Abstract
The Kaingang language family comprises two closely related languages, Xokleng and Kaingang, spoken in south-eastern Brazil, on the Atlantic, and the Austronesian family includes a large number of languages, covering a vast area in the Pacific. Our previous investigations reveal significant similarities between the Kaingang and Austronesian language families in both grammar and lexicon, suggesting the existence of phylogenetic affiliation between these language families. This unexpected hypothesis, having important implications for linguistics and other related disciplines, however, requires further severe tests for its corroboration. In this paper, I present an in-depth analysis of the parallels in the kinship terminologies of these two families. It is shown that Kaingang and Austronesian kin terms resemble substantially both in their forms and in their structural meanings (= kin term patterns) and this result provides strong support for the hypothesis. The occurrence of putative kin term cognates between Kaingang and Proto-Oceanic, such that do not have antecedents in the earlier Proto-Malayo- Polynesian or Proto-Austronesian stages of Austronesian, suggests an Oceanic origin of Kaingang.
Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
