Proto-Jabutí: a first attempt to reconstruct the ancestral language of the Arikapú and the Djeoromitxí

• Main Author: Hein van der Voort
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi 2007-08-01
• Series: Boletim do Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi. Ciências Humanas
• Subjects: Indigenous languages; Jabutí family; Historical reconstruction; Phonology; Morphosyntax; Macro-Jê stock
• Online Access: http://www.museu-goeldi.br/editora/bh/artigos/chv2n2_2007/Proto(voort).pdf

The Arikapú and Djeoromitxí languages form a small linguistic family in southern Rondônia, known as Jabutí. The languages are highly endangered and high quality data have become available only recently. This article is intended to create a basis of evidence for Curt Nimuendajú’s hypothesis that the Jabutí language family belongs to the Macro-Jê linguistic stock. After short descriptive sketches of both Jabutí languages and the historical and sociocultural background, the article focusses on the reconstruction of the ancestral language, Proto-Jabutí, following the principles of the historical-comparative method.