Ayoreo language

Ayoreo
Spoken in	Paraguay, Bolivia
Region	Chaco, Alto Paraguay departments (Paraguay), Santa Cruz department (Bolivia)
Ethnicity	Ayoreo people
Native speakers	3,771  (date missing)
Language family	Zamucoan Ayoreo
Language codes
ISO 639-3	ayo

Ayoreo is a Zamucoan language spoken in both Paraguay and Bolivia. It is also known as Morotoco , Moro, Ayoweo, Ayoré, and Pyeta Yovai. However, the name "Ayoreo" is more common in Bolivia, and "Morotoco" in Paraguay. It is spoken by Ayoreo, an indigenous ethnic group traditionally living on a combined hunter-gatherer and farming lifestyle.

Classification

Ayoreo is classified as a Zamucoan language, along with Chamacoco.

Geographic distribution

Ayoreo is spoken in both Paraguay and Bolivia, with 3,771 speakers total, 3000 of those in Paraguay and 771 in Bolivia. Within Paraguay, Ayoreo is spoken in the Chaco Department and the northern parts of the Alto Paraguay Department. In Bolivia, it is spoken in the Gran Chaco Province, in the Santa Cruz Department.

Phonology

Bertinetto (2009) reports that Ayoreo has the following vowels, which appear both as oral and nasal:

	Front	Central	Back
High	i		u
Mid	e		o
Low		a

Grammar

The prototypical constituents order is SVO. Ayoreo is a fusional language.^[1] Verb declension is simple and does not present any tense-inflection.^[2] Ayoreo is a mood-prominent language.^[1] Nouns can be divided into possessable and non-possessable; possessor agreement is expressed through a prefixation.^[3]

External links

• Ayoreo language at Ethnologue
• Entry for Ayoreo at Rosetta Project
• (streamed video) Ayoreo man recounts first encounter with bulldozer. Survival International. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0O0aeINaHk. 
• "Lengua ayoéro" (in Spanish). Promotora Española de Linguistica (PROEL). http://www.proel.org/index.php?pagina=mundo/amerindia/ecuatorial/samukoan/ayoreo.  The page provides colored linguistic maps (habitat, other language families).
• Sorosoro Project

References

Bertinetto, Pier Marco 2009. Ayoreo (Zamuco). A grammatical sketch. Quaderni del Laboratorio di Linguistica della Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa. 8 n.s.

Briggs, Janet R. 1973. Ayoré narrative analysis. International Journal of American Linguistics 39. 155-63.

Sušnik, Branislava J. 1963. La lengua de los Ayoweos - Moros. Etnolingüística 8 (Boletín de la Sociedad Científica del Paraguay y del Museo Etnográfico). Asunción 8: 1- 148.

Sušnik, Branislava J. 1973. La lengua de los Ayoweo-Moros. Estructura gramatical y fraseario etnográfico. Asunción: Museo Etnográfico “Andrés Barbero”.

• Ayoreo language at Ethnologue

1. ^ ^{a b} Bertinetto, Pier Marco 2009. Ayoreo (Zamuco). A grammatical sketch. Quaderni del Laboratorio di Linguistica della Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa. 8 n.s. [1]
2. ^ Ciucci, Luca 2007/08. Indagini sulla morfologia verbale nella lingua ayoreo. Quaderni del Laboratorio di Linguistica della Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa, n.s. 7. [2]
3. ^ Ciucci, Luca 2010. La flessione possessiva dell'ayoreo. Quaderni del Laboratorio di Linguistica della Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa, n.s. 9,2. [3]