Xukuru (Xucuru, Shukurú, Ichikile, Xukurú: Brobo) is a poorly attested extinct language of Brazil, once spoken by the Xukuru people. It is known only from a few word lists. Xukuru was originally spoken in the Serra de São José and on the Meio River, Capibaribe River and Taperoa River in the states of Pernambuco and Paraíba. The Xukuru live in the Serra Ararobá and Pesqueira (formerly containing the aldeia of Cimbres). In Rio Grande do Norte, the Tapuia Tarairiú people are reviving the Xukuru language, as are the Xukuru themselves.
History
William D. Hohenthal, Jr. (1954) estimates the last generation of Xukuru speakers to have been born in the 1860s to the 1870s. However, by the time of Curt Nimuendajú's visit to the Xukuru in 1934, encountering about 50 of them, he could only collect 137 words from four old individuals, and the language had gone extinct by then. His manuscript was lost after his death, and only a short excerpt of it survived. Following him was Cicero Cavalcanti, an employee of the Indian Protection Service (SPI), who, in 1944, visited the Xukuru, recording a total of 2,191 descendants, but only 385 "pure" Xukuru. He collected a "lengthy" vocabulary, as well as some sentences strung together by the Xukuru which contained no grammatical information. Later, in 1951, Hohenthal visited the Xukuru and conducted an ethnographic study of them, also collecting a vocabulary. None of the Xukuru could construct any grammatical structures in their original language, instead constructing sentences in Portuguese, but replacing the vocabulary with Xukuru. Geraldo Lapenda (1962) subsequently conducted a short sketch of Xukuru. Today, the Xukuru have attempted to reintroduce what remains of their language into their community and daily life. An illustrated dictionary in Xukuru has been produced.
Classification
Loukotka (1968) considers Xukurú to form a small family with Paratió and the unattested Garanhun (Garañun). Glottolog, following Fabre (2005), treats Xukuru and Paratió as dialects.
Geographical distribution
Geraldo Lapenda (1962) reported that the Xukuru people can be found primarily in the settlements of Canabrava and Brejinho in the aldeia of Cimbres, Pesqueira municipality. They can also be found in the settlements of Cajueiro, Ipanema Velho, Caldeirão, Jitó, Lagoa, Machado, Sitio do Meio, Riacho dos Afetos, Trincheiras, Bem-te-vi, Santana, and São José. Although the Xukuru traditionally occupied the Serra do Ororobá, they could also be found in other municipalities of Pernambuco, namely Caruaru, Brejo da Madre de Deus, Belo Jardim, Sanharó, Poção, Pesqueira, and Arcoverde.
Xukuru also has nasalized vowels. Lapenda (1962) transcribes nasalized vowels as ⟨Vn⟩ (orthographic vowel followed by ⟨n⟩). Descending diphthongs are attested, but only for oral vowels.
Morphology
Common suffixes in Xukuru include -go, which forms verbs, adjectives, and nouns, and -men, of uncertain meaning. The negative adverb biá was also recorded, and may have formerly been a suffix.
nõyẽ
speak
biá
not
nõyẽ biá
speak not
'don't speak'
The Portuguese preposition em was also adapted into Xukuru as ĩ (which Lapenda transcribed as in).
ĩ
in
bemẽ
the morning
ĩ bemẽ
in {the morning}
'in the morning'
Vocabulary
Due to the paucity of data on Xukuru, Hohenthal supposed that some of the vocabulary collected could be of the Paratió language instead. Some of the data had been mixed with other languages spoken in the region, such as Kariri, Pankararú, Iatê and the língua geral.
Loukotka (1949)
The following Xukurú words are from Loukotka (1949), republishing the list obtained from Curt Nimuendajú collected in 1934. The list was obtained by Loukotka in 1940.
French gloss (original)
English gloss (translated)
Shukurú
chien
dog
žebrégo
dent
tooth
čilodé
eau
water
téu
femme
woman
moéla
feu
fire
intóa
hache
axe
tilóa
homme
man
šenũprĕ
jaguar
jaguar
lamprémp
langue
tongue
ĩš-arágŏ
main
hand
koreké
maïs
maize
šígŭ
maison
house
šek
manioc
cassava
šakurarágŭ
manger
eat
kreṅgô
oreille
har
bandalák
pied
foot
poyá
pierre
stone
kéiba
pot
pot
koréka
serpent
snake
saṅsála
tabac
tobacco
mãžé
tête
head
kreká
Meader (1978)
Xukuru is also known from a word list obtained in 1961 by Paul Wagner from Antônio Caetano do Nascimento, the chief of Brazinho village in the Serra Urubu of Pesqueira, Pernambuco State. The list is reproduced below, with English translations also given.
12345678Lapenda, Geraldo Calábria (1962). "O dialecto Xucuru"(PDF). Doxa (Revista Oficial do Departamento de Cultura do Diretório Acadêmico da Faculdade de Filosofia de Pernambuco da Universidade do Recife). X (10): 11–23.
† 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
