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Canela is a dialect of theCanela-Krahô language, aTimbira variety of theNorthern Jê language group (Jê,Macro-Jê) spoken by theApànjêkra (Apaniêkrá) and by theMẽmõrtũmre (Ràmkôkãmẽkra, Ramkokamekrá) inMaranhão,Brazil.^[2][3]: 11The Kenkateye dialect has been extinct since 1913 due to the massacre of the tribe by cattle ranchers.^[4]

• Stop sounds /p, t, k/ can be heard as voiced [b, d, ɡ] in syllable-initial position within unstressed syllables, following voicing and in syllable-final position following voicing.
• A velar nasal /ŋ/ can fluctuate in free variation with a prenasalized and voiced plosive [ŋɡ~ɡ] between dialects.
• /t͡s/ is recognized as a post-alveolar /t͡ʃ/ among dialectal differences.
• /n, m/ can be heard as prestopped [ᵈn, ᵇm] when after oral vowels.
• /v/ is only heard in syllable-initial position, elsewhere it is pronounced as [w].
• /j/ is heard as [z] when in final position of consonant clusters and in initial position within stressed syllables, and is nasalized as [z̃] before nasal vowels. It is heard as [j] elsewhere in syllable-final and unstressed syllable-initial positions.
• /l/ is heard as a lateral flap [ɺ] when in intervocalic positions, or following consonants.
• /h/ is heard as a glottal stop [ʔ] in syllable-final position when preceding consonants, and as a velar [x] before high-oral vowels.^[5]

In Canela, like in all Northern Jê languages, verbs inflect forfiniteness and thus have a basic opposition between afinite form and anonfinite form. Finite forms are used in matrix clauses only, whereas nonfinite forms are used in all types of subordinate clauses as well as in some matrix clauses (such as recent past clauses and any clauses which containmodal,aspectual, orpolar operators).^[6]: 450 Nonfinite forms are most often formed via suffixation and/or prefix substitution. Some verbs (including all descriptives with the exception ofcato 'to exit', whose nonfinite form iscator) lack an overt finiteness distinction.

The following nonfinite suffixes have been attested:-r (the most common option, found in many transitive and intransitive verbs),-n (found in some transitive verbs), as well as-c and-m (found in a handful of intransitive verbs which take a nominative subject when finite).^{[6]: 448–9 [7]}

InProto-Northern Jê, a handful of verbs, all of which ended in an underlying stop, formed their finite form by means ofleniting the stem-final consonant (*-t,*-c,*-k →*-r,*-j,*-r); in turn, the nonfinite form received no overt marking.^[8]: 544 At least three verbs still follow this pattern in Canela.^[7]

Canela is ahead-final language.

Different main clause constructions present different combinations of alignment patterns, includingsplit-S (default),ergative–absolutive (recent past), andnominative–absolutive (evaluative, progressive, continuous, completive, and negated clauses). In contrast, subordinate clauses are alwaysergative–absolutive.

Prototypically, finitematrix clauses in Canela have asplit-S alignment pattern, whereby the agents of transitive verbs (A) and the sole arguments of a subclass of intransitive verbs (S_A) receive thenominative case (also calledagentive case^[3]), whereas the patients of transitive verbs (P) and the sole arguments of the remaining intransitive predicates (S_P) receive theabsolutive case (also calledinternal case^[3]).^[6] In addition, transitive verbs are subdivided into two classes according to whether the third person patient is indexed asabsolutive (allomorphsh-,ih-,im-,in-,i-,∅-) oraccusative (cu-),^[6] which has been described as an instance of asplit-P alignment.^[3]: 272 There are only several dozen of transitive verbs which take an accusative patient, all of which are monosyllabic and have distinct finite and nonfinite forms. It has been suggested that all transitive verbs which satisfy both conditions (monosyllabicity and a formal finiteness distinction), and only them, select for accusative patients, while all remaining transitive verbs take absolutive patients in Canela and all other Northern Jê languages.^[8]: 538

All subordinate clauses as well as recent past clauses (which are historically derived from subordinate clauses and are headed by a nonfinite verb) areergatively organized: the agents of transitive verbs (A) are encoded byergativepostpositional phrases, whereas the patients of transitive verbs (P) and the sole arguments of all intransitive predicates (S) receive theabsolutive case (also calledinternal case^[3]).^[6]

Evaluative, progressive, continuous, completive, and negated clauses (which are historically derived from former biclausal constructions with an ergatively organized subordinate clause and a split-S matrix clause) in Canela have the cross-linguistically rarenominative-absolutive alignment pattern.^{[9][10][6][11]} An example of this alignment type in negated clauses is given below.^[9]: 162

In nominative–absolutive clauses, the soleargument of anintransitive verb (S) is aligned with theagent argument of atransitive verb (A) in that both may be expressed bynominative pronouns, such aswa 'I.NOM' orca 'you.NOM' (nouns do not take case inflection in Canela), which occupy the same position in a phrase (in the example above, both precede theirrealis markerha). At the same time, the soleargument of anintransitive verb (S) is aligned with thepatient argument ('direct object') of a transitive verb (P) in that both may be indexed on the verb by person prefixes of theabsolutive series ( such asi- 'I.ABS' ora- 'you.ABS'). There are no elements which pattern as ergative or accusative in this type of clauses in Canela.

The historical origin of the nominative–absolutive clauses in Canela has been shown to be a reanalysis of former biclausal constructions (asplit-S matrix clause, headed by the auxiliary, and anergative–absolutive embedded clause, headed by the lexical verb) as monoclausal, with the loss of the ergative.^[6][10]

The following table summarizes the proposed classes of predicates in Canela.

In Canela, transitive verbs takeaccusative orabsolutive patients in finite clauses, depending on the verb class. In nonfinite clauses, all transitive verbs takeabsolutive patients. Note that nouns do not receive any overt marking either in theaccusative or in theabsolutive case; the difference between these two cases is seen in the third person index, whose form iscu- in the accusative case andh- (allomorphsih-,im-,in-,i-,∅-) in the absolutive case.

The transitive verbs which index their patient in theaccusative case (in finite clauses) are known ascu-verbs. Allcu-verbs are monosyllabic and have distinct finite and nonfinite forms. The remaining transitive verbs index their patient in theabsolutive case. All verbs that belong to this class satisfy at least one of the following conditions:

• they contain at least two syllables (for example,pupu 'to see',cahô 'to suck, to eat fruits',-hcuhhõ 'to wash(body, hands)'),
• their finite and nonfinite forms are identical (for example,-hhôc 'to paint',-hkre 'to plant',-hpro 'to cover, to catch, to rape').

Finitecu- verbs further differ from all other transitive verbs in that under certain circumstances they index theiragent (rather thanpatient) on the verb. This happens when a second-person agent acts over a third-person patient.^{[2]: 104–5}

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Intransitive predicates which takeabsolutive (rather thannominative) subjects are known asdescriptives.^[6]

Verba sentiendi takedative subjects in Canela^{[12][2]: 56}

Monovalentverba sentiendi take only one argument (experiencer), which is encoded by adative postpositional phrase.

Bivalentverba sentiendi take two arguments. Theexperiencer is encoded by adative postpositional phrase, and the theme receives theabsolutive case.

• Translation of Genesis into Canela
• Canela (Intercontinental Dictionary Series)
• Lev, Michael; Stark, Tammy; Chang, Will (2012)."Phonological inventory of Canela".The South American Phonological Inventory Database (version 1.1.3 ed.). Berkeley: University of California: Survey of California and Other Indian Languages Digital Resource.

• Jê languages
• Languages of Brazil

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