Guarani language

Guarani
Guarani
avañe'ẽ
	Books in Guarani
Native to	Paraguay, Bolivia, Argentina and Brazil
Ethnicity	Guaraní
Native speakers	6.5 million (2020)
Language family	Tupian Tupi–Guarani Tupi–Guarani subgroup (I) Guarani; ; ;
Dialects	Paraguayan/Jopara; Correntine; Mbyá; Chiripá; Western Bolivian; Eastern Bolivian;
Writing system	Guarani alphabet (Latin script); Guarani Braille
Official status
Official language in	Paraguay; Bolivia; Argentina (Corrientes Province); Brazil (Tacuru);
Regulated by	Academia de la Lengua Guaraní (Guarani Ñe'ẽ Rerekuapavẽ)
Language codes
ISO 639-3	grn
Glottolog	tupi1277
Linguasphere	88-AAI-f
	Guarani-speaking areas
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A Guarani speaker

Guarani (avañe'ẽ) is a Tupian language belonging to the Tupi–Guarani branch of South America. It is one of the two official languages of Paraguay (along with Spanish), where it is spoken by the majority of the population, and where half of the rural population are monolingual speakers of the language.

Guarani is one of the most widely spoken Native American languages and remains commonly used among the Paraguayan people and neighboring communities. This is unique among American languages; language shift towards European colonial languages (in this case, the other official language of Spanish) has otherwise been a nearly universal phenomenon in the Western Hemisphere, but Paraguayans have maintained their traditional language while also adopting Spanish. In South America, the indigenous language that is most widely spoken amongst non-indigenous communities is Guaraní. South America is home to more than 280,000 Guaraní people, 51,000 of whom reside in Brazil. The Guaraní people inhabit regions in Brazil, Paraguay, Bolivia, as well as Argentina. There are more than four million speakers of Guaraní across these regions.

The name "Guarani" is generally used for the official language of Paraguay. However, this is part of a dialect chain, most of whose components are also often called Guarani.^{[citation needed]}

Geographical distribution

Variants of the language are spoken by communities in neighboring countries including parts of northeastern Argentina, southeastern Bolivia and southwestern Brazil. It is the second official language of the Argentine province of Corrientes since 2004 and the Brazilian city of Tacuru since 2010. Guarani is also one of the three official languages of Mercosur, alongside Spanish and Portuguese.

Status

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) classified Guaraní's language vitality as "vulnerable". UNESCO's definition of "vulnerable" is meant to highlight that although the majority of Guaraní children can speak Guaraní, the use of the language is restricted to particular contexts (e.g., familial settings). In 2002, 28% of Paraguayans were monolingual Guaraní speakers, but by 2022 only 12% were. On the other hand, Spanish monolingualism did not rise over the same period, indicating the continued vivacity of Guaraní in a multilingual population.

Although the Guaraní language may only be classified as "vulnerable," there are other languages within the Tupí-Guaraní branch that are classified as "extinct" and "critically endangered" (e.g., Amanayé and Anambé respectively).

Documentation

Because Guaraní was only written down after the arrival of Jesuit missionaries, earlier stages in the history of the language can only be reconstructed by comparison with other related languages.

Written records of the language begin with the work of the Jesuits Antonio Ruiz de Montoya and Alonso de Aragona. Ringmacher identifies Ruiz de Montoya's Arte de la lengua Guaraní (1640), a grammar of Guaraní, as the seminal point of reference and departure for all subsequent grammatical works concerning the Guaraní language. Montoya's analysis of the Guaraní morphology and syntax stands accurate until this day. Montoya also produced a Guaraní dictionary known as Tesoro de la Lengua Guaraní (1639). In this work, he not only created the first dictionary of this kind, but also provided examples of contexts in which to use the various words he documented. Lastly, Jesuit Alonso de Aragona produced a pedagogical grammar that was completed in 1629, but only printed in 1979. The intention of Aragona's work was to help those seeking ways to learn Guaraní.

The extensive research conducted as well as the expansive reach of the Guaraní language across Latin America has granted it an important position in the urban landscape. In other words, Guaraní's official status in Paraguay combined with research studies that have followed has allowed for recent projects of standardization.

History

While Guarani, in its Classical form, was the only language spoken in the expansive missionary territories, Paraguayan Guarani has its roots outside of the Jesuit Reductions.^{[citation needed]}

Modern scholarship has shown that Guarani was always the primary language of colonial Paraguay, both inside and outside the reductions. Following the expulsion of the Jesuits in the 18th century, the residents of the reductions gradually migrated north and west towards Asunción, a demographic shift that brought about a decidedly one-sided shift away from the Jesuit dialect that the missionaries had curated in the southern and eastern territories of the colony.

