Guarani dialects
The Guaraní dialects belong to the Tupí-Guaraní branch of the Tupian linguistic family.
In Latin America, the indigenous language that is most widely spoken amongst non-indigenous communities is Guaraní. South America is home to more than 280,000 Guaraní people, 51,000 of whom reside in Brazil. The Guaraní people inhabit regions in Brazil, Paraguay, Bolivia, as well as Argentina. There are more than four million speakers of Guaraní across these regions.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization classified Guaraní's language vitality as "vulnerable". UNESCO's definition of "vulnerable" is meant to highlight that although the majority of Guaraní children can speak Guaraní, the use of the language is restricted to particular contexts. Although the Guaraní language may only be classified as "vulnerable," there are other languages within the Tupí-Guaraní branch that are classified as "extinct" and "critically endangered".
The Guaraní language has been an object of study since the arrival of the Jesuits in the seventeenth century. The differences among the three dialects of the Guaraní language can be noted primarily in their distinct phonologies and syntax, as these vary depending on the social context that the language is being used. Of note, the Mbyá prioritize oral transmission. Literacy within the Mbyá received an increased level of importance in the late 1990s as a product of new educational institutions in the villages. Lemle contends that in spite of there being almost forty dialects within the Tupí-Guaraní family, there exist numerous similarities between the words of these dialects.
Varieties
- Western Bolivian Guarani, 7,000 speakers
- Eastern Bolivian Guarani, 55,000 speakers
- *dialects: Avá, Izoceño/Izocenio
- Paraguayan Guarani, 5 million mostly mestizo speakers
- Correntine Guarani, 100,000 speakers, mostly mestizos and criollo people
- Chiripá Guarani, 12,000 speakers
- Mbyá Guarani, 25,000 speakers
Literature
The Tupí-Guaraní branch within the Tupí family that has been the object of most linguistic studies within this family. As a result, the linguistic literature available on Tupí-Guaraní languages is extensive, ranging from grammars, bibliographies, histories of language development, typological studies, to dissertations on the phonology of the Guaraní language.According to Silvetti and Silvestri, Guaraní only came to be a written language following the arrival of the Jesuits. Silvetti and Silvestri propound that "it was the Jesuits who gave it a grammar and a syntax and made it into one of the ‘lenguas generales’ used for the evangelization of the natives".
In light of this, we will highlight important literary works on Guaraní linguistics of three Jesuits, namely: Jesuit Joseph de Anchieta; Jesuit Antonio Ruiz de Montoya; and lastly, Jesuit Alonso de Aragona. The first Guaraní grammar written was that of Jesuit Joseph de Anchieta. Ringmacher contends, however, that Jesuit Antonio Ruiz de Montoya's Arte de la lengua Guaraní, a documentation of Guaraní grammar, served as a significant point of reference and departure for all proceeding grammatical works concerning the Guaraní language. Montoya's analysis of the Guaraní morphology and syntax stands accurate until this day. Montoya also produced a Guaraní dictionary known as Tesoro de la Lengua Guaraní. In this work, he not only created the first dictionary of this kind, but also provided examples of contexts in which to use the various words he documented. Lastly, Jesuit Alonso de Aragona produced a pedagogical grammar that was completed in 1629, but only printed in 1979. The intention of Aragona's work was to help those seeking ways to learn Guaraní.
The extensive research conducted as well as the expansive reach of the Guaraní language across Latin America has granted it an important position in the urban landscape. In other words, Guaraní's official status in Paraguay combined with research studies that have followed has allowed for recent projects of standardization.
