani, the Template:Lang portion of the circumfix is frequently omitted for bases ending in Template:Lang.
The negation can be used in all tenses, but for future or irrealis reference, the normal tense marking is replaced by Template:Lang, resulting in Template:Lang-base-Template:Lang as in Template:Lang, "I won't do it".
There are also other negatives, such as: Template:Lang, Template:Lang, Template:Lang, Template:Lang, Template:Lang.
Tense and aspect morphemes
[edit]- Template:Lang: marks extreme proximity of the action, often translating to "just barely": Template:Lang, "He just barely arrived".<ref name="Graham, 1969">Template:Cite book</ref>Template:Rp
- Template:Lang: marks proximity of the action. Template:Lang, "I just ate" (Template:Lang irregular first person singular form of Template:Lang, "to eat"). It can also be used after a pronoun, as in Template:Lang, "and about what happened to me, I was lucky".
- Template:Lang: indicates a fact that occurred long ago and asserts that it's really truth. Template:Lang, "he/she went missing a long time ago".
- Template:Lang: tells that the speaker was doubtful before but he's sure at the moment he speaks. Template:Lang, "so then you bought a new television after all".
- Template:Lang: expresses the uncertainty of a perfect-aspect fact. Template:Lang, "I think you lived in Asunción for a while". Nevertheless, nowadays this morpheme has lost some of its meaning, having a correspondence with Template:Lang and Template:Lang.
The verb form without suffixes at all is a present somewhat aorist: Template:Lang, "that day you got out and you went far".
- Template:Lang: is a future of immediate happening, it's also used as authoritarian imperative. Template:Lang, "he/she'll come back soon".
- Template:Lang: has the meaning of "already". Template:Lang, "I already did it".
These two suffixes can be added together: Template:Lang, "I'm already going".
- Template:Lang: indicates something not imminent or something that must be done for social or moral reasons, in this case corresponding to the German modal verb Template:Lang. Template:Lang, "that must be done".
- Template:Lang: indicates something that probably will happen or something the speaker imagines that is happening. It correlates in a certain way with the subjunctive of Spanish. Template:Lang, "the children are probably coming home now".
- Template:Lang, Template:Lang after nasal words: continual action at the moment of speaking, present and pluperfect continuous or emphatic. Template:Lang, "we're making fire"; Template:Lang, "it's ME!".
- Template:Lang: it has a subtle difference with Template:Lang in which Template:Lang indicates not necessarily what's being done at the moment of speaking. Template:Lang, "I'm working (not necessarily now)".
- Template:Lang: indicates proximity immediately before the start of the process. Template:Lang, "I'm near the point at which I will start to kill" or "I'm just about to kill". (A particular sandhi rule is applied here: if the verbs ends in Template:Lang, the suffix changes to Template:Lang; Template:Lang, "I'll do it right now").
- Template:Lang: indicates emphatically that a process has all finished. Template:Lang, "I painted the wall completely".
This suffix can be joined with Template:Lang, making up Template:Lang: Template:Lang, "now we came to know all your thought".
- Template:Lang: customary action in the past: Template:Lang, "He used to come a lot".
These are unstressed suffixes: Template:Lang; so the stress goes upon the last syllable of the verb or the last stressed syllable.