By and large, the Guarani of the Jesuits shied away from direct phonological loans from Spanish. Instead, the missionaries relied on the agglutinative nature of the language to formulate new precise translations or calque terms from Guarani morphemes. This process often led the Jesuits to employ complicated, highly synthetic terms to convey European concepts. By contrast, the Guarani spoken outside of the missions was characterized by a free, unregulated frequently, Spanish words and phrases were simply incorporated into Guarani with minimal phonological adaptation.^{[citation needed]}

A good example of that phenomenon is found in the word "communion". The Jesuits, using their agglutinative strategy, rendered this word "Tupârahava", a calque based on the word "Tupâ", meaning God. In modern Paraguayan Guarani, the same word is rendered "komuño".

Following the out-migration from the reductions, these two distinct dialects of Guarani came into extensive contact for the first time. The vast majority of speakers abandoned the less colloquial, highly regulated Jesuit variant in favor of the variety that evolved from actual use by speakers in Paraguay. This contemporary form of spoken Guarani is known as Jopará, meaning "mixture" in Guarani.^{[citation needed]}

Political status

Widely spoken, Paraguayan Guarani has nevertheless been repressed by Paraguayan governments throughout most of its history since independence. It was prohibited in state schools for over 100 years. However, populists often used pride in the language to excite nationalistic fervor and promote a narrative of social unity.^{[citation needed]}

During the autocratic regime of Alfredo Stroessner, his Colorado Party used the language to appeal to common Paraguayans although Stroessner himself never gave an address in Guarani. Upon the advent of Paraguayan democracy in 1992, Guarani was established in the new constitution as a language equal to Spanish.

Jopara, a mixture of Spanish and Guarani, is spoken by an estimated 90% of the population of Paraguay. Code-switching between the two languages takes place on a spectrum in which more Spanish is used for official and business-related matters, and more Guarani is used in art and in everyday life.

Guarani is also an official language of Bolivia and of Corrientes Province in Argentina.

Phonology

Guarani syllables consist of a consonant plus a vowel or a vowel alone; syllables ending in a consonant or containing two or more consonants together do not occur. This is represented as (C)V.

The consonant phonemes are represented below in the International Phonetic Alphabet. The orthography is given in angle brackets.

Consonants

Guarani consonants
		Labial	Alveolar	Palatal (-alveolar)	Velar		Glottal
		Labial	Alveolar	Palatal (-alveolar)	plain	lab.	Glottal
Nasal		ᵐb ~ m ⟨mb, m⟩	ⁿd ~ n ⟨nd, n⟩	ʝ ~ ɲ ⟨j, ñ⟩	ᵑɡ ~ ŋ ⟨ng, g̃⟩	ᵑɡʷ ~ ŋʷ ⟨ngu, g̃u⟩
Stop	voiced	ᵐb ~ m ⟨mb, m⟩	ⁿd ~ n ⟨nd, n⟩	ʝ ~ ɲ ⟨j, ñ⟩	ᵑɡ ~ ŋ ⟨ng, g̃⟩	ᵑɡʷ ~ ŋʷ ⟨ngu, g̃u⟩
Stop	voiceless	p ⟨p⟩	t ⟨t⟩		k ⟨k⟩	kʷ ⟨ku⟩	ʔ ⟨'⟩
Fricative			s ⟨s⟩	ʃ ⟨ch⟩	x ~ h ⟨h⟩
Approximant		ʋ ~ ʋ̃ ⟨v⟩	l ~ l̃ ⟨l⟩		ɰ ~ ɰ̃ ⟨g⟩	w ~ w̃ ⟨gu⟩
Flap			ɾ ~ ɾ̃ ⟨r⟩

The voiced consonants have oral allophones (left) before oral vowels, and nasal allophones (right) before nasal vowels. The oral allophones of the voiced stops are prenasalized.

Some linguists additionally include the phoneme /ⁿt/ (written ⟨nt⟩), though it is considered controversial as it appears exclusively in the suffix -nte. Nonetheless, it is typically included in the Guarani alphabet.

Oral /ʝ/ may be realized as [j], [ɟ], [ɟʝ], [dʒ], [ʒ], depending on the word and speaker, but the nasal allophone is always [ɲ].

The palato-alveolar sibilant /ʃ/ is often articulated closer to alveolo-palatal [ɕ].

The dorsal fricative is in free variation between [x] and [h].

The approximant /ɰ/ may be nasalized [ɰ̃] and partially labialized [ɰʷ], and may also be realized as a fricative [ɣʷ] or a fully labialized approximant [w].

From Spanish loanwords, what had originally been a typical alveolar trill /r/ (written ⟨rr⟩) became a retroflex sibilant /ʐ/. The alveolar lateral /l/ also entered Guarani phonology through Spanish loanwords, but is now a typical phoneme (unlike /ʐ/, which is considered marginal). The consonants /f/, /ð/, and /ʎ/ may also appear in loanwords.

