Dzubukuá language
| Dzubukuá | |
|---|---|
| Kariri, Kariri-Xocó | |
 1709 catechism in Dzubukuá | |
| Native to | Brazil |
| Region | Cabrobó, Pernambuco |
| Ethnicity | Kariri-Xokó, Tingui-Botó, Abacatiara |
| Era | attested 1702 and 1709 |
| Revival | 1989[1] |
Karirian
| |
| Official status | |
Official language in |  Brazil (Crateús) |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | kzw – inclusive code [2]Individual code: tgv – Tingui-Botó |
| Glottolog | dzub1241 Dzubukuákari1255 Karirí-Xocóting1238 Tingui-Boto (retired) |
| Linguasphere | 89-CBA-ac |
 Map of Cabrobó, Pernambuco, where Dzubukuá was originally spoken |
Dzubukuá (or Kariri), referred to by the community as Kariri-Xocó,[2][3] is an extinct Karirian language, sometimes considered a dialect of a singular Kariri language, of Brazil. Since 1989, there is a process of linguistic revitalization underway. In 2025, it was declared official in the city of Crateús in the state of Ceará.
History
[edit]Documentation
[edit]There are only two known primary sources containing the Dzubukuá language. One is a manuscript dated 1702,[a] and the other is a 1709 catechism,[4] both by the French Capuchin missionary Bernardo de Nantes.[5]: 54
There is no report of the possible survival of Dzubukuá grammar and dictionary manuscripts.[6]: 35
Revival
[edit]Beginning in 1989, the Kariri-Xocó people of Porto Real do Colégio, Alagoas, have been reviving their language through teaching it in biweekly lessons and disseminating materials through social media.[7][3][2] The Tingui-Botó people claim to use Dzubukuá, their ancestral language, in their secret Ouricuri ritual.[8]
Official status
[edit]On 28 August 2025, Dzubukuá was declared official in Crateús, Ceará, the second municipality in the state after Monsenhor Tabosa to declare an Indigenous language official.[9][10]
Classification
[edit]Dzubukuá has typically been considered as a dialect of a singular Kariri language.[11][12][13]: II [14] In the preface of the catechism, however, Nantes attests to the distinction between the way the Dzubukuá and Kipeá spoke ("one language is as different from the other as Portuguese is from Castilian").[5]: 54–55 Traditionally, Dzubukuá and the other Kariri languages or dialects were classified as members of the Macro-Jê languages. This classification was first proposed by Brazilian linguist Aryon Rodrigues in 1986.[15][16] More recently, however, the genetic affinity of Kariri within Macro-Jê has been questioned, and Andrey Nikulin excludes it from the family in his assessment. He instead proposes a relationship with the Bororoan and Cariban languages,[17]: 76 [18] which he further suspects may be related to Macro-Jê on a deeper timescale.[19]
Geographical distribution
[edit]It was spoken on the São Francisco River islands, in the Cabrobó area of Pernambuco.[20]: 39 [16]
Phonology
[edit]Consonants
[edit]| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Occlusive | voiceless | p | t | k | ||
| voiced | b | d | ɡ | |||
| Nasal | m | n | ɲ | |||
| Flap | ɾ | |||||
| Fricative | h | |||||
| Affricate | voiceless | ts | ||||
| voiced | dz | |||||
| Lateral | l |
Nikulin differs from Queiroz regarding the interpretation of the digraphs ⟨oe⟩ and ⟨dh⟩, which he says represent /ə/ and /ð/, respectively. Accordingly, he records "fire" as "isu" in Kipeá, but as "iðu" in Dzubukuá.[17]: 76
In 2012, Queiroz revised his 2008 description and changed his position regarding the existence of glides in Dzubukuá. Thus, ⟨j⟩ and ⟨y⟩, which he had considered indicators of /j/, and ⟨w⟩ and ⟨v⟩, which he had considered indicators of /w/, came to be reinterpreted as the high vowels /i/ and /u/.[5]: 100
Vowels
[edit]| Front | Central | Back | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| High | i | ɨ | u | |
| Mid | unrounded | e | ||
| rounded | œ ⟨oe⟩ | o | ||
| Low | a |
- /a/ has the allophones [a], [ɐ̰], and [ã].[5]: 74–75
- /e/ has the allophones [e], [ḛ], [eː], and [ẽ].[5]: 75
- /œ/ has the allophones [œ], [æ], [œ̰].[5]: 75
- /i/ has the allophones [i] and [ḭ].[5]: 75
- /u/ has the allophones [u], [ṵ], and [uː].[5]: 75
- /o/ has the allophones [o], [o̰], [oː], and [o̰ː].[5]: 75
Sample text
[edit]Below is the Lord's Prayer in Dzubukuá, according to Bernardo de Nantes in his 1709 catechism:[21]: 58–59
Kupadzua nhinho dibbali mo arãquè, donetsoa onadce, dohanaclèa andzenne, duca adôo dseho wohôye donanhe hidommodè bo imwj Iaccedde do anunhiu; do Innea búye do amuiquede mo radda, mono Innea bûye do amuiquede mo hémwj. doddi enna hyammittedè moenaham, docabbi enna hidôodè mo hibuangatedè anhiëj, mono wo hicabbidè do dibuangali hiëiddè dopecrodce Iadcedde ho Ihencoddhete nienwo, donunhie Iadcedde bo Ibulète bammodi Bopadzu nhinho.