Other verbal morphemes
[edit]- Template:Lang: desiderative suffix: Template:Lang, "I want to study".<ref name="Blair 1">Template:Cite book</ref>
- Template:Lang: desiderative prefix: Template:Lang, "I pass", Template:Lang, "I would like to pass." Template:Lang is the underlying form. It is similar to the negative in that it has the same vowel alternations and deletions, depending on the person marker on the verb.<ref name="Graham, 1969" />Template:Rp
Spanish loans in Guarani
[edit]The close and prolonged contact Spanish and Guarani have experienced has resulted in many Guarani words of Spanish origin. Many of these loans were for things or concepts unknown to the New World prior to Spanish colonization. Examples are seen below:<ref>Pinta, J. (2013). "Lexical strata in loanword phonology: Spanish loans in Guarani". Master's thesis, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. (See also Lexical stratum.)</ref>
Guarani loans in English
[edit]English has adopted a small number of words from Guarani (or perhaps the related Tupi) via Portuguese, mostly the names of animals or plants. "Jaguar" comes from Template:Lang and "piraña" comes from Template:Lang ("tooth fish" Tupi: Template:Lang 'fish', Template:Lang 'tooth'). Other words are: "agouti" from Template:Lang (which means "individual that eats standing up"),<ref>Teodoro Sampaio, O tupi na geografia nacional, p. 228</ref><ref>Infopédia</ref> "tapir" from Template:Lang, "coati" from kuatĩ (which means "what is scratched, or gashed; what has stripes across the body"),<ref>Teodoro Sampaio, O tupi na geografia nacional, p. 308</ref> "açaí" from Template:Lang ("[fruit that] cries or expels water"), "warrah" from Template:Lang meaning "fox", and "margay" from Template:Lang meaning "small cat". Jacaranda (y-acã-ratã, "that which has a firm core or heartwood"<ref>Teodoro Sampaio, O tupi na geografia nacional, p. 263</ref> or "hard-headed"),<ref>Infopédia</ref> guarana and manioc are words of Guarani or Tupi–Guarani origin.<ref>Template:Cite conference</ref> Ipecacuanha (the name of a medicinal drug) comes from a homonymous Tupi–Guarani name that can be rendered as Template:Lang, meaning a creeping plant that makes one vomit.<ref>Template:Cite OED</ref> "Cougar" is borrowed from Guarani guazu ara.<ref>Oxford English Dictionary, Cougar.</ref>
The name of Paraguay is itself a Guarani word, as is the name of Uruguay.<ref>Template:Cite journal, p.2.</ref> However, the exact meaning of either placename is subject to varied interpretations.<ref>Template:Cite journal. pp=2-3.</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal, p.147.</ref> (See: List of country-name etymologies.)
Example text
[edit]Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Guarani:
- Template:Lang<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
- Template:IPA
Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in English:
- All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Literature
[edit]A more modern translation of the whole Bible into Guarani is known as Template:Lang.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
In 2019, Jehovah's Witnesses released the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures in Guarani,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> both in print and online.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Recently a series of novels in Guarani have been published:
- Template:Lang (Tadeo Zarratea, 1981)
- Template:Lang (Hugo Centurión, 2016)
- Template:Lang (Arnaldo Casco Villalba, 2017)
Institutions
[edit]See also
[edit]- Guarani languages
- Nheengatu language
- Jopará
- Jesuit Reductions
- Mbyá Guaraní language
- Old Tupi
- Guarani Wikipedia
- WikiProject Guaraní Template:In lang
Notes
[edit]Bibliography
[edit]Sources
[edit]Further reading
[edit]External links
[edit]Template:InterWiki Template:Commons category
- Guarani at Wikibooks Template:In lang
- Guarani Portal from the University of Mainz:
- www.guaranirenda.com – Website about the Guarani language
- Guarani and the Importance of Maintaining Indigenous Culture Through Language Template:Webarchive
- Lenguas de Bolivia Template:Webarchive (online edition)
- Duolingo course in Guarani
Resources
[edit]- A Grammar of Paraguayan Guarani – by Bruno Estigarribia, UCL Press (open access, Creative Commons license)
- Guarani Swadesh vocabulary list (from Wiktionary)
- Guarani–English Dictionary: from *Webster's Online Dictionary – The Rosetta Edition
- www.guarani.de – Online dictionary in Spanish, German and Guarani
- Guarani Possessive Constructions: – by Maura Velázquez
- Stative Verbs and Possession in Guarani: – University of Cologne – by Sebastian Nordhoff
- Frases celebres del Latin traducidas al guarani Template:In lang
- Spanish – Estructura Basica del Guarani and others
- Etymological and Ethnographic Dictionary for Bolivian Guarani
- Guaraní (Intercontinental Dictionary Series)
Template:Languages of Argentina Template:Languages of Bolivia Template:Languages of Brazil Template:Languages of Paraguay Template:Tupian languages Template:Authority control