All syllables are open, viz. CV or V, ending in a vowel.

Glottal stop

The glottal stop, called puso in Guarani, is only written between vowels, but occurs phonetically before vowel-initial words. Because of this, some words have several glottal stops near each other that consequently undergo a number of different dissimilation techniques. For example, "I drink water" 'a'y'u is pronounced hay'u. This suggests that irregularity in verb forms derives from regular sound change processes in the history of Guarani. There also seems to be some degree of variation between how much the glottal stop is dropped (for example aru'uka > aruuka > aruka for "I have something brought"). It is possible that word-internal glottal stops may have been retained from fossilized compounds where the second component was a vowel-initial (and therefore glottal stop–initial) root.

Vowels

/a, e, i, o, u/ correspond more or less to the Spanish equivalents, although sometimes the open-mid allophones [ɛ, ɔ] are used more frequently in Guarani. The grapheme ⟨y⟩ represents the vowel /ɨ/. Considering nasality, the vowel system is perfectly symmetrical, each oral vowel having a nasal counterpart (many systems with nasals have fewer nasals than orals).

Vowels
	Front		Central		Back
	oral	nasal	oral	nasal	oral	nasal
Close	i	ĩ	ɨ	ɨ̃	u	ũ
Mid	e	ẽ			o	õ
Open			a	ã

Nasal harmony

Guarani displays an unusual degree of nasal harmony. A nasal syllable consists of a nasal vowel, and if the consonant is voiced, it takes its nasal allophone. If a stressed syllable is nasal, the nasality spreads in both directions until it bumps up against a stressed syllable that is oral. This includes affixes, postpositions, and compounding. Voiceless consonants do not have nasal allophones, but they do not interrupt the spread of nasality.

For example,

/ⁿdo+ɾoi+ⁿduˈpã+i/ → [nõɾ̃õĩnũˈpãĩ]

/ro+ᵐbo+poˈrã/ → [ɾ̃õmõpõˈɾ̃ã]

However, a second stressed syllable, with an oral vowel, will not become nasalized:

/ʔijaˈkãɾaˈku/ → [ʔĩɲãˌkãɾ̃ãˈku]

/ʔaˈkãɾaˈwe/ → [ʔãˌkãɾ̃ãˈwe]

That is, for a word with a single stressed vowel, all voiced segments will be either oral or nasal, while voiceless consonants are unaffected, as in oral [ᵐboˈtɨ] vs nasal [mõˈtɨ̃].

Orthography

*Achegety*
Majuscule forms (also called uppercase or capital letters)
A	Ã	Ch	E	Ẽ	G	G̃	H	I	Ĩ	J	K	L	M	Mb	N	Nd	Ng	Nt	Ñ	O	Õ	P	R	Rr	S	T	U	Ũ	V	Y	Ỹ	'
Minuscule forms (also called lowercase or small letters)
a	ã	ch	e	ẽ	g	g̃	h	i	ĩ	j	k	l	m	mb	n	nd	ng	nt	ñ	o	õ	p	r	rr	s	t	u	ũ	v	y	ỹ	'
IPA phonemes
a	ã	ʃ~ɕ	e	ẽ	ɰ~ɣ	ŋ	h	i	ĩ	ʝ~dʒ	k	l	m	ᵐb	n	ⁿd	ᵑɡ	ⁿt	ɲ	o	õ	p	ɾ	ʐ	s	t	u	ũ	ʋ	ɨ	ɨ̃	ʔ

Sounds which only become nasalized due to nasal harmony are typically written as their phonemic values rather than their phonetic ones. For example, if a vowel is not 'canonically' nasal, but is under context of nasal harmony, it is still written without a diacritic.

Morphology

Guarani is highly agglutinative, often classified as polysynthetic with noun incorporation. It has split-S alignment, and it has been classified as a 6th class language in Milewski's typology. It uses subject–verb–object (SVO) word order usually, but object–verb when the subject is not specified.

Polysynthetic Guarani constructions often have analytic paraphrases in the modern language that keep the words separate and are more frequently used by speakers.

Examples
Polysynthetic	Analytic
ojurumboty /ʔojuɾuᵐboˈtɨ/ (IPA) o- 3.ACT- juru- mouth- mboty close o- juru- mboty 3.ACT- mouth- close 's/he closes/closed his/her mouth'	omboty ijuru /ʔoᵐboˈtɨ ʔijuˈɾu/ (IPA) o- 3.ACT- mboty close i- 3.INACT- juru mouth o- mboty i- juru 3.ACT- close 3.INACT- mouth 's/he closes/closed his/her mouth'

Verb

Guarani stems can be divided into a number of conjugation classes, which are called areal (with the subclass aireal) and chendal. The names for these classes stem from the names of the prefixes for 1st and 2nd person singular.

