You can helpexpand this article with text translated fromthe corresponding article in Portuguese. (May 2022)Click [show] for important translation instructions. View a machine-translated version of the Portuguese article. Machine translation, likeDeepL orGoogle Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia. Consideradding a topic to this template: there are already 538 articles in themain category, and specifying|topic= will aid in categorization. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. Youmust providecopyright attribution in theedit summary accompanying your translation by providing aninterlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary isContent in this edit is translated from the existing Portuguese Wikipedia article at [[:pt:Língua tapirapé]]; see its history for attribution. You may also add the template{{Translated|pt|Língua tapirapé}} to thetalk page. For more guidance, seeWikipedia:Translation.

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Tapirapé (also known asApyãwa andTapi'irape) is aTupí-Guaraní language ofBrazil spoken near theAraguaia River, in the border of the states ofMato Grosso andTocantins.^[2][3] As of 2020, the language has around 917 speakers,^[4] who belong to theTapirapé ethnic group.^[5]

The term "Tapirapé", originated inTupi, means "tapir's way" (tapi'ira, tapir +apé, way.) This was the way that the ancestral indigenous people called theMilky Way, and it was the name given to the people by the foreigners (mãira.) Even though this was not how these indigenous people called themselves (apyãwa,) the term began to be used by them as a way to identify their language and themselves, both inPortuguese and in the Tapirapé language.^[6]

Ribeiro (2012) finds a number of Apyãwa loanwords inKarajá (such asbèhyra 'carrying basket',kòmỹdawyra'andu beans',hãrara 'macaw (sp.)',tarawè 'parakeet (sp.)',txakohi 'Txakohi ceremonial mask',hyty 'garbage (Javaé dialect)') as well as several Karajá loans in Apyãwa (tãtã 'banana',tori 'White man',marara 'turtle stew',irãwore 'Irabure ceremonial mask'). Some of the latter loans are also found in other Tupí-Guaraní languages closely related to Apyãwa, such asParakanã andAsuriní of Trocará (sata 'banana',toria 'White man').^{[7]: 10–2}

The phonology of the Tapirapé language originated in theProto-Tupian language. Among its main features, the presence ofalternation andvowel nasality processes stand out.^[8]

Differently from most Tupian languages, the Tapirapé people make use of five vowel phonemes, going against the predominant six vowel system in the family.^[9] All five vowels have five nasal counterparts.^[10]

The vowel /ɨ/ is, most of the time, realised as a close central unrounded vowel. Due to the variation in the height of the tongue in the emission of vowel phonemes, this representation also includes the phoneme [ə], which only differs from /ɨ/ in its height.

The phoneme /e/ represents both [e̞] and [ɛ], depending on the height variation of the tongue in one's mouth.

The vowel /i/ is realised as a close front unrounded vowel.

Unlike other vowel phonemes, the nature of the vowel /o/ is controversial; it is seen as an interpretation of the vowelu, [o], andɔ, all of which are rounded and back vowels. The use of the phoneme /o/ as a representative of this set is influenced by the vowel evolution ofAsuríni language, a similar language, where the Proto-Tupian phoneme [u] was neutralised into [o].^[9]

Yonne Leite, in his article about the syllabic structure of Tapirapé, mentions that /j/ has five possible allophones: [tʃ], [tʲ], [ɲ], and [j̃]. He says that, in onsets, [tʲ] and [tʃ] appear frequently, while [j] appears in codas and in onsets of posttonic syllables when, in the nucleus of the syllable, the vowel is oral. The palatal nasal and the nasal palatal approximant appear in the codas of a tonic syllable and in the onset of a posttonic syllable when, in the nucleus of the syllable, the vowel is nasal.^[10]

Tapirapé language test ofWikipedia atWikimedia Incubator

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