Annotated Swadesh wordlists for the Matacoan group (Matacoan family).

Languages included: Eastern Wichí [mat-wor]; Bazán Wichí [mat-wjb]; Nocten Wichí [mat-wnh]; Güisnay Wichí [mat-wwz]; Iyojwaʼja Chorote [mat-iya].

DATA SOURCES

I. Wichí

Eastern Wichí

Nercesian 2014 = Nercesian, Verónica. Wichi lhomtes. Estudio de la gramática y la interacción fonología-morfología-sintaxis-semántica. München: LINCOM Studies in Native American Linguistics. // A grammar of Lower Bermejo Wichí.

Bazán Wichí

Braunstein 1989 = Braunstein, José Alberto. Contribución para el Intercontinental Dictionary Series Worldlist (Universidad de California en Irvine, ed. Mary Ritchie Key). Available online at <http://pueblosoriginarios.com/lenguas/wichi.php>. // A wordlist of Wichí as spoken in J.G. Bazán.

Nocten Wichí

Claesson 2016a = Claesson, Kenneth. Notas sobre el vocabulario 'weenhayek. Available online at <http://noctenes.org/onewebmedia/Vocabulario%20'weenhayek%2C%20publ.pdf>. // A dictionary of Nocten Wichí.

Claesson 2016b = Claesson, Kenneth. Estudios de la gramática del idioma 'weenhayek. Available online at <http://noctenes.org/onewebmedia/Estudios%20del%20nocten.pdf>. // A grammatical sketch of Nocten Wichí as spoken in Villa Montes.

Güisnay Wichí

Gutiérrez & Osornio 2015 = Gutiérrez, Marcos; Osornio, María Elina López. Diccionario Wichi. Buenos Aires: Editorial Dunken. // A dictionary of Wichí as spoken in Misión Chaqueña. The dialectal differences are sometimes indicated.

Avram 2008 = Avram, Megan Leigh Zdrojkowski. A Phonological Description of Wichí: The Dialect of Misión La Paz, Salta, Argentina. MA thesis. Ypsilanti: Eastern Michigan University. // A description of Wichí phonology as spoken in Misión La Paz. No texts or glossaries included.

II. Iyojwaʼja Chorote

Drayson 1999 = Drayson, Nicholas. Niwak Samtis. Diccionario Iyojwa'ja 'Lij – Kilay 'Lij (Chorote-Castellano). Available online at <http://pueblosoriginarios.com/lenguas/chorote.php>. // An online dictionary of Iyojwaʼja Chorote. Some phonologic oppositions might be disrespected.

NOTES

I. Wichí

1. General.

Wichí (Wichí Lhamtés) is usually subdivided into three or more dialects, though their names vary. The following subdivisions are accepted here:

(1) Vejoz (Tovar/Najlis/Ethnologue) = Upper Bermejo (vernacular according to Nercesian).

(2) Nocten (Tovar/Najlis/Ethnologue) = Noktén = We(e)nhayek (autodenomination) = Upper Pilcomayo (vernacular according to Nercesian) = Bolivian.

(3) Güisnay (Tovar/Najlis/Ethnologue) = Wiznay = Lower Pilcomayo (vernacular according to Nercesian).

(4) Eastern (Gerzenstein) = Teuco (Golluscio) = proper (Najlis) = Lower Bermejo (vernacular according to Nercesian).

According to Najlis, a fifth variety (Montaraz) is spoken between the Bermejo and the Pilcomayo.

2. Transliteration.

Eastern Wichí

The correspondences between the Eastern Wich́i alphabet and UTS are as follows.

UTS	Alphabet
p	p
pʼ	pʼ
pʰ	ph
t	t
tʼ	tʼ
tʰ	th
k, q	k
qʼ	kʼ
qʰ	kh
kʷ	kw
č	ch
čʼ	chʼ
čʰ	chh, chʼʼ
c	ts
cʼ	tsʼ
cʰ	tsh
ʔ	ʼ
fʷ	fw
s	s
š	sh
χ, x	j
ɬ	lh
h	h
m	m
ʔm	mʼ
m̥	mh
n	n
ʔn	nʼ
n̥	nh
ɲ̥	ñh
l	l
ʔl	lʼ
w	w
ʔw	wʼ
ʍ	wh
y	y
ʔy	yʼ
ç	yh
a, ɑ	a
e, ɛ	e
i	i
o, ɔ	o
u	u

Notes:

1) k and x are found after front vowels and consonants. The allophones ɑ, ɛ, ɔ occur when adjacent to uvular consonants. The vowels are automatically nasalized after nasal or aspirated consonants, as well as after h. This is marked in UTS.