The areal conjugation is used to convey that the participant is actively involved, whereas the chendal conjugation is used to convey that the participant is the undergoer. However, the areal conjugation is also used if an intransitive verb expresses an event as opposed to a state, for example manó 'die', and even with a verb such as ké 'sleep'. In addition, all borrowed Spanish verbs are adopted as areal as opposed to borrowed adjectives, which take chendal. Intransitive verbs can take either conjugation, transitive verbs normally take areal, but can take chendal for habitual readings. Nouns can also be conjugated, but only as chendal. This conveys a predicative possessive reading.

Furthermore, the conjugations vary slightly according to the stem being oral or nasal.

pronoun	areal		aireal	chendal
	oral	nasal	aireal	chendal
	guata 'to walk'	ñe'ẽ 'to speak'	puru 'to use'	porã 'to be beautiful'
che	a-guata	a-ñe'ẽ	ai-puru	che-porã
ñande	ja-guata	ña-ñe'ẽ	jai-puru	ñane-porã
ore	ro-guata	ro-ñe'ẽ	roi-puru	ore-porã
nde	re-guata	re-ñe'ẽ	rei-puru	ne-porã
peẽ	pe-guata	pe-ñe'ẽ	pei-puru	pene-porã
ha'e(kuéra)	o-guata	o-ñe'ẽ	oi-puru	i-porã

Negation

Negation is indicated by a circumfix n(d)(V)-...-(r)i in Guarani. The preverbal portion of the circumfix is nd- for oral bases and n- for nasal bases. For 2nd person singular, an epenthetic -e- is inserted before the base, for 1st person plural inclusive, an epenthetic -a- is inserted.

The postverbal portion is -ri for bases ending in -i, and -i for all others. However, in spoken Guarani, the -ri portion of the circumfix is frequently omitted for bases ending in -i.

Oral verb	Nasal verb	With ending in "i"
japo 'do, make'	kororõ 'roar, snore'	jupi 'go up, rise'
nd-ajapó-i	n-akororõ-i	nd-ajupí-ri
nde-rejapó-i	ne-rekororõ-i	nde-rejupí-ri
nd-ojapó-i	n-okororõ-i	nd-ojupí-ri
nda-jajapó-i	na-ñakororõ-i	nda-jajupí-ri
nd-orojapó-i	n-orokororõ-i	nd-orojupí-ri
nda-pejapó-i	na-pekororõ-i	nda-pejupí-ri
nd-ojapó-i	n-okororõ-i	nd-ojupí-ri

The negation can be used in all tenses, but for future or irrealis reference, the normal tense marking is replaced by mo'ã, resulting in n(d)(V)-base-mo'ã-i as in Ndajapomo'ãi, "I won't do it".

There are also other negatives, such as: ani, ỹhỹ, nahániri, naumbre, na'anga.

Active and stative verbs

Guarani is an active-stative language. In other words, Guarani consists of active transitive verbs as well as both active and stative intransitive verbs. To indicate the subject, active verbs use prefixes. In stative verbs, with the exception of the third person case, the subjects are not marked by prefixes, but by subject pronouns that operate independently and not as suffixes. It is also worth noting that in Guarani, first person plural can be inclusive or exclusive.

Pronouns
	Active		Stative
	areal	aireal	chendal
1sg.	a-	ai-	che
2sg.	re-	rei-	nde
3sg.	o-	oi-	i-
1pl. incl.	ja/ña-	jai-	ñande
1pl. excl.	ro-	roi-	ore
2pl.	pe-	pei-	pende
3pl.	o-	oi-	i-

Examples
Active	Stative
kirirĩ oipytyvõ akãngeta /kiɾiˈɾĩ ʔoipɨtɨˈʋõ ʔaˈkãᵑɡeta/ (IPA) kirirĩ silence oi- 3.ACT- pytyvõ help akãngeta thinking kirirĩ oi- pytyvõ akãngeta silence 3.ACT- help thinking "silence helps thinking"	chembyaju kota'arõ /ʃeᵐbɨaˈju kotaʔaˈɾõ/ (IPA) che- 1.SG.INACT- mbyaju annoy ko- DEM- t- NC- a'arõ waiting che- mbyaju ko- t- a'arõ 1.SG.INACT- annoy DEM- NC- waiting 'this waiting is annoying me'
aha'arõta asaje peve /ʔahaʔaˈɾõta ʔasaˈje peˈʋe/ (IPA) a- 1.SG.ACT- ha'arõ wait -ta -INT asaje noon peve until a- ha'arõ -ta asaje peve 1.SG.ACT- wait -INT noon until 'I will wait until noon'	oreru ikirirĩ opyta /ʔoɾeˈɾu ʔikiɾiˈɾĩ ʔopɨˈta/ (IPA) ore- 1.PL.EXCL- r- REL- u father i- 3.INACT- kirirĩ silence o- 3.ACT- pyta remain ore- r- u i- kirirĩ o- pyta 1.PL.EXCL- REL- father 3.INACT- silence 3.ACT- remain 'our father kept silence/became silent'

Valency change

Valency increasing

In Guarani, valency increases occur by modifying the predicates in either valency 1 or valency 2 to the consecutive valency (i.e. valency 2 and 3 respectively for valency 1 and valency 2).