Notes
[edit]References
[edit]- ↑ Durazzo, Leandro (2022-05-16). "Revitalização de Línguas Indígenas por Meio de Documentos Coloniais Digitalizados: Comentário Sobre a Retomada do Idioma Dzubukuá pelo Povo Tuxá da Bahia, Brasil". Diffractions (in Portuguese) (5): 6–25 Páginas. doi:10.34632/DIFFRACTIONS.2022.10224.
- 1 2 3 Nelson, Diane; Kariri-Xocó, Nhenety; Kariri-Xocó, Idiane; Pitman, Thea (2023-03-01). ""We Most Certainly Do Have a Language"". Environmental Humanities. 15 (1): 187–207. doi:10.1215/22011919-10216239. ISSN 2201-1919.
- 1 2 Kariri-Xocó, Idiane; Kariri-Xocó, Nhenety; Nelson, Diane; Pitman, Thea (2020-12-29). "A retomada da língua Kariri-Xocó". Cadernos de Linguística. 1 (3): 01–13. doi:10.25189/2675-4916.2020.v1.n3.id254.
- ↑ de Nantes, Bernardo (1709). Katecismo indico da lingua kariris: acrescentado de varias praticas doutrinaes, & moraes, adaptadas ao genio, & capacidade dos indios do Brasil (in Portuguese and Kariri). Lisboa: Officina de Valentim da Costa Deslandes.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link); Available from Commons here - 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Queiroz, José Márcio Correia de (2012). Um estudo gramatical da língua Dzubukuá, família Karirí [A grammatical study of the Dzubukuá language, Karirí family] (in Portuguese). João Pessoa: Universidade Federal da Paraíba. Archived from the original on 13 November 2024.
- ↑ Rodrigues, Aryon Dall'Igna (2005). "Sobre as línguas indígenas e sua pesquisa no Brasil" [On the Indigenous languages and their research in Brazil]. Ciência e Cultura (in Portuguese). 57 (2). Archived from the original on 17 July 2025.
- ↑ "Language Acts". languageacts.org. Retrieved 2025-03-06.
- ↑ "Tingui Botó - Povos Indígenas no Brasil". pib.socioambiental.org. Retrieved 2025-03-05.
- ↑ anai.associacaoindigenista@gmail.com (2025-09-01). "Dzubucuá é a 2ª língua indígena reconhecida oficialmente por uma cidade no Ceará; veja onde". ANAI (in Brazilian Portuguese). Retrieved 2026-07-28.
- ↑ Paulino, Nicolas (2025-09-01). "Dzubucuá é a 2ª língua indígena reconhecida oficialmente por uma cidade no Ceará; veja onde - Ceará". Diário do Nordeste (in Brazilian Portuguese). Retrieved 2026-07-28.
- ↑ Zamponi, Raoul. "Extinct lineages and unclassified languages of Greater Amazonia". In Epps, Patience; Michael, Lev (eds.). Volume 3 Smaller Language Families. De Gruyter Mouton. ISBN 978-3-11-072372-4.
- ↑ Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2026). "Kariri". Glottolog 5.3. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
- ↑ Adam, Lucien (1897). Matériaux pour servir à l'établissement d'une grammaire comparée des dialectes de la famille Kariri [Materials to serve for the establishment of a comparative grammar of the dialects of the Kariri family] (in French). Paris: Maisonneuve. Archived from the original on 21 May 2025. "Je m'empresse de rectifier ce dire de notre compatriote; en réalité, le Dzubucua et le Kipea, sont deux dialectes d'une même langue."
- ↑ Hammarström, Harald (September 2015). "Ethnologue 16/17/18th editions: A comprehensive review: Online appendices". Language. 91 (3): s1–s188. doi:10.1353/lan.2015.0049. ISSN 1535-0665.
- ↑ Rodrigues, Aryon Dall'Igna (1986). Línguas brasileiras: para o conhecimento das linguas indígenas (PDF). Indigenismo. Vol. 11 (2 ed.). Sao Paulo: Loyola.
- 1 2 Dixon, Robert M. W.; Aĭkhenvalʹd, A. I︠U︡, eds. (1999). The Amazonian languages (PDF). Cambridge language surveys. Cambridge, UK ; New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-57021-3.
- 1 2 Nikulin, Andrey (2020). Proto-Macro-Jê: um estudo reconstrutivo [Proto-Macro-Jê: a reconstructive study] (PDF) (PhD thesis) (in Portuguese). Brasília: Universidade de Brasília. Archived from the original on 10 September 2025.
- ↑ Nikulin, Andrey V. (October 17, 2019). Классификация языков востока Южной Америки [The classification of the languages of the South American Lowlands: State-of-the-art and challenges]. Illič-Svityč (Nostratic) Seminar / Ностратический семинар.
- ↑ Nikulin, Andrey (2023-12-01). "Lexical evidence for the Macro-Jê–Tupian hypothesis / Лексические свидетельства в пользу макро-же–тупийской гипотезы". Journal of Language Relationship. 21 (1–2): 1–56. doi:10.31826/jlr-2023-211-206. ISSN 2219-4029.
- 1 2 3 Queiroz, José Márcio Correia de (2008). Aspectos da fonologia Dzubukuá [Aspects of Dzubukuá phonology] (in Portuguese). Recife: Universidade Federal de Pernambuco. Archived from the original on 28 March 2020.
- ↑ Nantes, Bernardo de (1709). Deslandes, Valentim da Costa (ed.). Katecismo indico da lingua kariris [Indian catechism of the Kariri language] (in Portuguese). Lisbon. Archived from the original on 29 April 2025.
External links
[edit]
- Language-revival project page
Media related to Dzubukuá language at Wikimedia Commons
