Mbyá Guaraní language
Mbyá Guaraní is a Tupi–Guarani Indigenous language of the southern cone. It is 75% lexically similar to Paraguayan Guarani.
Mbyá Guaraní is one of a number of "Guarani dialects" now generally classified as distinct languages. Mbyá is closely connected to Ava Guarani, also known as Ñandeva, and intermarriage between speakers of the two languages is common. Speakers of Mbyá and Ñandeva generally live in mountainous areas of the Atlantic Forest, from eastern Paraguay through Misiones Province of Argentina, Uruguay to the southern Brazilian states of Paraná, Santa Catarina, and Rio Grande do Sul.
Phonology
Vowels
- Vowel sounds /ɛ, o/ can also be heard as in free variation.
- /i, u/ when preceding vowels can be heard as non-syllabic
Consonants
- /β̞/ can also be realized as or in free variation.
- Nasal sounds /m, n, ŋ/ can also be heard as prenasalized stops in free variation.
- /ɲ, ŋʷ/ can be heard as before oral vowels, and as before nasal vowels.