Where are the Macro-Jê languages spoken?

These languages are spoken in Brazil, over an area stretching from the Amazon Basin to the Uruguayan boarder.

Total number of speakers (estimates)

Around 50,000 according to Aryon Rodrigues (AR, 1999)

Classification

Nowadays the Macro-Jê family counts between 17 and 19 active languages.

Jê subfamily

North-eastern branch: extinct

Northern branch

Apinajé: 1,500 speakers according to the UNESCO, 720 according to AR

Kayapó: 7,266 speakers according to the UNESCO, 5,000 according to AR

Panará: 160 speakers according to AR

Suyá: 60 to 200 speakers according to AR

Tambira (dialectal group): 2,800 speakers according to AR

Central branch

Xavánte: 13,303 speakers according to the UNESCO, 9,000 according to AR

Xerénte: 2,569 speakers according to the UNESCO, 1,550 according to AR

Southern branch

Kaingáng: 20,000 speakers according to AR and 18 000 according to the UNESCO

Xokléng:  no more than 100 speakers according to the UNESCO

Kamakã subfamily: extinct

Maxakalí subfamily

Maxakalí: 1,271 speakers according to the UNESCO, 854 according to AR

Krenák subfamily

Krenák: 10 speakers according to the UNESCO, nearly extinct according to AR

Puri subfamily: extinct

Kariri subfamily: extinct

Boróro subfamily

Boróro: 1,390 speakers according to the UNESCO

Umutina: 1 speaker according to AR, extinct according to the UNESCO

Unclassified

Yatê: 1,000 speakers according to the UNESCO, 3,000 according to AR

Karajá: 1,500 speakers according to the UNESCO, 2,900 according to AR

Ofayé: 12 speakers according to the UNESCO, 85 according to AR

Guato: 5 speakers according to AR

Rikbaktsa: 990 speakers according to AR

Notes on the Macro-Jê languages classification

We hereby follow the classification as provided by Aryon Rodrigues (1999).

The association of the Jê language family to the Kamakã, Krenák, Pur, and Kariri familys as well as to the Guato and Rikbaktsa isolates within a “super-family” called Macro-Jê is nowadays regarded as a highly probable hypothesis, despite the lack of data on some of these languages. However, the belonging of some of these languages to the family mentioned above is still under debate, especially Yaté and Guato.

In an article that followed the one we used as reference, Rodrigues suggests a hypothetical relation between the Jê, Tupi-Guarani, and Carib languages, within a “Jê-Tupi-Carib” family, which would stand as a major Amerindian language “macro family”. This hypothesis is yet to be sufficiently demonstrated at this point, and therefore we have chosen not to introduce it in the present classification.

Are the Macro-Jê languages endangered?

Yes. Many languages belonging to this family (over half of them!) have disappeared in the course of the 20th Century.

Umutina is probably the last one to have reached extinction.

Krenák and Guato are about to disappear, if not already extinct.

Yatê, Rikbaktsa and Xerénte are considered as “seriously endangered” by the UNESCO, and all the other languages of this family are more or less under threat.

Sources

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