Kỳikatêjê[2] or Kyikatêjê[3][1]: 10 is a dialect of Pará Gavião, a Jê language of Brazil. It spoken by the Kỳikatêjê people in Terra Indígena Mãe Maria (Bom Jesus do Tocantins, Pará). Almost all speakers are over 40 years old; the younger generations have shifted to Portuguese.[2] Kỳikatêjê is closely related to the Parkatêjê dialect, spoken by another Timbira group in the same reservation.
Phonology
Consonants
The consonantal inventory of Kỳikatêjê is as follows.[3]: 62
| labial | alveolar | palatal | velar | glottal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| plosive | p | t | tʃ | k | |
| fricative | h | ||||
| nasals | m | n | |||
| oral sonorants | w | ɾ | j |
The stops /p k t/ are sometimes phonetically aspirated in coda: /pɨtit/ [pɨˈtitʰ] ‘one’. The approximant /j/ surfaces as [ʒ] preceding one of /ɨ̃ ĩ/, as in /mpɔ-jĩ/ [mpɔˈʒĩ] ‘meat’, /pa mũ jɨ̃/ [pamũˈʒɨ̃] ‘I sat down’. /n/ is optionally assimilated to [ŋ] before /k/, as in [ĩnkɾiˈɾɛ] ~ [ĩŋkɾiˈɾɛ] ‘small’. The voiced labial fricative and the glottal stop [ʔ] have been attested in one word each, [kuβeneˈɾɛ] ‘bird’ and [aʔə̃ˈɾɛ] ‘hen’.
Available complex onsets include /pɾ kɾ mp/ (and possibly others). The maximum syllable in Kỳikatêjê is /CCVC/.
Vowels
The vowel inventory of Kỳikatêjê is as follows.[3]: 62
| Oral | Nasal | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| i | ɨ | u | ĩ | ɨ̃ | ũ | |
| e | ə | o | ẽ | ə̃ | õ | |
| ɛ | ɜ | ɔ | ||||
| a | ||||||
References
- ^ a b Nikulin, Andrey (2020). Proto-Macro-Jê: um estudo reconstrutivo (PDF) (Ph.D. dissertation). Brasília: Universidade de Brasília.
- ^ a b Barboza, Tereza; Costa, Lucivaldo; Sompré, Concita (2016). "Situação sociolinguística dos Gavião Kyikatejê". Domínios de Lingu@gem. 10 (4): 1238–1256. doi:10.14393/DL27-v10n4a2016-3.
- ^ a b c Silva, Marília de Nazaré Ferreira (2014). "Descrição fonético-fonológica do Kyikatêjê". Letras de Hoje. 49 (1): 56. doi:10.15448/1984-7726.2014.1.14864.