Maká language

Maká is a Matacoan language spoken in Argentina and Paraguay by the Maká people. Its 1,500 speakers live primarily in Presidente Hayes Department near the Río Negro, as well as in and around Asunción.Template:Sfn

Phonology

Consonants

		Labial	Dental	Alveolar	Palatal/ Velar	Uvular	Glottal
Nasal		Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link
Plosive	plain	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link
	ejective	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link
Fricative		Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link
Approximant		Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link		Template:IPA link

Velar consonants alternate with palatal consonants before Template:IPAslink and sometimes before Template:IPAslink. Examples include ~ Template:Gloss and ~ Template:Gloss. The palatal approximant Template:IPAslink is realised as a palatal fricative Template:IPAblink before Template:IPAslink, as in ~ .Template:Sfn

Vowels

	Front	Back
High	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link
Mid	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link
Low	Template:IPA link

Syllables in Maká may be of types V, VC, CV, CCV, and CCVC. When a consonant cluster appears at the beginning of a syllable, the second consonant must be Template:IPAslink, Template:IPAslink, Template:IPAslink, or Template:IPAslink.

Morphology

Nouns

Gender

Maká has two genders—masculine and feminine. The demonstratives reflect the gender of a noun.Template:Sfn

Masculine nouns	Feminine nouns
Template:Interlinear	Template:Interlinear
Template:Interlinear	Template:Interlinear

In the plural the gender distinction is neutralized, and the plural demonstrative is the same as the feminine singular:

Number

Maká nouns inflect for plurality. There are several distinct plural endings: , , , and . All plants take the plural, but otherwise the choice seems to be unpredictable.Template:Sfn

singular	plural	gloss
		Template:Gloss
		Template:Gloss
		Template:Gloss

Case

Maká does not have any overt case marking on nouns. Consider the following sentence, where neither the subject nor object shows any case.Template:Sfn

Agreement with the possessor

Nouns agree with their possessor in person.Template:Sfn

Template:Interlinear

Template:Interlinear

Template:Interlinear

Template:Interlinear

Verbs

Agreement with subject and object

Verbs agree with their subject and object in a rather complex system. Gerzenstein (1995) identifies five conjugation classes for intransitive verbs.Template:Sfn The following two examples show intransitive verbs from conjugation classes 1 and 3.

	tremble (conjugation class 3)		dance (conjugation class 1)
Template:Gcl		Template:Gloss		Template:Gloss
Template:Gcl		Template:Gloss		Template:Gloss
Template:Gcl		Template:Gloss		Template:Gloss
Template:Gcl.Template:Gcl		Template:Gloss		Template:Gloss

Transitive verbs belong to a different conjugation class, Conjugation 6. The following forms show a transitive verb with a 3rd person object:

love (conjugation class 6)
	Template:Gloss
	Template:Gloss
	Template:Gloss
	Template:Gloss

If the object of the transitive verb is 1st or 2nd person, then certain combinations of subject and object are shown by a portmanteau morpheme.

love (conjugation class 6)		subject/object combination
	Template:Gloss	1SUBJ›2OBJ
	Template:Gloss	3SUBJ›1OBJ
	Template:Gloss	3SUBJ›2OBJ

Other combinations involve an object agreement marker which may either precede or follow the subject marker.Template:Sfn

Applicatives

Verbs in Maká have a series of suffixes called 'postpositions' in Gerzenstein (1995), which have the effect of introducing new oblique objects into the sentence.Template:Sfn

The following examples show the applicative suffixes Template:Gloss and Template:Gloss

Syntax

Noun phrases

In noun phrases, the possessor precedes the possessed noun.Template:Sfn

Noun phrases show the order (Demonstrative) (Numeral) (Adjective) N.Template:Sfn

Sentences

Affirmative

The basic word order for a transitive clause in Maká is subject–verb–object, as seen in the following example.Template:Sfn

For intransitive clauses, the basic order is verb-subject.Template:Sfn

Interrogative

In yes–no questions, the usual subject–verb–object order changes to verb-subject-object following an initial particle .Template:Sfn

Sentences with wh-questions show a sentence-initial question word. Maká has a very small inventory of question words, with only three members: Template:Gloss, Template:Gloss, and Template:Gloss. The following example shows an interrogative sentence with an initial question word.Template:Sfn

External links

• Argentinian Languages Collection of Ana Gerzenstein, containing audio recordings of Maká, from the Archive of the Indigenous Languages of Latin America.
• Maca (Intercontinental Dictionary Series)