Reconstrução lexical e Fonológica do Proto-Mondé (2ª parte)

Abstract

The Mondé family, formed by three languages (Salamãy, Suruí, and a third language composed of four dialects), is one of the ten families that make up the Tupi linguistic trunk. Current research and the recent discovery of a semi-speaker of the Salamãy language make it possible to reconstruct a mother tongue for the family, the Proto-Mondé, whose temporal depth may reach 2000 thousand years. The present study aims at continuing the project developed during the past year, from which we elaborated a preliminary table with the reconstructed phonological segments for Proto-Mondé. We have revised the comparative work based on an expanded list of cognates from various grammatical classes (nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc.). In addition, we collected new words from the Salamãy and Suruí languages, and corrected previous data. The consonant reconstruction of Proto-Mondé was revised and hypotheses about pitch and prolongation were elaborated. We studied the rules of dissimilation of High-Alto sequences to facilitate the reconstruction of the tonal system. The language of the Gavião (one of the dialects of the family; the others are: Zoró, Aruá, and Cinta-Larga) presents tone dissimilation with a Low-Low sequence. The Zoro dialect and the Salamãy and Suruí languages have dissimilation when the sequence involves a high tone followed by another high tone. Changes in consonant reconstruction are concentrated mainly in the approximants "r and ':-1. In the Proto-Mondé suprasegmental system, there were two distinctive pitch levels, as well as a distinction between short and extended syllables. Certain morphotonemic rules were already present. We hope to compare these results with the reconstructed plate-languages for other families of the Tupi trunk.