Causative voice

In Guarani, the causative voice is the only voice with the power to increase valency. For example, in the case of intransitive verbs, the causative voice can be observed by the prefix mbo/mo-.

Examples
ambojere ña'ẽmbe /ʔaᵐbojeˈɾe jaˈʔẽᵐbe/ (IPA) a- 1SG.ACT- mbo- CAUS- jere turn ña'ẽmbe dish a- mbo- jere ña'ẽmbe 1SG.ACT- CAUS- turn dish 'I turn the dish around'	amboguata kure /ʔaᵐbowaˈta kuˈɾe/ (IPA) a- 1SG.ACT- mbo- CAUS- guata walk kure pig a- mbo- guata kure 1SG.ACT- CAUS- walk pig 'I make the pig walk'

The prefixes of the causative voice have the flexibility of functioning as derivational morphemes.

Examples
mbokatupyry /ᵐbokatupɨˈɾɨ/ (IPA) mbo- CAUS- katupyry skilled mbo- katupyry CAUS- skilled 'to teach' or 'to train'	moaguĩ /ᵐboaˈwĩ/ (IPA) mo- CAUS- aguĩ close.by mo- aguĩ CAUS- close.by 'to bring closer'

In the case of transitive clauses, the causative morpheme uka is used.

Example 1
ndahechaukái ndeve cherãi /ⁿdaheʃauˈkai ⁿdeˈʋe ʃeˈɾãi/ (IPA) nd- NEG- a- 1SG.ACT- h- POSS.3- echa see -uka -TR.CAUS -i -NEG ndeve 2SG.DAT che- 1SG.INACT- r- POSS.1- ãi tooth nd- a- h- echa -uka -i ndeve che- r- ãi NEG- 1SG.ACT- POSS.3- see -TR.CAUS -NEG 2SG.DAT 1SG.INACT- POSS.1- tooth 'I didn't make you see my teeth' or 'I didn't smile at you'
Example 2
amopotĩukase ndeve cheróga /ʔaᵐbopoˈtĩukase ⁿdeˈʋe ʃeˈɾoɰa/ (IPA) a- 1SG.ACT- mo- CAUS- potĩ clean -uka -TR.CAUS -se -DES ndeve 2SG.DAT che- 1SG.INACT- r- POSS.1- óga house a- mo- potĩ -uka -se ndeve che- r- óga 1SG.ACT- CAUS- clean -TR.CAUS -DES 2SG.DAT 1SG.INACT- POSS.1- house "I want to make you clean my house"

Valency-decreasing voices

In contrast to valency-increasing mechanisms, valency-decreasing mechanisms modify predicates so as to transform valency 2 and 3 to lower valencies. There are three valency-decreasing voices, they are: middle, reciprocal, and antipassive.

Middle

The prefix je/ñe- is used in the middle voice. The middle voice is utilized in contexts expressing passive and reflexive scenarios.

Examples
Passive	Reflexive
ajejapi /ʔajejaˈpi/ (IPA) a- 1SG.ACT- je- MID- japi shoot a- je- japi 1SG.ACT- MID- shoot 'I am (being) shot'	ajekutu /ʔajekuˈtu/ (IPA) a- 1SG.ACT- je- MID- kutu nail a- je- kutu 1SG.ACT- MID- nail 'I put a nail in myself'
añenupã /ʔajeⁿduˈpã/ (IPA) a- 1SG.ACT- ñe- MID- nupã beat.up a- ñe- nupã 1SG.ACT- MID- beat.up 'I am (being) beaten'	añekytĩ /ʔajekɨˈtĩ/ (IPA) a- 1SG.ACT- ñe- MID- kytĩ cut a- ñe- kytĩ 1SG.ACT- MID- cut 'I cut myself'

Reciprocal

The prefix jo/ño- indicates that a reciprocal voice is being used. In reciprocal voice, the participants of the clause are both the agent and the patient of one another.

Examples
jajohayhu /jajohaɨˈhu/ (IPA) ja- 1PL.INCL.ACT- jo- RECP- hayhu love ja- jo- hayhu 1PL.INCL.ACT- RECP- love 'you and I love each other'	ñañonupã /jajoⁿduˈpã/ (IPA) ña- 1PL.INCL.ACT- ño- RECP- nupã beat.up ña- ño- nupã 1PL.INCL.ACT- RECP- beat.up 'you and I beat each other up'

Antipassive

The antipassive voice can be identified through the prefixes poro- and mba'e-. Poro- is used in association with human objects while mba'e- is used in contexts where inanimate as well as non-human subjects are present. In contrast to the passive middle voice, the antipassive voice detransivitizes the patient in the transitive clause as opposed to detransitivizing the agent.

