The Ofayé or Opaye language, also Ofaié-Xavante, Opaié-Shavante, is a Macro-Jê language spoken in Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil, forming an independent branch of the language family. It is spoken by only three of the Ofayé people, though language revitalization efforts are underway.
| Ofayé | |
|---|---|
| Opaye | |
| Ofayé | |
| Pronunciation | [əfajɛ] |
| Native to | Brazil |
| Region | Mato Grosso do Sul |
| Ethnicity | 61 Ofayé people (2012)[1] |
Native speakers | 3 (2025)[2] |
| Revival | effort underway[1] |
Macro-Jê
| |
| Dialects |
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | opy |
| Glottolog | ofay1240 |
| ELP | Ofayé |
 Map of Ofayé among the Macro-Jê languages | |
 Ofayé is classified as Critically Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger. | |
Documentation
editGrammatical descriptions have been made by the Pankararú linguist Maria das Dores de Oliveira (Pankararu),[3] as well as by Sarah C. Gudschinsky[4] and Jennifer E. da Silva, from the Universidade Federal do Mato Grosso do Sul.
Geographical distribution
editIt was spoken on the Ivinhema River, Pardo River, and Nhandú River in Mato Grosso do Sul. Guachi, spoken on the Vacaria River in Mato Grosso do Sul, is a dialect.[5]
Language contact
editJolkesky (2016) notes that there are lexical similarities with the Macro-Mataguayo-Guaykuru languages due to contact.[6]
Phonology
editThe consonantal inventory of Ofayé is as follows.[3]: 40
| Labial | Alveolar | Postalveolar/ palatal |
Velar | Labio-velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | n | ||||||
| Stop | voiceless | t | tʃ | k | kʷ | ʔ | |
| voiced | d | dʒ | g | ||||
| Fricative | ɸ | ʃ | h | ||||
| Oral sonorant | ɾ | j | w | ||||
The vowel inventory of Ofayé is as follows.[3]: 42
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i ĩ | ||
| Close-mid | e ẽ | ə | o õ |
| Open-mid | ɛ | ||
| Open | a ã |
References
edit- 1 2 Ofayé at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
- ↑ Comunicação, Grupo Agitta de. "A língua que resiste: o reencontro dos Ofaié com sua voz ancestral - Hojemais de Três Lagoas MS". www.hojemais.com.br (in Brazilian Portuguese). Retrieved 2026-03-19.
- 1 2 3 Oliveira, Maria das Dores de (2006). Ofayé, a língua do povo do mel: fonologia e gramática (Ph.D. dissertation). Maceió: Universidade Federal de Alagoas.
- ↑ Gudschinsky, Sarah C. (1974). "Fragmentos de Ofaié: a descrição de uma língua extinta". Série Lingüística. 3: 177–249.
- ↑ Loukotka, Čestmír (1968). Classification of South American Indian languages. Los Angeles: UCLA Latin American Center.
- ↑ Jolkesky, Marcelo Pinho de Valhery (2016). Estudo arqueo-ecolinguístico das terras tropicais sul-americanas (Ph.D. dissertation) (2 ed.). Brasília: University of Brasília.