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Yatê or Iatê, the Fulni-ô language (Fulniô pronunciation:[ja:the]), is a language isolate of Brazil, and the only indigenous language remaining in the northeastern part of that country. The two dialects, Fulniô and Yatê, are very close. The Fulniô dialect is used primarily during a three-month religious retreat. Today, the language is spoken in Águas Belas, Pernambuco. As of 2020, there were 500 fluent speakers of Yatê out of 7,000 Fulni-ô.
The language is also called Carnijó, and alternate spellings are Fornió, Furniô,Yahthe, and Iatê.
Name
The name "Yatê" means 'our speech' in the language, from ja'our' and athe'speech'.
Classification
Kaufman (1990, 1994, 2007) classified Fulniô as one of the Macro-Jê languages. However, Eduardo Ribeiro of the University of Chicago, who is working on large-scale classification of Brazilian languages, finds no evidence to support this, and treats it as an isolate. Jolkesky (2016) again has it as Macro-Jê, but Nikulin (2020) again excludes it.
Phonology
Phonemes in (parentheses) are labeled as "problematic" by Costa (1999); sounds in [square brackets] are analyzed as allophones of other phonemes, but are also considered "problematic".:42
Consonants
Yatê contains the following consonant phonemes.:42
[p] and [pʰ] are found exclusively in loanwords or onomatopoeic words, but are phonemic according to Costa (1999), as exemplified by the following minimal pairs.:49–50
[puli]'poor' (< Portuguese pobre) vs. [fuli]'river'
[tupia]'Black person' (< Kariri[tapuinua]) vs. [tusia]'sour'
In certain positions, /w/ and /j/ have an allophone of [ʔ], which was analyzed as phonemic by Barbosa (1991) and implicitly by Lapenda (1968).:50
[feja] ~ [feʔa] ~ [feːa]'earth'
[fowa] ~ [foʔa] ~ [foːa]'stone'
When a suffix found in a bi-morphemic word does not begin with a vowel, [w] and [j] are maintained and are not realized as [ʔ].:50–51
[fejke]'on earth'
[fowde]'of the stone'
The realization of /w,j/ as [ʔ] seems to occur only when the preceding vowel is homorganic; otherwise, [w] and [j] are also maintained.:51
[faja]'bed' vs. [fajake]'on the bed'
[tawa]'stone used for body painting' vs. [tawate]'with stone used for body painting'
[ʔ] may also occur word-finally phonetically. Out of all consonants, only approximants may also occur in this position.:51
[lefetijaʔ]'ox'
[tʲ,dʲ] are not predictable in their phonetic occurrences but are analyzed as phonemic by Costa (1999). Their occurrence is optional, with the exception being in the forms [dʲoka] and [dʲaka].:51, 53
[tʲ] can be found word-initially where the vowel /i/ should exist, preceding a coronal, non-anterior or dorsal consonant.:51–53
[tʲtsalɛ]'my tongue' (underlying /iktsalɛ/):54
[dʲ], word-initially, occurs where the vowel /i/ should exist, prior to another vowel. Only two instances of this are attested; [dʲ] occurs always in these words.:52
[dʲoka]'I go' (underlying /i+o+ka/):54
[dʲaka]'I am' (underlyingly /i+a+ka/):54
No vowel other than /i/ can surface as [tʲ,dʲ], although the processes are only found in a few words. Due to their rarity, these processes are considered idiosyncratic by Costa (1999).:54
Word-medially, /t,d/ become [tʲ,dʲ] following /i/, in the same environment as /k/ realizing as [kʲ], though few instances of this are attested.:53
/etʃi+taka+ka/[etʃᵊtʲakᵊka]'he wants to come'
/e+tʃi+dode+ka/[etʃᵊdʲotkʲa]'he doesn't arrive'
[z] is found only in the interjective particle [zaawa]'happily'. It does not occur as an allophone of any other phoneme. Costa (1999) does not consider it a phoneme.:55
Affricates in Yatê are considered complex sounds by Costa (1999).:55
/h/ is articulated similarly to the h in English as in the words house and horse, due to influence from Portuguese. However, it acts phonologically identically as the other approximants, /j/ and /w/.:56
Long vowels are considered by Meland and Meland (1967) and Costa (1999) to be the result of deletion of /h/ and non-phonemic. However, the latter notes that they are not predictable synchronically.:57
Vocabulary
Nikulin (2020)
Some Yaathê words given by Nikulin (2020),:69–70 cited from Lapenda (1965, 2005 [1968]), Barbosa (1991), Costa (1999), F. Silva (2011a, 2011b), and Branner (1887).
↑Barbosa, E. A. Aspectos fonológicos da língua Yatê. 1991. 55 pp. Dissertação (Mestrado em Linguística) – Departamento de Lingüística, Línguas Clássicas e Vernácula, Instituto de Letras, Universidade de Brasília. 1991.
↑Silva, F. P. da. A sílaba em Yaathe. Dissertação (Mestrado em Linguística) – Faculdade de Letras, Universidade Federal de Alagoas, 2011a. 133 pp.
↑Branner, J. C. Os Carnijós de Aguas Bellas [Notas sobre uma língua indigena brasilieira]. Revista do Instituto Historico e Geographico Brasileiro, Rio de Janeiro, v. 94, n. 148, p. 359–365, 1929.
† indicates an extinct language, italics indicates independent status of a language, bold indicates that a language family has at least 6 members, * indicates moribund status