Antipassive
Example 1
mbo'ehára oporombo'e /ᵐboʔeˈhaɾa ʔopoɾoᵐboˈʔe/ (IPA) mbo'e teach -hára -NMLZ.AG o- 3.ACT- poro- ANTIP- mbo'e teach mbo'e -hára o- poro- mbo'e teach -NMLZ.AG 3.ACT- ANTIP- teach 'the teacher teaches (people)'
Example 2
Juan oporojuka /huˈan ʔopoɾojuˈka/ (IPA) Juan Juan o- 3.ACT- poro- ANTIP- juka kill Juan o- poro- juka Juan 3.ACT- ANTIP- kill 'Juan kills' or 'Juan is a killer'
Example 3
amba'ejogua /ʔaᵐbaʔejoˈwa/ (IPA) a- 1SG.ACT- mba'e- ANTIP- jogua buy a- mba'e- jogua 1SG.ACT- ANTIP- buy 'I am shopping'

Distribution

Guarani temporal markers are only productive with indefinites, possessives, demonstratives, and qualification in nominal phrases. Depending on the clarification of the phrase they are in, they may or may not be applicable, as is represented in the chart below. Through analyzing this chart, one can see that -kue is not applicable to artifacts of a food or natural origin, and that -kue is also not applicable when combined with nouns that represent permanent relations.

Class	e.g.	-kue	-rã
Professions	priest	+	+
Non-food artifacts	chair	+	+
Food artifacts	milk	-	+
Natural kinds	forest	-	+
Temp. human relations	wife	!	!
Perm. human relations	daughter	-	!

! Only when the relationship is possessive.

Pronouns

There are six different types of pronouns in Guarani: (i) personal; (ii) demonstrative; (iii) indefinite; (iv) numeral; (v) negative, and (vi) interrogative.

Personal pronouns

First person plural pronouns in Guarani are distinguished by the clusivity of the subject being addressed; in other words, Guarani distinguishes between inclusive and exclusive pronouns of the first person plural.

		singular	plural
1st person	inclusive	che	ñande
1st person	exclusive	che	ore
2nd person		nde	peẽ
3rd person		ha'e	ha'ekuéra/hikuái

↑ hikuái is a post-verbal pronoun (ohecha hikuái 'they see')

Reflexive inflection

The reflexive inflection within Guarani holds a specific morpheme, that being je- (e.g. ahecha 'I look', ajehecha 'I look at myself') . It stems together with the morpheme for a subject in a sentence, and is the indicator of whether the subject is the individual undergoing an action, or is the actor themselves.

Reflexive inflection
Example 1
che aĩa peve chivi ovaẽ /ʃe ʔaˈĩa peˈʋe ʃiˈʋi ʔoʋaˈẽ/ (IPA) che 1SG a- 1SG- ĩ be -a -NMLZ peve until chivi puma o- 3.ACT- vaẽ arrive che a- ĩ -a peve chivi o- vaẽ 1SG 1SG- be -NMLZ until puma 3.ACT- arrive 'the puma came as far as where I was staying'
Example 2
nde rekea ja amba'eapo /ⁿde ɾekeˈa ja ʔaᵐbaʔeaˈpo/ (IPA) nde 2SG re- 2SG- ke sleep -a -NMLZ ja while a- 1SG- mba'eapo work nde re- ke -a ja a- mba'eapo 2SG 2SG- sleep -NMLZ while 1SG- work 'while you were sleeping, I was working'
Example 3
ipynandi ha'e ijao soro /ʔipɨnaˈⁿdi haˈʔe ʔijaˈo soˈɾo/ (IPA) i- 3.INACT- py foot -nandi -uncovered ha'e 3SG ij- 3.INACT- ao clothes soro broken i- py -nandi ha'e ij- ao soro 3.INACT- foot -uncovered 3SG 3.INACT- clothes broken 'he is barefoot and his clothes are ripped'
Example 4
ha'e orejuhu /haˈʔe ʔoɾejuˈhu/ (IPA) ha'e 3SG ore- 1.PL.EXCL.INACT- juhu meet(ing) ha'e ore- juhu 3SG 1.PL.EXCL.INACT- meet(ing) 'there was our meeting appointed to him/her' or 'he/she met us (but not you)'

Demonstrative pronouns

Demonstrative Pronouns
Attributives	Non-attributives
ko	kóva	near the speaker
pe	péva	near the addressee
upé	upéva	away from both speaker and addressee

In Guarani, demonstrative pronouns reflect the proximal-distal dimension of the contexts in which the pronouns are used.

