Enxet language

Last updated
Enxet
Southern Lengua
Énxet nempeywa
Pronunciation[eːnɬet]
Native to Paraguay
Region Presidente Hayes
Ethnicity5,840 Enxet Sur people (2002 census) [1]
Native speakers
3,800 (2002 census) [2]
Mascoian
  • Enxet
Language codes
ISO 639-3 enx
Glottolog sout2989
ELP Enxet Sur

Enxet, also known as Enxet Sur or SouthernLengua, is a language spoken by the Indigenous southern Enxet people of Presidente Hayes Department, Paraguay. It is one of twenty languages spoken by the wider Gran Chaco Amerindians of South America. [3] Once considered a dialect of a broader language, known as Vowak or Powok, Enxet (Southern Lengua) and Enlhet (Northern Lengua) diverged as extensive differences between the two were realized. [4]

Contents

Classification

Enxet belongs to the Enlhet-Enenlhet (aka Mascoian) language family, a small family of languages spoken in the Paraguayan region of the South American Gran Chaco. [4] Enxet is most closely related to its sister language Enlhet, based on some preliminary analysis, but a substantial historical analysis of the Enlhet-Enenlhet family has not yet been published.

History

Enxet and Enlhet were once considered dialects of a single language known as Lengua[ dubious ]. The Enxet language was first documented in the late 19th century by explorers from Spain. [5]

Language contents and structure

Enxet contains only three phonemic vowel qualities /e,a,o/, each requiring a certain length such to maximize distinction. Bilingual speakers of Spanish and Enxet purportedly utilize shorter spacing between vowels when speaking Enxet compared to Spanish. [6]

Phonology

Vowels

Front Central Back
Mid e o
Open a
PhonemeAllophone
/e/[e], [i], [ɛ]
/o/[o], [ʊ], [ɔ]

Consonants

Labial Alveolar Palatal Velar Uvular Glottal
Plosive p t k q ʔ
Affricate
Fricative s h
Nasal m n ɲ ŋ
Lateral approximant l
fricative ɬ
Semivowel j w

/cʲ/ can also be heard as a regular palatal stop [c] or a palatalized velar stop [kʲ] in free variation. [7]

Contemporary issues

The region occupied by the Enxet people is the subject of an ongoing legal dispute with the state of Paraguay.

The Enxet language and people are of interest to Anglican missionaries.

Further reading

Related Research Articles

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References

  1. ISO change request
  2. Enxet at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022) Closed Access logo transparent.svg
  3. Brenzinger, M. (2008). Language Diversity Endangered (1st ed.). Walter De Gruyter..
  4. 1 2 Campbell, Lyle; Grondona, Verónica, eds. (2012). The Indigenous Languages of South America: A Comprehensive Guide. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.
  5. Quevedo, Samuel A. Lufone (1893). "Languages of the Gran Chaco". Science. 21 (524): 95. doi:10.1126/science.ns-21.524.95-b. JSTOR   1765332. PMID   17736781.
  6. Elliott, John (2016). "For bilinguals, Enxet vowel spaces smaller than Spanish". The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America. 140 (4): 3107. Bibcode:2016ASAJ..140Q3107E. doi:10.1121/1.4969702.
  7. Elliott, John A. (2021). A Grammar of Enxet Sur. University of Hawai'i at Mānoa.