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| Guató | |
|---|---|
| go-t͡ʃéuvɨ́ i-ótɨ́ | |
| Native to | Brazil,Bolivia |
| Region | Mato Grosso do Sul state:Paraguay River banks and upSão Lourenço River, along Bolivian border;[1] alsoSanta Cruz Department (Bolivia):Uberaba Lake[2] |
| Ethnicity | 419Guató people (2014)[3] |
Native speakers | 2 (2023)[4] |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | gta |
| Glottolog | guat1253 |
| ELP | Guató |
 | |
 Guató is classified as Critically Endangered by theUNESCOAtlas of the World's Languages in Danger. | |
| This article containsIPA phonetic symbols. Without properrendering support, you may seequestion marks, boxes, or other symbols instead ofUnicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, seeHelp:IPA. | |
Guató (Guató:go-t͡ʃéuvɨ́ i-ótɨ́)[5] is alanguage isolate[4] spoken by two of theGuató people of Brazil. It has variously been claimed to be ofMacro-Jê or isolate affiliation. Guató is aVSO language, hasagglutination, and hasergative alignment.[3]
Kaufman (1990) provisionally classified Guató as a branch of theMacro-Jê languages, but no evidence for this was found by Eduardo Ribeiro. Martins (2011) also suggests a relationship withMacro-Jê.[6] Nikulin (2020) excludes this possibility.[7]
Jolkesky (2016) notes that there are lexical similarities with theBororo,Tupi, andKarib language families due to contact.[8]
An automated computational analysis (ASJP 4) by Müller et al. (2013)[9] found lexical similarities between Guató and theZamucoan languages. However, since the analysis was automatically generated, the grouping could be either due to mutual lexical borrowing, genetic inheritance, or chance resemblances.
Today, Guató is spoken in Guató Indigenous Territory and Baía dos Guató Indigenous Territory.[4]
Loukotka (1968) reported that inMato Grosso do Sul, Brazil, Guató is spoken on the banks of theParaguay River and up theSão Lourenço River, along the Bolivian border.[1] It is also spoken atUberaba Lake[2] inSanta Cruz Department (Bolivia).
The Guató vowel system, like that of Macro-Jê languages, collapses a three-way distinction of height in oral vowels to two in nasal vowels.[10][11]
| Oral | Nasal | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Front | Central | Back | Front | Central | Back | |
| Close | i | ɨ | u | ĩ | ɨ̃ | ũ |
| Mid | e | o | ẽ | ã | ||
| Open | ɛ | a | ɔ | |||
| Labial | Denti- alveolar | Post- alveolar | Velar | Labio- velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | |||||
| Plosive | voiced | b | d | dʒ | ɡ | ɡʷ | |
| voiceless | p | t | tʃ | k | kʷ | ||
| Fricative | f | h | |||||
| Sonorant | w | ɾ | j | ||||
Guató is a tonal language, possessing a high and low tone.[3]
Loukotka (1968) lists the following basic vocabulary items for Guató.[2]
| gloss | Guató |
|---|---|
| one | chenéhe |
| two | dúni |
| three | chumó |
| tooth | makuá |
| tongue | mundokuír |
| hand | mara |
| woman | muazya |
| water | mágũ |
| fire | matá |
| moon | múpina |
| maize | madzyéro |
| jaguar | mépago |
| house | movír |
For more extensive vocabulary lists of Guató by Palácio (1984)[10][12] and Postigo (2009),[11] see the correspondingPortuguese article.
Guató uses a quinary (base-5) system up to 20, where a decimal system is used for large numbers.[3]
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