Fulniô language
Encyclopedia
Fulniô, or Yatê, is a language isolate
Language isolate
A language isolate, in the absolute sense, is a natural language with no demonstrable genealogical relationship with other languages; that is, one that has not been demonstrated to descend from an ancestor common with any other language. They are in effect language families consisting of a single...

 of Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...

, 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.

The language is also called Carnijó, and alternate spellings are Fornió, Furniô, Yahthe, and Iatê.

Classification

Kaufman (1990) classified Fulniô as one of the Macro-Gê languages
Macro-Gê languages
Macro-Jê is a medium-sized language stock in South America centered around the Jê language family, with all other branches currently being single languages due to recent extinctions. The family was first proposed in 1926, and has undergone moderate modifications since then...

. However, Eduardo Ribeiro of the University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...

, who is working on large-scale classification of Brazilian languages, finds no evidence to support this, and treats it as an isolate.

Phonology

Fulniô has the following consonants:
/p pʰ d t tʰ k kʰ/. /pʰ/ is rare.
/ts tsʰ dʒ tʃ tʃʰ/
/f z s ʃ h/
/m n/
/l j w/

A glottal stop [ʔ] occurs, but is considered epenthetic.

Vowels are:
/i ɪ æ a ɔ o u/

There are few contrasts between /o/ and /u/, suggesting /u/ is a recent addition, perhaps from Portuguese.

All seven have nasalized
Nasal vowel
A nasal vowel is a vowel that is produced with a lowering of the velum so that air escapes both through nose as well as the mouth. By contrast, oral vowels are ordinary vowels without this nasalisation...

 and glottalized
Glottalization
Glottalization is the complete or partial closure of the glottis during the articulation of another sound. Glottalization of vowels and other sonorants is most often realized as creaky voice...

allophones, depending on adjacent consonants. Vowels occur long and short. However, long vowels result from assimilation of /h/, are pronounced [Vh] in one dialect, and so are analyzed as /Vh/ sequences.

Tones are high and low. Contour tones occur allophonically adjacent to voiced consonants. Final syllables tend to lack a tone contrast, and final vowels may be devoiced or dropped.

There are no vowel sequences; vowels either coalesce or are separated by a glottal stop. Consonant clusters are limited to two consonants, apart from a possible additional /j w/, with the maximum syllable being CCCVC; reduced vowels between consonants are analyzed as /j w/ by Meland & Meland: /tfàltʰùlkja/ 'crossing over', /kwlèlja/ 'rotten'.
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