Maxakalí

language
name=Maxakalí
familycolor=American
states=Brazil
region=Minas Gerais
speakers=728
fam1=Maxakalían
iso2=sai|iso3=mbl

Maxakalí is a Maxakalían language spoken in fourteen villages in Minas Gerais, Brazil, by fewer than a thousand people.

Phonology

Maxakalí has five vowels, occurring in both oral and nasal form.

Vowels

:"The child drinks milk"

Morphosyntactic alignment

Maxakalí is an ergative language. The ergative case covers transitive subjects as well as indirect objects. The absolutive case covers intransitive subjects and transitive objects.

:"The man sits/sat."

:"The man killed the monkeys."

Word shortening and expanding

Noun compounding

Maxakalí nouns readily form compounds, here are some examples:

:"finger"

External links

* Ethnologue: [http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=mbl Maxakalí]
* Proel: [http://www.proel.org/mundo/mashakali.htm Lengua Mashakalí]
* [http://www.sil.org/americas/brasil/PUBLCNS/DICTGRAM/MXDicEN.pdf Maxakalí-English grammar and dictionary]