Data collected by the UNICEF

Data on the Karajá language

Alternate names: Caraiauna, Carajá, Xambioá, Javaé, Ynã, Iny, Ini.

Although “Karajá” is the most widely spread name, it would have a pejorative connotation. “Iny” corresponds to the auto-ethnonym of the people.

Main dialects: there are three main dialects. One of them is also called Karajá, the two others are Xambioá and Javaé. A distinction is often made in the Karajá dialect between Northern Karajá and Southern Karajá.

These dialects are often considered as full-fledged languages by certain linguists.

As for other Amerindian languages, there is also a difference between the language used by men and the language used by women, although they understand each other perfectly well. These two variations bear phonological and lexical differences.

Classification: Macro-Jê Phylum, Karajá.

Karaja is included in Rodrigues review (1999), which by the way has been considered as an isolate for a long time, in a “Jê macro-family” including the Jê languages themselves and other isolated languages or families such as the Kamakã , Maxakalí, Krenák, Pur and Kariri families as well as Guato, Ofayé and Rikbaktsa.

This “Macro Jê phylum” is a hypothesis now considered as highly possible, despite the lack of data on some of these languages.

Geographic area: Brazil, States of Tocantins, Pará, Goiás, Mato Grosso. The 29 Karajá villages are settled along the Rio Araguaia which serves as a border to four Brazilian states, along the Rio Javaés and on the island of Bananal, the world’s largest river island, in the middle of the Rio Araguaia.

Number of speakers: According to the FUNASA (2010), the Karajá population is of 3,198 people. The exact number of speakers isn’t known for sure, but the percentage of speakers of the ancestral language would be very high among the Karajá population. Estimations vary from 1,500 to 3,000 speakers (Fabre 2005). The low estimation might only concern the Karajá dialect. The similarity between the name of the language and the dialect may be misleading. The Karajá dialect has the highest number of speakers, whereas Xambioá has the lowest (approximately 200 people).

Status of the language: No official status.

According to Linguamón: “Portuguese is Brazil’s only official language. The country’s only linguistic legislation concerning other tongues refers to schooling and is restricted to bilingual and intercultural primary education (exclusively in indigenous communities), although there are actually few trained bilingual teachers.”

Vitality and Transmission: Despite a globally positive representation of the language among the Karajá communities, the language should be considered as endangered, at least because of the limited population and uprising pressure applied by “Western” society.

In certain villages such as Xambioá or Aruanã, Portuguese has become the main language and we could fear an abandonment of the language. In other villages however, the language is holding steady, it is still transmitted and is the mother tongue of children who learn Portuguese at school.

Teaching: According to Linguamón: The Karajá communities were “one of the first in which the intercultural bilingual education programme was put into practice, in around 1972. However, as is the case throughout Brazil, indigenous language education is merely symbolic. Carajá’s inclusion in primary education meant that orthography had to be developed for the language. The approach taken towards teaching places great emphasis on oral tradition.”

Historical observations

The Karajá have a long history of contact with western society. The first contacts date back to the 18th century and have increased over time. During the 20th century, the Karajá villages had become “easy targets” for the numerous religious movements, official visits (including two presidents), journalists, researchers and tourists.

Karajá crafts: “ceramic dolls”, basketwork, the popular ritual headgear and the art of body painting have fascinated photographers and anthropologists.

These contacts brought with them traditional curses: adopting a sedentary lifestyle, loss of culture, diseases, alcoholism and malnutrition. Nevertheless, the Karajá are one of the Amerindian people of Brazil who managed to preserve their culture, fashion and language best, all the while keeping in touch with Brazilian society and even playing a political part. They are a part of the native people up to date with social, cultural and territorial demands.

For more information on the Karaján see pages dedicated to them on the must-see Povos Indígenas no Brasil website (in English/Portuguese).

Sources

De Castro Alves, Flávia (2010). Brasil no Amazónico. In « Atlas sociolingüístico de pueblos indígenas en América Latina », UNICEF. Part 1, pp 265-280.

Fabre, Alain. 2005. Diccionario etnolingüístico y guía bibliográfica de los pueblos indígenas sudamericanos. Available online [09/06/2011]

Online sources

Data collected by the UNICEF on Karajá [09/06/2011]

Pages dedicated to the Karajá on the Povos Indígenas no Brasil website (in English/Portuguese) [09/06/2011]

Page dedicated to Karajá on the Linguamón website [09/06/2011]

Additional bibliography

Maia, Marcus Antônio Rezende. 2001. Representações da educação Karajá. Revista Educação e Sociedade XXII/75. Campinas: CEDES.

Ribeiro, Eduardo Rivail. 2006. Subordinate clauses in Karajá. Boletim do MPEG, 1/1: 17-47.

Rodrigues, Ayron D. 1999. « Macro-Jê » In R.M.W. Dixon and Alexandra Y.Aikhenvald, (eds) The Amazonian languages,  Cambridge University Press.

Rodrigues, Ayron D. 2004. Sobre a possível origem da diferença fonética entre a fala feminina e a masculina em Karajá. LIAMES, 4.

See the Atlas sociolingüístico de pueblos indígenas en América Latina and Fabre (2005) for a complete bibliography.