As efforts move forward to standardize Guaraní, the expansion of its use across sectors in Latin America will only increase. This can be seen with the broad expanse of literature being developed on the structure of Guaraní language, as well as its cultural importance. One of the key proponents in this venture, other than the Guaraní themselves, is academic Robert A. Dooley. Dooley has made an extensive collection of works of the language through his career, usually based around the discourse of the Guaraní-Mbyá language structure. Examples being on how different grammatical structures are understood by the speaker, can completely shift the narrative being shared, or the focus on the pragmatic structuring of Guaraní sentences, clause chaining, or spatial understandings of Guaraní. These research projects done by Dooley are crucial to understanding different cultural aspects, like discourses in relation to translating important religious factors which in turn are important for empowering the Guaraní themselves. This standardization is also supported by academics like Guillaume Thomas, who through examining Guaraní can differentiate between temporal suffixes and as such different tenses, and who through examining differing degrees of nominalization, is able to compare different variants of Guaraní-Mbyá between Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay, in turn creating a type of database of difference that can be used for reference for the different language styles. Works such as these, and the work of scholars like Estigarribia and Pinta that compiles recent studies on the Guaraní will become of increasing relevance.
Geographical distribution
Paraguay
Paraguayan Guarani, is, alongside Spanish, one of the official languages of Paraguay. Paraguay's constitution is bilingual, and its state-produced textbooks are typically half in Spanish and half in Guarani.A variety of Guarani known as Chiripá is also spoken in Paraguay. It is closely related to Paraguayan Guarani, a language which speakers are increasingly switching to. There are 7,000 speakers of Chiripá in Paraguay.
Additionally, another variety of Guarani known as Mbyá is also spoken in Paraguay by 8,000 speakers. Lexically, it is 75% similar to Paraguayan Guarani.
The smallest Guarani speaking community in Paraguay is that of the Aché, also known as Guayaki, with a population of 850.
Finally, in the Paraguayan Chaco Department, there are 304 speakers of Eastern Bolivian/Western Argentine Guarani, known locally as Ñandeva or Tapiete.
The largest Guarani group in the Chaco is that known locally as Guarayo who settled in Paraguay after the war with Bolivia. They are originally from the Isoso area of Bolivia.
Argentina
In Argentina, Correntine Guarani is the official linguistic variety in the Corrientes Province, along with Spanish. It is the most intelligible variety of Paraguayan Guarani, being considered two diatopic varieties of the same language.A different variety of Guarani, Western Argentine Guarani, is spoken further west by about 15,000 speakers, mostly in Jujuy, but also in Salta Province. It refers essentially to the same variety of Guarani as Eastern Bolivian Guarani.
Additionally, another variety of Guarani known as Mbyá is spoken in Argentina by 3,000 speakers.
Bolivia
and Western Bolivian Guarani are widely spoken in the southeastern provinces of the country.Eastern Bolivian Guarani, also known as Chawuncu or Chiriguano, is spoken in by 33,670 speakers in the south-central Parapeti River area and in the city of Tarija. It refers to essentially the same variety of Guarani as Western Argentine Guarani.
Other Guarani groups that exist are the Gwarayú or Guarayos around 30,000, and Sirionó some 800 in Santa Cruz. What remains of the Yuki population estimated at around 240 live in the Dpt. of Cochabamba.
In August 2009 Bolivia launched a Guarani-language university at Kuruyuki in the southeastern province of Chuquisaca which will bear the name of indigenous hero Apiaguaiki Tumpa.
Brazil
The expansive territory of the Guaraní encompasses a space that traverses the Brazilian, Paraguayan, Argentine and Uruguayan borders. There are various points of tension in the history of the Guaraní, but this analysis will prioritize three: the arrival of the Jesuits; the exploitative labour practices of the encomiendas; and finally, the expropriation of Guaraní land by the Spanish and Portuguese colonizers.History
The Jesuits
The arrival of the Jesuits to Guaraní territory in the seventeenth century resulted in a re-organization of the social, political and economic structures of the Guaraní peoples. The communities that the Jesuits established amassed a total population that surpassed 100 000 Guaraní peoples. The subjugation of the Guaraní people to one social, economic, political, and spiritual order in the missions contributed to a false construction of the Guaraní as a homogeneous people. Wilde articulated it well in his assertion that:The missions constituted an "imagined community" that over the course of 150 years incorporated very diverse populations that had to adapt to a single pattern of spatial and temporal organization.Initially, the Spaniards recognized the differences amongst the indigenous people of the Guaraní territory; yet, Spanish documentation failed to adequately recognize this diversity.