Rikbaktsa language

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Rikbaktsá
erigpaksá
Native toBrazil
RegionMato Grosso
Ethnicity1,140 Rikbaktsa people (2006)[1]
Native speakers
40 (2010)[1]
Language family
Macro-Gê
  • Rikbaktsá
Language codes
ISO 639-3rkb
Glottologrikb1245
ELPRikbaktsá
Rikbaktsa language.png

The Rikbaktsa language, also spelled Aripaktsa, Erikbatsa, Erikpatsa and known ambiguously as Canoeiro, is a language spoken by the Rikbaktsa people of Mato Grosso, Brazil, that forms its own branch of the Macro-Gê languages.

As in other languages of the area, word endings indicate the gender of the speaker.[2] Rikbaktsa is a subject-object-verb language.[1]

Most Rikbaktsa can speak both Rikbaktsa and Portuguese. Younger individuals tend to speak Portuguese more frequently and fluently than their elders, but older individuals generally struggle with Portuguese and use it only with non-indigenous Brazilians.[2]

Jolkesky (2016) also notes that there are lexical similarities with the Cariban languages.[3]

Locations[]

The 22nd edition of Ethnologue reports that it is spoken around confluence of the Sangue River and Juruena River in:

  • Japuira on the east bank of the Juruena River, between the Arinos River and Sangue River
  • Posto Escondido on the west bank of the Juruena River (9 villages, 14 settlements)

Phonology[]

Vowels
Front Central Back
Close i ɨ u
Close-mid e o
Mid ə
Open a

All vowels have nasalized forms.[4]

Consonants
Bilabial Alveolar Palato-alveolar Retroflex Palatal Velar Glottal
Stop voiceless p t k
voiced b d
Affricate t͡ʃ
Fricative ʃ h
Nasal m n
Approximant j w
Flap ɾ ɽ

Vocabulary[]

Loukotka (1968) lists the following basic vocabulary items.[5]

gloss Erikbaktsa
one aistuːba
ear ka-spi
tooth írata
hand ka-shuisha
woman matutsi
water pihʔik
fire idoː
stone harahairi
maize uanátsi

References[]

  1. ^ a b c Rikbaktsá at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. ^ a b Arruda, Rinaldo S.V. "Rikbaktsa: Language." In Encyclopedia of Indigenous Peoples in Brazil. Instituto Socioambiental (November 1998).
  3. ^ Jolkesky, Marcelo Pinho de Valhery (2016). Estudo arqueo-ecolinguístico das terras tropicais sul-americanas (Ph.D. dissertation) (2 ed.). Brasília: University of Brasília.
  4. ^ "SAPhon – South American Phonological Inventories". linguistics.berkeley.edu. Retrieved 2018-08-12.
  5. ^ Loukotka, Čestmír (1968). Classification of South American Indian languages. Los Angeles: UCLA Latin American Center.
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