Estudo Comparativo das Famílias Ramarama e Puruborá do Tronco Tupi

Abstract

The Ramarama and Puruborá language families belong to the Tupi trunk and are currently composed of only one language each, Karo and Puruborá, respectively. These languages are spoken in the state of Rondônia (Brazil) 'and have only 4 speakers in the Puruborá language and 170 in the Karo language. A preliminary study of these languages indicated a possible close genetic relationship between them (GALUCIO and GABASJR., 2002). In order to verify whether such finding is confirmed, the present work aims to analyze the degree of genetic similarity between these languages and their position in the internal classification of the Tupi trunk. The comparative corpus used in this work is composed of two word lists, totalizing 526 lexical items, which are compared in Aweti, Gavião, Karitiana, Karo, Kuruaya, Mawé, Mekens, Munduruku, Puruborá and Xipaya languages, belonging to the Tupi trunk. The study was developed through the Lexical-Statistical Method, which consists in quantifying and determining the percentage of words with identical or similar meanings (cognates) in languages suspected of belonging to a common origin. The existence of common phonetic or phonological attributes between the languages was also verified. Through the comparative study between the languages involved in this work, we found that the Karo and Purubora languages present a relevant percentage of cognates between them and share some common phonetic properties. The configuration of the phonological framework of the oral vowels of these languages is an example of an attribute they share. Based on these characteristics, it is postulated that there is a closer relationship between Karo and Purubora than the other languages analyzed. Thus, it is feasible to say that the Ramarama and Puruborá families, consequently, form a subgroup within the Tupi trunk.