Guarani language
Spoken in
- Tupi languages Tupi- Guarani languages
Gn
Grn
Grn
Guaraní [ gwaɾani ] (own name: avañe'ẽ ) is a language that is spoken in Paraguay, in the northeastern Argentina, parts of Bolivia and in the southwestern Brazil. Guaraní language family belongs to the Tupi- Guarani languages.
There are about 4 to 5 million Guaraní - speakers. Maximum estimates of up to 7 million, whereby persons are counted, those who have few Guaraní - knowledge, which often occur at about urban dwellers in Paraguay.
In the German language there are some words that correspond to the current word in Guarani or are very similar. These words came via the Spanish and Portuguese into German, and either come from Guaraní dialects that were spoken in Paraguay, Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, or the closely related Tupi language, for example: Capybara, Jaguar, Jaguarundi, Tapir, pineapple, cassava, maracas, passion fruit, Nandu and Piranha.
History
Guaraní was already used in the Spanish colonial period for the purpose of Christian mission as a written language. The Jesuit State in the Spanish colonial period, which essentially comprised a part of the present-day eastern Paraguay and the Argentine Province of Misiones today, favored the Guaraní language, as the Jesuits, the immigration of white settlers restricted strong and the Guaraní used as the exclusive language. In the secular Province of Paraguay to Asunción, however, the Guaraní indeed remained the dominant vernacular of the population - as the number of settlers of Spanish origin was relatively low, and these mingled with the locals - official language was there but only the Spanish, which is spoken Guaraní in many ways influenced. With the end of the Jesuit reductions in 1767 the Guaraní also lost its special status there.
Even in independent Paraguay remained the sole official language of Spanish. The Guaraní was indeed regarded as an important cultural feature of the Paraguayan nation, but its use was restricted to the colloquial use, and on literature mainly folkloric character.
More recently, the Guaraní in Paraguay began to also use in education and as an official language and to unify the different spelling systems in use to a largely phonetic orthography.
Dialects
By far the most common variety of the Guaraní is the Paraguayan Guaraní [ gug ], which emerged from the language of at least partially Hispanic acculturated residents of both the Paraguay colonial secular province and the Jesuit state and consequently shows a variety of Spanish influences. It has (according to SIL) 4.6 million culturally mestizo spokesperson. The Paraguayan Guaraní was formerly spoken in the Argentine provinces of Misiones and Corrientes and adjacent areas of Brazil, there have now largely supplanted among the native population by the Spanish and Portuguese, however. As a result of immigration from Paraguay but there are also today in Argentina and Brazil a greater number of speakers of the Paraguayan Guaraní.
Regardless of the Paraguayan Guaraní is spoken by indigenous groups that add up to the people of a number of varieties of Guaraní Guaraní, the rather strongly differentiated from each other and today usually have only a relatively small number of speakers:
- Chiriguano / Guarayo - Guaraní [ gui ] ( 50,000 people, including 34,000 in Bolivia and the rest in Argentina and Paraguay)
- Mbyá - Guaraní [ gun ] (16,000 speakers, of which 8,000 in Paraguay, the rest in Brazil and Argentina)
- Simba - Guaraní [ GNW ] ( in Bolivia, 7,000 speakers according to SIL)
In a broader sense variants of the Guaraní are also:
- Aché or Guayaqui [ GUQ ] ( 1500 in Paraguay)
- CHIRIPA or Ñandeva [ ndh ] ( 7,000 in Paraguay, 5,000 in Brazil)
- Kaiwa [ kgk ] (15,000 in Brazil)
- Xeta [ xet ] ( in Brazil, almost extinct)
While there is an increasing assimilation of Guaraní speakers of these varieties to the Spanish and Portuguese in Bolivia, Argentina and Brazil, found in Paraguay primarily an assimilation to the Paraguayan Guaraní instead.
Guaraní in Paraguay
Together with Spanish Guaraní is the official language in Paraguay. However, the constitution of 1992, was established with the Guaraní as an additional official language, is one of the few official texts that have been translated into Guarani.
Officially Paraguay is considered bilingual. The reality is more complicated. Almost no one speaks one of the languages in their pure form. Higher educated, urban, Euro -centric layers speak Spanish rioplatensisches with admixed Guarani phrases, while less educated, rural, peasant layers a Guaraní speaking with strong interests in Spanish vocabulary, which is known as Jopara [ dʒopaɾa ]. The education takes place in Spanish, but Guarani is taught as an additional subject.
According to the 1992 census, the following languages are spoken in Paraguay:
- Guaraní: 1.6 million ( 39.3 %)
- Guaraní and Spanish: 2 million ( 48.9 %)
- Spanish: 260,000 (6.4%)
It should however be noted that the competencies in both languages usually are not equal. Many people consider themselves bilingual, even though they have mastered only one of the languages.
The increased use of the Guaraní also in education and as an official language was worn rudimentary account of the fact that over 80% of the Paraguayan population is guaranísprachig and a considerable part has only a rudimentary knowledge of Spanish.
Phonetics and phonology
Vowels
The y is a vowel between [i ] and [u ], which it also in Polish, Russian ( ы ) and Turkish (there: i without a dot ) are. In addition, there are all 6 vowels even nasal variants ( a, e, i, o, u, y ), the nasal vowels are distinctive only in the stressed syllable, the vowels are nasal pretonic due to the Nasalassimilation before following nasal vowels or nasal consonants, in other cases nichtnasal pronounced.
Consonants
See also: Guaraní alphabet
Accent and Eclipse
The emphasis is usually on the last syllable of the stem, the suffixed grammatical morphemes are unstressed ( enclitic ).
A special feature is a specific type of Anlautmutation, the eclipse: Many words beginning with / t / start, change this initial sound when they depend on other words or assembled with them:
There are some nouns which in its basic form is not / t / have, but still have this change.
I This is the so-called form between including. That is, that the mentioned person is included. ( I du / her or my your / your )
But there are also some irregular nouns two forms, for example,
- Tuva - "father" / che ru - " my father "
Grammar
In Guaraní nouns and verbs are not as sharp a distinction as in German.
The Guaraní is a highly agglutinative or polysynthetic language, that is, many affixes it used to be.
There is no generation in this language.
The personal pronoun distinction in the first person plural ( "we") between inclusive ( Nande) and exclusive ( ore ), depending on whether the person addressed is involved or not.
Pay
In Guaraní, there were originally only basic words for the numbers one to five:
The used for the number five word actually means "hand." From six to nine are the numbers from the word for hand and the numbers one to four contracted ( poteĩ, Pokoi, pohapy, porundy ). Further figures are similarly formed, so kua ( " finger ") stands for ten, fifteen and kuãpo for mokõikuã for twenty. Numerals for small numbers are still often used for large numbers Spanish number words are usually used.
However, following art numbers are used on Paraguayan coins and bills. pa stands for ten, sã for a hundred and a thousand su. Accordingly, means twenty mokõipa, five hundred and ten thousand pa po sã su
Toponyms and other names
In Argentina, Bolivia, Uruguay, Paraguay and Brazil, there are many names for things and toponyms that originate from the Guarani or Tupi language closely related. These are written according to the country after the Spanish or Portuguese orthography.