Indefinite pronouns

Indefinite Pronouns
amu'e	another
maimãramo	everybody
maimãva	any(one)
opa	every(body)
tóda	every(body)

Indefinite pronouns are pronouns that are neither people nor place specific.

Numeral pronouns

Numeral Pronouns
peteĩ	one
peteĩva	the one
irundy	four
mokõi	two

Negative pronouns

Negative Pronouns
Person	avave	nobody
Non-person	ma'eve, moive	nothing

Negative pronouns in Guarani can be both person and non-person specific.

Interrogative pronouns

Interrogative Pronouns
Person	ava	who
Non-person	ma'e	what (things)

Guarani interrogative pronouns have the same person and non-person distinction as negative pronouns.

Tense, aspect and mood

Tense and aspect

In grammar, tense can be defined as a grammatical tool that is used to refer to the time frame in connection to the moment of speaking, with the purpose being to express a specific difference in time in connection to a topic or the speaker. Nominal tense can be defined as an action that is true to an individual in a particular point in time, e.g. "Yesterday, a student knitted" in which the morphological marker for past tense in English, -ed, is attached to the action made by the student individual.

-ramo: marks extreme proximity of the action, often translating to "just barely": Oguahẽramo, "He just barely arrived".^: 198
-kuri: marks proximity of the action. Ha'ukuri, "I just ate" (ha'u irregular first person singular form of u, "to eat"). It can also be used after a pronoun, as in ha che kuri, che po'a, "and about what happened to me, I was lucky".
-va'ekue: indicates a fact that occurred long ago and asserts that it's really true. Okañyva'ekue, "he/she went missing a long time ago".
-ra'e: tells that the speaker was doubtful before but he's sure at the moment he speaks. Nde rejoguara'e peteĩ ta'angambyry pyahu, "so then you bought a new television after all".
-raka'e: expresses the uncertainty of a perfect-aspect fact. Peẽ peikoraka'e Asunción-pe, "I think you lived in Asunción for a while". Nevertheless, nowadays this morpheme has lost some of its meaning, having a correspondence with ra'e and va'ekue.

The verb form without suffixes at all is a present somewhat aorist: Upe ára resẽ reho mombyry, "that day you got out and you went far".

-ta: is a future of immediate happening, it's also used as authoritarian imperative. Oujeýta ag̃aite, "he/she'll come back soon".
-ma: has the meaning of "already". Ajapóma, "I already did it".

These two suffixes can be added together: ahátama, "I'm already going".

-va'erã: indicates something not imminent or something that must be done for social or moral reasons, in this case corresponding to the German modal verb sollen. Péa ojejapova'erã, "that must be done".
-ne: indicates something that probably will happen or something the speaker imagines that is happening. It correlates in a certain way with the subjunctive of Spanish. Mitãnguéra ág̃a og̃uahéne hógape, "the children are probably coming home now".
-hína, -ína after nasal words: continual action at the moment of speaking, present and pluperfect continuous or emphatic. Rojatapyhína, "we're making fire"; che ha'ehína, "it's ME!".
-vo: it has a subtle difference with -hína in which -vo indicates not necessarily what's being done at the moment of speaking. amba'apóvo, "I'm working (not necessarily now)".
-pota: indicates proximity immediately before the start of the process. Ajukapota, "I'm near the point at which I will start to kill" or "I'm just about to kill". (A particular sandhi rule is applied here: if the verbs ends in -po, the suffix changes to -mbota; ajapombota, "I'll do it right now").
-pa: indicates emphatically that a process has all finished. Amboparapa pe ogyke, "I painted the wall completely".

This suffix can be joined with -ma, making up -páma: ñande jaikuaapáma nde remimo'ã, "now we came to know all your thought".

-mi: customary action in the past: Oumi, "He used to come a lot".

These are unstressed suffixes: -ta, -ma, -ne, -vo, -mi; so the stress goes upon the last syllable of the verb or the last stressed syllable.

To connect to tense that is past oriented, the morpheme suffix –kue is used. Translated roughly into English, -kue signifies the 'ex' of something, as can be seen in the example below, or as something that exists only in the former. In order to connect to future events, the morpheme suffix –rã is used. In English, – rã translates to meaning 'future', and it signifies the 'future' of something, as can be seen in the example below, or as something that only exists within the future.

Nouns

Guarani exhibits nominal tense: past, expressed with -kue, and future, expressed with -rã. For example, tetã ruvichakue translates to "ex-president" while tetã ruvicharã translates to "president-elect." The past morpheme -kue is often translated as "ex-", "former", "abandoned", "what was once", or "one-time". These morphemes can even be combined to express the idea of something that was going to be but did not end up happening. So for example, pa'irãgue is "a person who studied to be a priest but didn't actually finish", or rather, "the ex-future priest". Some nouns use -re instead of -kue and others use -guã instead of -rã.

