The Kamayurá language belongs to the Tupi–Guarani family , and is spoken by the Kamayurá people

Kamayurá people

The Kamayurá are an indigenous tribe in the Amazonian Basin of Brazil. The name is also spelled Kamayura, and Kamaiurá in Portuguese; it means "a raised platform to keep meat, pots and pans." The Kamayurá language belongs to the Tupi–Guarani family...

 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...

 – who numbered about 290 individuals as of the year 2004.

Vowels

	Front Front vowel A front vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a front vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far in front as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Front vowels are sometimes also...	Central Central vowel A central vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a central vowel is that the tongue is positioned halfway between a front vowel and a back vowel...		Back Back vowel A back vowel is a type of vowel sound used in spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a back vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far back as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Back vowels are sometimes also called dark...
High	i	ɨ		u
Mid Mid vowel A mid vowel is a vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a mid vowel is that the tongue is positioned mid-way between an open vowel and a close vowel...	e		o
Low	a

Consonants

Bilabial Bilabial consonant In phonetics, a bilabial consonant is a consonant articulated with both lips. The bilabial consonants identified by the International Phonetic Alphabet are:...	Alveolar Alveolar consonant Alveolar consonants are articulated with the tongue against or close to the superior alveolar ridge, which is called that because it contains the alveoli of the superior teeth...	Palatal Palatal consonant Palatal consonants are consonants articulated with the body of the tongue raised against the hard palate...	Velar Velar consonant Velars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue against the soft palate, the back part of the roof of the mouth, known also as the velum)....		Glottal Glottal consonant Glottal consonants, also called laryngeal consonants, are consonants articulated with the glottis. Many phoneticians consider them, or at least the so-called fricative, to be transitional states of the glottis without a point of articulation as other consonants have; in fact, some do not consider...
			Unrounded	Rounded	Unrounded	Rounded
Stop Stop consonant In phonetics, a plosive, also known as an occlusive or an oral stop, is a stop consonant in which the vocal tract is blocked so that all airflow ceases. The occlusion may be done with the tongue , lips , and &...	p	t		k	kʷ	ʔ
Affricate		ts
Nasal Nasal consonant A nasal consonant is a type of consonant produced with a lowered velum in the mouth, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. Examples of nasal consonants in English are and , in words such as nose and mouth.- Definition :...	m	n		ŋ
Approximant			j		w	h	hʷ
Flap Flap consonant In phonetics, a flap or tap is a type of consonantal sound, which is produced with a single contraction of the muscles so that one articulator is thrown against another.-Contrast with stops and trills:...		ɾ

The "glottal approximants" /h/ and /hʷ/ assume the quality of the following vowel.

Sample text

The following sample is taken from L. Seki (2000), p. 438. It is a small excerpt of a folk take about hero Arawitará, who is summoned by his deceased friend to help the soul

Soul

A soul in certain spiritual, philosophical, and psychological traditions is the incorporeal essence of a person or living thing or object. Many philosophical and spiritual systems teach that humans have souls, and others teach that all living things and even inanimate objects have souls. The...

s of the dead in their eternal war against the bird

Bird

Birds are feathered, winged, bipedal, endothermic , egg-laying, vertebrate animals. Around 10,000 living species and 188 families makes them the most speciose class of tetrapod vertebrates. They inhabit ecosystems across the globe, from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Extant birds range in size from...

s. Here Arawitará has returned to the world of the living, and his describing his journey to the friend's old mother.

1. jererahame rake ko‘yt a‘ɳa rupi rak orohome ko‘yt
2. jene peuan ikatu a‘ia ko‘ypy
3. jawa‘ipaip ehe‘aɳ jajuw a‘e
4. te a‘ia‘iw a‘iwĩ jene retama ko‘ypy
5. jakatupe tete ne jene retama jaetsa ko‘ypy
6. nite ne jawa‘iawa ko‘ypy
7. kopiaip ehe‘aɳ jaju kwãj‘awan
8. petsakame te jene retama ko‘ywa
9. ipeiripyrera witene
10. ipeiripyrera wite a‘ia‘iwine jeneretama ko‘ypy
11. ojewunewunawa a‘iweru je wi kwãj
12. okoj opiretepewewara ruri we

1. "He [the deceased friend] took me [Araw.]. We went this way.
2. Our straight path(*) is very beautiful
3. Here we live among ugly weeds
4. Ah, how beautiful is our [otherwordly] village!
5. I saw the [otherwordly] village very clean(%),
6. There is not even a single weed there!
7. Here we live as in the path to the orchards($), folks!
8. You should see our [otherwordly] village!
9. It is like one which has been swept
10. it is like one which has been swept a lot, our village
11. The poor [souls] spat on the ground for my being there(#)
12. 'Here comes someone who is still in his original skin.'"

Notes: "The straight path" (peu-) is the path followed by the souls of the deceased to reach the other world. Kamayurá villages consist of a ring of houses surrounding a flat central plaza of packed dirt, which is kept clean and swept frequently. The village of the departed souls is impeccable in this regard. The Kamayurá orchards are located at some distance from the village, and the path to them usually goes through the tropical the jungle. The souls spat on the ground because the nauseating smell of the hero's living flesh made them sick.

Books

• Lucy Seki
  Lucy Seki
  Lucy Seki is a Brazilian linguist specializing in indigenous languages of the Americas. She is the author of a highly-regarded grammar of the Kamayurá language.-Biography:...
  
  , Gramática do Kamaiurá, Língua Tupi–Guarani do Alto Xingu. 482 pages + 17 color photo album Editora UNICAMP and São Paulo State Official Press (2000, in Portuguese). ISBN 85-268-0498-7. This is a detailed, comprehensive, and readable description of the Kamayurá grammar, including a lexicon with ~1200 entries.

Papers

• Lucy Seki
  Lucy Seki
  Lucy Seki is a Brazilian linguist specializing in indigenous languages of the Americas. She is the author of a highly-regarded grammar of the Kamayurá language.-Biography:...
  
  , Kamaiurá (Tupi–Guarani) as an active–stative language. In D. L. Payne (ed.), Amazonian linguistics: Studies in Lowland South American languages, University of Texas Press (1990).

External links

• Ethnologue report for language code:kay