Maká language

Maká
Maká
Pronunciation	maˈka
Native to	Paraguay
Region	Presidente Hayes Department, Asunción
Native speakers	1,500 (2000)[1]
Language family	Matacoan Maká
Language codes
ISO 639-3	mca
Glottolog	maca1260
ELP	Maká
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

Maká is a Matacoan language spoken in Paraguay by the Maká people. Its 1,500 speakers live primarily in Presidente Hayes Department near the Río Negro, as well as in and around Asunción.

Phonology[]

Consonants

		Labial	Dental	Alveolar	Palatal/Velar	Uvular	Glottal
Nasal		m	n
Plosive	plain	p	t	ts	k	q	ʔ
	ejective	pʼ	tʼ	tsʼ	kʼ	qʼ
Fricative		f	ɬ	s	x	χ	h
Approximant		w	l		j

Velar consonants alternate with palatal consonants before /e/ and sometimes before /a/. Examples include /keɬejkup/ ~ [ceɬejkup] "autumn" and /exeʔ/ ~ [eçeʔ] "stork". The palatal approximant /j/ alternates with the palatal fricative /ç/ before /i/, as in /inanjiʔ/ ~ [inançiʔ].^[2]

Vowels

	Front	Back
High	i	u
Mid	e	o
Low	a

Syllables in Maká may be of types V, VC, CV, CCV, and CCVC. When a consonant cluster appears at the beginning of a syllable, the second consonant must be /x/, /h/, /w/, or /j/.

Morphology[]

Nouns[]

Gender[]

Maká has two genders—masculine and feminine. The demonstratives reflect the gender of a noun (Gerzenstein 1995:153:

Masculine nouns		Feminine nouns
na’	sehe’	ne'	naxkax
dem:masc	land	dem:fem	tree
‘this land’		'this tree'
na'	nunax	ne'	nunax
dem:masc	dog	dem:fem	dog
‘this (male) dog'		‘this (female) dog'

In the plural the gender distinction is neutralized, and the plural demonstrative is the same as the feminine singular:

ne’ sehe-l these land-pl ‘these lands’

ne’ naxkak-wi these tree-pl ‘these trees’

Number[]

Maká nouns inflect for plurality. There are several distinct plural endings: -l, -wi, Vts, and -Vy. All plants take the -wi plural, but otherwise the choice seems to be unpredictable (Gerzenstein 1995:150):

singular	plural	gloss
sehe	sehe-l	land(s)
naxkax	naxkax-wi	tree(s)
tenuk	tenuk-its	cat(s)

Case[]

Maká does not have any overt case marking on nouns. Consider the following sentence, where neither the subject nor object shows any case (Gerzenstein 1995:139):

Ne’	efu	Ø-tux	ka’	sehets.
dem:f	woman	A3-eat	indef:m	fish
‘The woman eats fish.’

Agreement with the possessor[]

Nouns agree with their possessor in person (Gerzenstein 1995:148):

y-exi’	Ø-exi’	ł-exi’	in-exi’
1s-mouth	2-mouth	3-mouth	1plur:incl-mouth
‘my mouth’	'your mouth'	'his/her/their mouth'	'our (inclusive) mouth'

Verbs[]

Agreement with subject and object[]

Verbs agree with their subject and object in a rather complex system. Gerzenstein (1995) identifies five conjugation classes for intransitive verbs. The following two examples show intransitive verbs from conjugation classes 1 and 3.

tremble (conjugation class 3)				dance (conjugation class 1)
1	tsi-kawelik	'I tremble'		hoy-otoy	'I dance'
2	łan-kawelik	'you tremble'		ł-otoy	'you dance'
3	yi-kawelik	'he/she trembles'		t-otoy	'he/she dances'
1pl inclusive	xiyi-kawelik	'we (inclusive) tremble'		xit-otoy	'we (inclusive) dance'

Transitive verbs belong to a different conjugation class, Conjugation 6. The following forms show a transitive verb with a 3rd person object:

love (conjugation class 6)
hi-su'un	'I love (him/her)'
łi-su'un	'you love (him/her)'
yi-su'un	'he/she loves (him/her)'
xite-su'un	'we (inclusive) love (him/her)'

If the object of the transitive verb is 1st or 2nd person, then certain combinations of subject and object are shown by a portmanteau morpheme.

love (conjugation class 6)		subject/object combination
k'e-su'un	'I love you'	1SUBJ›2OBJ
tsi-su'un	'he/she loves me'	3SUBJ›1OBJ
ne-su'un	'he/she loves you'	3SUBJ›2OBJ

Other combinations involve an object agreement marker which may either precede or follow the subject marker (Gerzenstein 1995:94-101):

łe-ts-ikfex

2:subj-1sg:obj-bite

'you bite me'

xi-yi-łin

1pl(incl):obj-3-save

'he/she saves us (inclusive)'

Applicatives[]

Verbs in Maká have a series of suffixes called 'postpositions' in Gerzenstein (1995), which have the effect of introducing new oblique objects into the sentence.

The following examples show the applicative suffixes -ex 'instrumental ('with')' and -m 'benefactive ('for')'

Ne’	efu	ni-xele-ex	ke’	ute	na’	nunax.
dem:f	woman	A3-throw-with	indef:masc	rock	dem:m	dog
‘The woman threw a rock at the dog.’

H-osxey-i-m	na’	sehets	na’	k’utsaX
A1-grill-P3-for	dem:m	fish	dem:m	old:man
‘I grill fish for the old man.’

Syntax[]

Noun phrases[]

In noun phrases, the possessor precedes the possessed noun (Gerzenstein 1995:155):

e-li-ts	łe-xiła’
2-child-pl	3-head
'your children’s head'

Noun phrases show the order (Demonstrative) (Numeral) (Adjective) N (Gerzenstein 1995:154):

Ne’	efu	t-aqhay-ets	ne’	ikwetxuł	fo’	tiptip-its
dem:fem	woman	S3-buy-toward	dem:plur	four	white	horse=pl
’The woman bought four white horses.’

Sentences[]

Affirmative[]

The basic word order for a transitive clause in Maká is subject–verb–object, as seen in the following example (Gerzenstein 1995:138)

Ne’	efu	ni-xele-ex	ke’	ute	na’	nunax.
dem:f	woman	A3-throw-with	indef:masc	rock	dem:m	dog
‘The woman threw a rock at the dog.’

For intransitive clauses, the basic order is verb-subject (Gerzenstein 1995:106):

Wapi	ne'	efu.
rest	dem:f	woman
'The woman rests'

Interrogative[]

In yes-no questions, the usual subject–verb–object order changes to verb-subject-object following an initial particle /me/ (Gerzenstein 1995:136):

Me	y-eqfemet-en	na'	k’utsaX	na'	xukhew?
q	A3-injure-caus	dem:m	old:man	dem:m	man
‘Did the old man injure the man?’

Sentences with wh-questions show a sentence-initial question word. Maká has a very small inventory of question words, with only three members: łek 'who, what', pan 'which, where, how many', and inhats'ek 'why'. The following example shows an interrogative sentence with an initial question word (Gerzenstein 1995:178:

Łek	pa'	tux	na'	xukhew?
what	dem:m	eat	dem:m	old:man
‘What did the old man eat?’

References[]

External links[]

• Argentinian Languages Collection of Ana Gerzenstein, containing audio recordings of Maká, from the Archive of the Indigenous Languages of Latin America.
• Maca (Intercontinental Dictionary Series)