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Yatê-Fulniô
Native to	Brazil
Region	Águas Belas, Pernambuco
Native speakers	1,000 (2011)
Language family	Macro-Jê? Yatê-Fulniô
Dialects	Fulniô Yatê
Language codes
ISO 639-3	fun
Glottolog	fuln1247
ELP	Yaté
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Fulniô, or Yatê, is a language isolate of Brazil, and the only indigenous language remaining in the northeastern part of that country. The two dialects, Fulniô and Yatê, are very close. The Fulniô dialect is used primarily during a three-month religious retreat. Today, the language is spoken in Águas Belas, Pernambuco.

The language is also called Carnijó, and alternate spellings are Fornió, Furniô, Yahthe, and Iatê.

Classification

Kaufman (1990) classified Fulniô as one of the Macro-Gê languages. However, Eduardo Ribeiro of the University of Chicago, who is working on large-scale classification of Brazilian languages, finds no evidence to support this, and treats it as an isolate. Jolkesky (2016) again has it as Macro-Je, but Nikulin (2020) again excludes it.

Phonology

Fulniô has the following sounds:

Consonants

/pʰ/ is rare.

• A glottal stop occurs, but is considered epenthetic.

• /n/ can be heard as a velar nasal before a velar stop.

• /l/ can be heard as a palatal lateral before a post-alveolar affricate, and can be heard as an alveolar lateral flap when following fricatives, nasals or stops.

Vowels

Fulniô has 8 vowels.

• /a/ can be heard as a nasalized sound when preceding a nasal consonant in closed syllables, or word-finally after a nasal consonant.

There are few contrasts between /o/ and /u/, suggesting /u/ is a recent addition, perhaps from Portuguese.

All seven have nasalized and glottalized allophones, depending on adjacent consonants. Vowels occur long and short. However, long vowels result from assimilation of /h/, are pronounced in one dialect, and so are analyzed as /Vh/ sequences.

Tones are high and low. Contour tones occur allophonically adjacent to voiced consonants. Final syllables tend to lack a tone contrast, and final vowels may be devoiced or dropped.

There are no vowel sequences; vowels either coalesce or are separated by a glottal stop. Consonant clusters are limited to two consonants, apart from a possible additional /j w/, with the maximum syllable being CCCVC; reduced vowels between consonants are analyzed as /j w/ by Meland & Meland: /tfàltʰùlkja/ 'crossing over', /kwlèlja/ 'rotten'.

Vocabulary

Loukotka (1968)

Loukotka (1968) lists the following basic vocabulary items.

gloss	Fulnio
head	i-tká
eye	itó
tooth	dzyashi
foot	ishiri
water	oya
fire	toːwẽ
star	tiúyá
maize	malchi
jaguar	kléken
black	chichiá

Nikulin (2020)

Some Yaathê words given by Nikulin (2020), cited from Lapenda (1965, 2005 ), Barbosa (1991), Costa (1999), F. Silva (2011a, 2011b), and Branner (1887).

Portuguese gloss (original)	English gloss (translated)	Yaathê
cinza	ashes	fêlôwa
pé	foot	fêhê
folha	leaf	ta(-)cʰa
fígado	liver	ta(-)cô
dente	tooth	ta(-)xi
cabelo	hair	li
água	water	ôːja
língua	tongue	kts(ʰ)ale
boca	mouth	ta(-)tʰê
nariz	nose	kʰletʰa
olho	eye	tʰô
orelha	ear	kfakê
cabeça	head	tkʰa
fogo	fire	tôwê
árvore	tree	cʰleka
semente	seed	kêtʰôja
ouvir	hear	kfala-
dormir	sleep	kfafa-
terra	earth	fê(j)ʔa
piolho	louse	cfôwa
pedra	stone	fô(ʔ)a
chuva	rain	flicja
mão	hand	koho ~ kʰoja (?)
caminho	road	tdi
dar	give	kô-
estar sentado	be seated	kine-
estar deitado	lying down	kʰa-
ir	go	o-, no-
rabo	tail	ta(-)tô
carne	meat	ucʰi ~ utxi
nome	name	ketkʲa
unha	nail (finger)	kʰôtkʲa

Bibliography

• Fulniô (Yahthe) Syntax Structure, Meland & Meland (2009 )
• Phonemic Statement of the Fulniô Language, Meland & Meland (2010 )

References

1. Yatê-Fulniô at Ethnologue (19th ed., 2016)
2. Ethnologue
3. Loukotka, Čestmír (1968). Classification of South American Indian languages. Los Angeles: UCLA Latin American Center.
4. Nikulin, Andrey. 2020. Proto-Macro-Jê: um estudo reconstrutivo. Tese de Doutorado em Linguística, Universidade de Brasília.
5. Lapenda, G. C. Perfil da lingua yathê. Arquivos, Recife, v. 21/47, p. 54–72, 1965.
6. Lapenda, G. C. Estrutura da língua Iatê, falada pelos índios Fulniôs em Pernambuco. 2ª ed. Recife: Editora Universitária UFPE, 2005 . 277 pp.
7. Barbosa, E. A. Aspectos fonológicos da língua Yatê Archived 2020-09-26 at the Wayback Machine. 1991. 55 pp. Dissertação (Mestrado em Linguística) – Departamento de Lingüística, Línguas Clássicas e Vernácula, Instituto de Letras, Universidade de Brasília. 1991.
8. Costa, J. F. da. Yaːthê, a última língua nativa no Nordeste do Brasil: aspectos morfo-fonológicos e morfo-sintáticos. 1999. 365 pp. Tese (Doutorado em Linguística) – Universidade Federal de Pernambuco. 1999.
9. Silva, F. P. da. A sílaba em Yaathe. Dissertação (Mestrado em Linguística) – Faculdade de Letras, Universidade Federal de Alagoas, 2011a. 133 pp.
10. Silva, F. P. da. Descrição da estrutura silábica do Yaathe, uma língua indígena brasileira. In: Anais do VII Congresso Internacional da Abralin. Curitiba: s./ed., 2011b. p. 1378–1389.
11. Branner, J. C. Os Carnijós de Aguas Bellas . Revista do Instituto Historico e Geographico Brasileiro, Rio de Janeiro, v. 94, n. 148, p. 359–365, 1929.

• Language isolates of South America
• Macro-Jê languages
• Indigenous languages of Northeastern Brazil