The typologically rare approximant inventory of Kajkwakhrattxi: A series of natural sound changes

Teela Huff,Myriam Lapierre

doi:10.3765/plsa.v6i1.5024

Abstract

Kajkwakhrattxi, a Northern Jê language spoken by fewer than 30 elders in Mato Grosso, Brazil, exhibits a typologically rare sound inventory, especially with respect to its series of approximants: /w, w̃, ʍ, ɽ, ɽ̃, j/, realized as a total of 17 different surface allophones: [w, w̃͡w, w̃, ʍ, ɥ, ɥ̃͡ɥ, ɥ̃, ɥ̊, ɾ, ɾ̃, ɽ, ɽ̃, ɻ, ɻ̃, ɻ̊, j, j̃]. We propose a novel reconstruction of Proto-Northern-Jê that accounts for this unusually dense inventory of approximants, namely as the result of a series of natural sound changes involving processes of lenition and assimilation. Our analysis makes use of novel fieldwork data on three underdocumented and endangered languages of the family: Kajkwakhrattxi, Panãra, and Kayapô. As a result, our reconstruction is based on a more phonetically detailed and internally coherent data set than was available to previous comparative work on Jê languages. Our results provide evidence for the possible breadth of diversity in the phonological systems of natural languages, both synchronically and diachronically, and advances our knowledge of the sound changes that occurred from Proto-Northern-Jê to its daughter languages.

Highlights

The current language endangerment situation is a direct consequence of violent contact between local Brazilian farmers and Kajkwakhrattxi, which occurred in the 1950s and 60s
The Panãra data was collected with Sôpôa Panãra in the village of Nãnsêpotiti in 2018 (Lapierre et al 2020); the Kajkwakhrattxi data was collected with Nokêrê Tapayuna and Jérémie Beauchamp in the village of Kamwêrêtxiko in 2018 (Beauchamp et al 2020); and the Kayapô data was collected with Kunityk Mẽtyktire-Panãra and João Paulo Denófrio in the village of Nãnsêpotiti in 2019
We propose a series of sound changes from PNJ to account for Kajkwakhrattxi’s unusual approximant inventory

Summary

Introduction

Located inside the CapotoJarina Indigenous Land, Kamwêrêtxikô is the only ethnically Kajkwakhrattxi village (population ≃ 150), and most Kajkwakhrattxi are not native speakers of the language. Kajkwakhrattxi survivors of the attack were forced off of their land and relocated to a Kĩsêdjê community in 1970 (de Aquino 1970). Kĩsêdjê is a very closely related Jê group both in cultural and linguistic terms, the two groups identify as distinct nations. In 1988, a conflict between the two groups forced the Kajkwakhrattxi to seek refuge among the Kayapô, a more distantly related Jê group. This new coresidence lasted until 2009, when the village of Kamwêrêtxikô was founded (Lima 2019)

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Conclusion