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Chamacoco
Chamacoco
Ishír
Native to	Paraguay
Region	Alto Paraguay
Ethnicity	Chamacoco
Native speakers	2,000 (2015)
Language family	Zamucoan Chamacoco;
Language codes
ISO 639-3	ceg
Glottolog	cham1315
ELP	Chamacoco

A speaker of Chamacoco, also known as Ishír/Yshyr.

Chamacoco is a Zamucoan language spoken in Paraguay by the Chamacoco people. It is also known as Xamicoco or Xamacoco, although the tribe itself prefers the name Ishír (which is also spelled Ɨshɨr, Ishiro, Yshyr) and sometimes Jewyo.^[2] When the term Ishiro (or yshyro or ɨshɨro) is used to refer to the language, it is an abbreviation for Ishir(o) ahwoso, literally meaning 'the words, the language of the Chamacoco people'.^[3] It is spoken by a traditionally hunter-gatherer society that now practices agriculture. Its speakers are of all ages, and generally speak Spanish or Guarani as second and third languages.^[4]

Classification

Chamacoco is classified as a Zamucoan language, along with Ayoreo. Both languages are considered endangered.^[5] There is relatively little information about the Zamucoan family.

Chamacoco speakers live in the northeastern part of the Chaco Boreal at the origin of the Río Verde in Paraguay.^[4] Four dialects of Chamacoco have been identified: Héiwo, in the Fuerte Olimpo area; Ebidóso and Hório, spoken in the Bahía Negra region; and Tomaráho, in the Alto Paraná Atlantic forests.^[2]

The speakers of Hório and Ebidóso were estimated to be 800 in 1970. Fewer than 200 people spoke Tomaráho then. Back in 1930, over 2000 people were estimated to speak Chamacoco.^[2]

Verb inflection is based on personal prefixes and the language is tenseless.^[6] For example, chɨpɨrme teu dosh means "the kingfisher eats fish", while chɨpɨra teu wichɨ dosht means "the kingfisher will eat fish." Nouns can be divided into possessable and non-possessable. Possessable nouns are characterized by a prefixation whereby the noun agrees with the possessor or genitival modifier.^[7] There is no difference between nouns and adjectives in suffixation.^[8] The syntax is characterized by the presence of para-hypotactical structures.^[9] The comparison of inflectional morphology has shown remarkable similarities with Ayoreo and Ancient Zamuco.^[10]

An Ɨshɨr (Chamacoco) Living Dictionary is currently^{[as of?]} under construction,^[11] spearheaded by Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages. This project is being curated in close collaboration with Ɨshɨr language activists such as Andres Ozuna Ortiz.

Phonology

Vowels

Vowels^[12]
	Front	Central	Back
Close	i	ɨ	u
Near-close	ɪ
Mid	e	ə	ɔ
Open	a		ɑ

All vowels except for /ɑ, ə/ have nasalized forms.^[12]

Consonants

Consonants^[12]
		Bilabial	Alveolar	Post-alveolar	Velar	Glottal
Stop/Affricate	voiceless	p	t	t͡ʃ	k	ʔ
Stop/Affricate	voiced	b	d	d͡ʒ	g
Fricative	voiceless		s	ʃ		h
Fricative	voiced		z	ʒ	ɣ
Nasal		m	n
Approximant	plain		ɹ		w
Approximant	lateral		l
Trill			r

Sample words and phrases

matah debich (IPA: a debitʃ) – finger
aap (IPA: ap) – fox/lion cub
tɨkɨn chɨp owa (IPA: tɪgɪ ʃebɔa) – thank you very much
ich amatak (IPA: ɪdʒ amaɹtɔk) – he eats a lot
ye takmape (IPA: je taɣmabe) – he does not eat a lot
tɨkɨya oyetɨke (IPA: tɪkija ɔɪhetɪgɪ) – I bought a dog for you
yok (IPA: jɔk) – I
ich takaha (IPA: i taɣaha) – I go

References

^ Chamacoco language at Ethnologue (21st ed., 2018)
^ ^a ^b ^c "Chamacoco: Orientation". Every Culture. 2008. Retrieved 29 March 2009.
^ Ciucci, Luca (2011). "L'amico di D'Annunzio e la tribù perduta: in Sudamerica alla ricerca dei confini di Babele" (PDF). Normale. Bollettino dell'associazione Normalisti. XIV (1–2): 23–28. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 December 2013. Retrieved 21 July 2013.
^ ^a ^b Chamacoco language at Ethnologue (15th ed., 2005)
^ "Zamucoan family". Sorosoro. Archived from the original on 4 January 2011.
^ Ciucci, Luca (2009). "Elementi di morfologia verbale del chamacoco". Quaderni del Laboratorio di Linguistica della Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa (in Italian). 8. Archived from the original on 3 December 2013.
^ Ciucci, Luca (2010). "La flessione possessiva del chamacoco". Quaderni del Laboratorio di Linguistica della Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa (in Italian). 9 (2). Archived from the original on 15 November 2016.
^ Ciucci, Luca (2013). "Chamacoco lexicographical supplement". Quaderni del Laboratorio di Linguistica della Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa. 12. Archived from the original on 3 December 2013.
^ Bertinetto, Pier Marco; Ciucci, Luca (2012). "Parataxis, Hypotaxis and Para-Hypotaxis in the Zamucoan Languages". Linguistic Discovery. 10 (1): 89–111. doi:10.1349/PS1.1537-0852.A.404.
^ Ciucci, Luca (2013). Inflectional morphology in the Zamucoan languages (PhD thesis). Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa.
^ "Ɨshɨr (Chamacoco)". livingdictionaries.app.
^ ^a ^b ^c Huntington, Charlie (2012). "About the Chamacoco Dictionary". Chamacoco Talking Dictionary. Retrieved 5 April 2012.{{cite encyclopedia}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link), cited in "Chamacoco". SAPhon – South American Phonological Inventories. Retrieved 20 July 2018.