Mood

-se: desiderative suffix: (Che) añemoaranduse, "I want to study".
te-: desiderative prefix: Ahasa, "I pass", Tahasa, "I would like to pass." te- is the underlying form. It is similar to the negative in that it has the same vowel alternations and deletions, depending on the person marker on the verb.^: 108

Desiderative inflection

The morpheme for desiderative inflection, 'ta-'. As in the other examples mentioned prior, this morpheme stems together with the subject in a sentence for indicating someone's wish, permission, command, etc.

Inflection

Inflection or inflectional affixes, are the changes in a word to mark differentiations in tense, person, mood, voice, case, and number of speakers. Inflectional affixes can be in turn divided into seven different components.

Reference-based inflection

Firstly, there are inflections of personal reference, which can connect to the speaker, addressee, or neither.

Secondly, there is subject reference, which is the inflection that relates to the subject of a conversation, which follow the same structures as personal reference.

Third, there is object reference, which is the inflection used when connecting a person to an object.

Reciprocal inflection

Reciprocal inflection holds the specific morpheme 'yo-', which similar to the morpheme for reflexive inflection combines with the subject of a sentence, specifically in third person or plural morphemes.

Commanding inflection

The commanding inflection represents itself in Guarani with the morpheme 'e-', which occurs with verbal stems for the purpose of indicating second person singular command.

Vocabulary

Spanish loans in Guarani

The close and prolonged contact Spanish and Guarani have experienced has resulted in many Guarani words of Spanish origin. Many of these loans were for things or concepts unknown to the New World prior to Spanish colonization. Examples are seen below:

Semantic category	Spanish		Guarani		English
Semantic category	Orthography	IPA	Orthography	IPA	English
animals	vaca	/baka/	vaka	/ʋaˈka/	cow
	caballo	/kabaʝo/	kavaju	/kaʋaˈᵈju/	horse
	cabra	/kabɾa/	kavara	/kaʋaˈɾa/	goat
religion	cruz	/kɾuθ/	kurusu	/kuɾuˈsu/	cross
	Jesucristo	/xesukɾisto/	Hesukrísto	/xesuˈkɾisto/	Jesus Christ
	Pablo	/pablo/	Pavlo	/paˈʋlo/	Paul (saint)
place names	Australia	/austɾalia/	Autaralia	/autaɾaliˈa/	Australia
	Islandia	/islandia/	Iylanda	/iɨlaˈⁿda/	Iceland
	Portugal	/poɾtugal/	Poytuga	/poɨtuˈɰa/	Portugal
foods	queso	/keso/	kesu	/keˈsu/	cheese
	azúcar	/aθukaɾ/	asuka	/asuˈka/	sugar
	morcilla	/moɾθiʝa/	mbusia	/ᵐbusiˈa/	blood sausage
herbs/spices	canela	/kanela/	kanéla	/kaˈnela/	cinnamon
	culantro	/kulantɾo/	kuratũ	/kũɾ̃ãˈtũ/	cilantro (US), coriander (UK)
	anís	/aˈnis/	ani	/aˈni/	anise

Guarani loans in English

Sample text

Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Guarani:

Mayma yvypóra ou ko yvy ári iñapyty'yre ha eteĩcha tekoruvicharenda ha akatúape jeguerekópe; ha ikatu rupi oikuaa añetéva ha añete'yva, iporãva ha ivaíva, tekotevẽ pehenguéicha oiko oñondivekuéra.

[maɨˈma ʔɨʋɨˈpoɾa ʔoˈu ko ʔɨˈʋɨ ˈʔaɾi ʔiɲapɨtɨʔɨˈɾe xa ʔẽtẽˈĩɕã tekoɾuʋiɕaɾeˈⁿda xa ʔakaˈtuape ᵈjeweɾeˈkope; xa ʔikaˈtu ɾuˈpi ʔoikuaˈa ʔaɲeˈteʋa xa ʔaɲeteʔɨˈʋa, ʔĩpõˈɾ̃ãʋã xa ʔiʋaˈiʋa tẽkõtẽˈʋẽ pexeˈᵑgʷeiɕa ʔoiˈko ʔoɲoⁿdiʋeˈkʷeɾa]

Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in English:

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

Literature

A more modern translation of the whole Bible into Guarani is known as Ñandejara Ñe'ẽ.

In 2019, Jehovah's Witnesses released the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures in Guarani, both in print and online.

Novels in Guarani have been published:

Kalaito Pombero (Tadeo Zarratea, 1981)
Pore'ỹ rape (Hugo Centurión, 2016)
Tatukua (Arnaldo Casco Villalba, 2017)