| Migueleño Chiquitano | |
|---|---|
| ózura | |
| Pronunciation | [ˈo̞tsuɾḁ] |
| Native to | Bolivia |
| Region | San Miguel de Velasco (Santa Cruz) |
| Ethnicity | Chiquitano people |
Native speakers | ~30[citation needed] (2020) |
Macro-Jê ?
| |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | – |
| Glottolog | sanm1288 |
Migueleño Chiquitano (self-denomination:ózura[ˈo̞tsuɾḁ], literally 'our speech') is a variety of theChiquitano language of theMacro-Jê family, which is remembered by several dozen people of theChiquitano ethnicity inSan Miguel de Velasco (Santa Cruz),Bolivia, as well as in neighboring villages.
Migueleño is closely related to other varieties of the Chiquitano language, such asBésɨro andEastern Chiquitano.[1]: 2 Its most salient phonological features include the occurrence of thevoiceless velar fricative/x/ corresponding to theretroflex/ʂ/ of the other dialects and the merger of thepalatalized counterparts of/p/ and/k/ as[c̠]. It is also the only variety of Chiquitano in which distinctfirst personsingular prefixes have been documented for the male and femalegenderlects.[2]
The consonant inventory of Migueleño Chiquitano is shown below (the orthographic representation is given in italics; the characters in slashes stand for theIPA values of each consonant).[1]: 4
| labial | denti-alveolar | postalveolar | retroflex | palatal | velar | glottal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| obstruents | p/p/ | t/t/ | ty/t̠ʲ/ | ky/c̠/ | k/k/ | ’/ʔ/ | |
| affricates | z/ts/ | ch/t͡ʃ/ | |||||
| fricatives | s/s/ | x/ʂ/ | xh/ɕ/ | j/x/ | j-/h/ | ||
| approximants | b/β̞/ | r/ɾ/ | y/j/ | g/ɰ/ | |||
| nasals | m/m/ | n/n/ | ñ/ɲ/ | ng/ŋ/ |
The vowel inventory of Migueleño Chiquitano is shown below (the orthographic representation is given in italics; the characters in slashes stand for theIPA values of each vowel).[1]: 4
| Oral | Nasal | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| i /i/ | ɨ /ɨ/ | u /u/ | ĩ,im,in /ĩ/ | ɨ̃,ɨm,ɨn /ɨ̃/ | ũ,um,un /ũ/ | |
| e /ɛ/ | a /a/ | o /o/ | ẽ /ɛ̃/ | ã /ã/ | õ /õ/ | |
In Migueleño Chiquitano,male speech is distinct from female speech in exhibiting extra morphological complexity. In particular, the male genderlect distinguishes between threegrammatical genders (masculine, non-humananimate, and feminine/inanimate), whereas the female genderlect has no grammatical gender distinctions at all (all nouns behave like the feminine/inanimate nouns in the male genderlect).[3]
In addition, thefirst personsingular prefixes are distinct in the male genderlect (underlying form |ij-|) and in the female genderlect (underlying form |ix-|).[2][3]: 90
| translation | female speech | male speech |
|---|---|---|
| I stand | xhatɨɨka’i | yatɨɨka’i |
| my backbone | xhotopɨ́riyɨ | yotopɨ́riyɨ |
Female and male speech further differ in using different suffixes (female-ki, male-che) when deriving content interrogative/relative words.[3]: 91
| translation | female speech | male speech |
|---|---|---|
| Who is that behind whom you are going? (Whom do you follow?) | ¿Ũka na’a si’iki aɨrotɨ́? | ¿Ti’i naki si’iche aɨrotɨ́? |
| Whose son? | ¿aɨtokí? | ¿aɨtoché? |
| Where from? | ¿aukikí? | ¿aukiché? |
| Whose? | ¿ezakí? | ¿ezaché? |
There are also differences in the choice of the demonstratives.
InSan Miguel de Velasco, Catholichomilies are traditionally recited in an early form of Migueleño Chiquitano on certain religious occasions. This practice can be traced back to theJesuit reductions of the 18th century, and the texts of the homilies have been transmitted (both orally and in the written form) across generations.[4] The homilies have been extensively studied by Severin Parzinger, who has published a compilation thereof.[5]