2) Whenever there is an alternation involving ɬ in 2SG (ɬ disappears in this form in some nouns and personal pronouns; in some verbs, on the contrary, ɬ is found only in this form), both forms are quoted separated by a slash.

Bazán Wichí

According to the subdivisions discussed in [Nercesian 2014], the variety spoken in Juan G. Bazán (wichí bazanero) would be an Eastern Wichí variety. Nevertheless, Braunsteinʼs data do not always match Nercesianʼs phonetically (although there is an almost perfect lexicostatistical agreement). Post-vocalic ʼ is absent from Braunsteinʼs description; here it is transcribed as creaky voice on the preceding vowel. On certain occasions, symbols that are not listed in the table (x, lʼ) are encountered in Braunsteinʼs transcription; provisionally, they are left as such in UTS.

UTS	Alphabet
p	p
pʼ	pʼ
t	t
tʼ	tʼ
k	k
kʼ	kʼ
kʷ	kw
č	ch
čʼ	chʼ
c	c
cʼ	cʼ
hʷ	hw
s	s
ɬ	lh
h	h
m	m
n	n
l	l
w	w
y	y
a	a
e	e
i	i
o	o
u	u

Nocten Wichí

Nocten Wichí is spoken in Bolivia. The transcription corresponds to the orthography in the following way:

UTS	Alphabet
p	p
pʼ	pʼ
pʰ	ph
t	t
tʼ	tʼ
tʰ	th
k	k
kʼ	kʼ
kʰ	kh
kʷ	kw
kʸ	ky
kʸʰ	kyh
q	q
qʼ	qʼ
qʰ	qh
ʔ	ʼ
c	ts
cʼ	tsʼ
cʰ	tsh
s	s
x	j
xʷ	jw
h	h
l	l
lʼ	lʼ
ʔl	ʼl
ɬ	lh
m	m
mʼ	mʼ
ʔm	ʼm
m̥	mh
n	n
ʔn	ʼn
nʼ	nʼ
n̥	nh
w	w
ʔw	ʼw
ʍ	wh
y	y
yʼ	yʼ
ʔy	ʼy
ç	yh
a	a
aː	aa
e	e
eː	ee
i	i
iː	ii
ɑ	à
ɑː	àà
o	o
oː	oo
u	u
uː	uu

Güisnay Wichí

Güisnay Wichí is represented by the subdialect of Misión Chaqueña ([Gutiérrez & Osornio 2015]). When data from this source are unavailable, the data from Misión La Paz ([Avram 2008]) are given instead; otherwise they are quoted in the comments.

According to [Avram 2008], the phonemic status of ɑ, q and x is dubious, since there are no minimal pairs. Nasalized vowels, voiceless nasal consonants, and qʷ are positional allophones but they are still marked as such in UTS.

The data in [Gutiérrez & Osornio 2015] are given in the practical orthography. Occasionally th is found corresponding to ɬ in the other dialects; in these cases, it most probably stands for ɬ and not for tʰ in Güisnay Wichí. This inconsistency is due to a former orthographic convention. The correspondences are as follows:

UTS	Avram	Orthography
p	p	p
pʼ	pʼ	pʼ
t	t	t
tʼ	tʼ	tʼ
k, q	k	k
qʼ	kʼ	kʼ
kʸ	kʸ	ch
kʸʼ	kʸʼ	chʼ
-kʷ-, -qʷ	kʷ	kw
ʔ	ʔ	ʼ
m	m	m
n	n	n
s	s	s
h, x	h	j
hʷ	hʷ	fw
c	ts	ts
cʼ	tsʼ	tsʼ
w	w	w
y	y	y
l	l	l
l̥	l̥	lh, th
m̥	hm	mh
n̥, n̥ʸ	hn	nh
pʰ		ph
tʰ		th
kʰ		kh
čʰ		chh
cʰ		tsh
ʍ		wh
ç		yh
mʼ		mʼ
nʼ		nʼ
wʼ		wʼ
yʼ		yʼ
a, ã	a	a
ɑ	a	ä
e, ẽ	e	e
i, ĩ	i	i
o, õ	o	o
u, ũ	u	u

II. Iyojwaʼja Chorote

UTS follows the transcription used by Drayson.

UTS	Drayson
p	p
pʼ	pʼ
t	t
tʼ	tʼ
c	ts
cʼ	tsʼ
č	ch
k	k
kʼ	kʼ
ʍ	jw
s	s
h	j
ɬ	jl
l	l
m	m
n	n
w	w
y	y
ʔ(V̆)	ʼ
a	a
e	e
i, ʸ	i
o	o
u	u

Database compiled and annotated by: André Nikulin (August 2016).