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. [4] The Enxet language was first documented in the late nineteenth 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]

Further reading

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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 3 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.