Descrição fonológica da língua Terena (Aruak)

Abstract

In this work, we developed a study about the phonological inventory of the Terena language, an Indian language of the linguistic family Aruak, the objective is to describe and analyze the phonology of the language. Data of the Instituto Sociambiental (ISA) point out that the Terena is today a population about sixteen thousand people, they live in indian reserves situated in the State of Mato Grosso do Sul, in the cities of Campo Grande, Nioaque, Dois irmãos do Buriti, Sidrolândia, Anastácio, Aquidauana and Miranda, there are Terena families in reserves of Kadwéu Indians, in the city of Porto Murtinho and in reserves of Guarani-Kaiowá, in the city of Dourados. In the State of São Paulo another Terena families live together with the Kaingang in the reserve Ariba, region of Bauru. The methodology followed in this work with the Terena language constituted of collecting linguistics data of the Indian community of Cachoeirinha, and to carry out the phonological analyses of the language as of the collected data. The methodology is divided in two ways: field work and theoretical analysis of the data. For the description of the segments of the language were applied the orientations of the pattern of the analysis traditional phonemic suggested in Kindell(1981) and Cagliari (2002) work. After this analysis, we carried out the description of the syllabic structure, of the phonologic process, nasal harmony and considerations about tone. As of the fulfilled analysis is possible to understand as the phonology of the Terena language