Guarani language

The Guarani (autoglottony: avañeꞌẽ, phonetically, AFI: [a.ʋa.ɲeˈʔẽ] ) is a language of the Tupi-Guarani family spoken by approximately 6.5 million people in the Southern Cone of America, including Paraguayan speakers (who use it as their mother or native language) and those who speak it. use as a second language.

It is one of the two official languages in Paraguay, as established by the National Constitution of 1992, along with Spanish. It also has an academy called the Guaraní Language Academy, created by Law in 2010 together with the Secretariat of Linguistic Policies, being the entities in charge of promulgating the correct regulations for writing and interpreting the language. It is also an official language along with Spanish in the province of Corrientes, Argentina. In Uruguay it was the most spoken language of the Banda Oriental. Since the promulgation of Supreme Decree No. 25894 on September 11, 2000, Guaraní is one of the official indigenous languages of Bolivia, which was included in the Constitution Policy, promulgated on February 7, 2009. In Brazil, the municipality of Tacuru, in the State of Mato Grosso do Sul, has had the Guarani language as official since 2010, along with Portuguese. Guaraní is also one of the official languages of the Southern Common Market (MERCOSUR) since 2006.

It is spoken mainly in Paraguay, as well as in northeastern areas of Argentina (Corrientes, Misiones, Formosa provinces, eastern parts of the Chaco province and in isolated points of Entre Ríos). Due to Paraguayan and northeastern Argentine immigration to the Buenos Aires metropolitan area, hundreds of thousands of people speak it there as well. In the same way, it is spoken in parts of southern Bolivia and central-southwestern Brazil, bordering Paraguay. The jopara in Guarani) —a mixture of this language with Spanish— is very common today.

History

Beginnings to the 20th century

It is the native language of the Guarani, denomination of native peoples of the area. Originally it lacked writing, although the Franciscans developed an orthography based on the Latin alphabet of Spanish, specifically by Fray Luis Bolaños in 1603. The first Guaraní grammar dates from 1639 with the Treasury of the Guaraní Language by SJ Antonio Ruiz de Montoya. Also fortified in 1643 by Alonso de Aragón. In pre-colonial America, it was habitually used by peoples who lived east of the Andes Mountains, approximately from the Caribbean Sea to the Río de la Plata. Its modern variants, such as Paraguayan Guarani and Correntino Guarani (both subvarieties belonging to the variety known as "Creole Guarani", which has its origins in the Cario-Guarani tribe of the XVI), are widely used among mestizo and non-indigenous populations.

Historically, Guarani has been the predominant language of the area that currently geographically encompasses Paraguay and its surroundings (northeast Argentina, southwest Brazil, southeast Bolivia). The entry of Castilian into Paraguay was made with the arrival of the conquistadors, but they never managed to create or maintain a community of speakers that had relevant expression. This is due to the low flow of European migrants and Paraguay's geographic, political, and economic isolation from its neighbors —partly due to remoteness and conflict. In addition, miscegenation was promoted by the authorities in colonial times, unlike other countries. Paraguayan families at that time, made up of the father, of Spanish origin, and the mother of Guarani origin, were generally matriarchal, so the children learned their mother tongue, that is, Guarani.

Throughout history, and especially since the expulsion of the Jesuits, the Guarani language has suffered persecution in the different territories where it was spoken. In Paraguay, since the Independence from Spain, it was used in various governmental instances, although later the Guarani language has been repressed by the Paraguayan governments, especially since the end of the War of the Triple Alliance, when its use and teaching was prohibited. in public schools as a consequence of the defeat before the invading armies. Despite this, the language continued to be the most spoken in homes.

However, populist rulers often used the language as a matter of national pride to excite nationalist fervor and promote a narrative of social unity. During Alfredo Stroessner's dictatorial regime, the government used Guarani to attract Paraguayans from the interior, although Stroessner himself never gave a speech in Guarani. On August 25, 1967, a new National Constitution was promulgated, which for the first time gave legal status to the Guarani language by recognizing it as the national language of Paraguay, making August 25 National Guaraní Language Day.

On the other hand, Guarani was strategic during the international wars that involved Paraguay (that of the Triple Alliance and that of Chaco), since all communications to the front were carried out in that language. Even so, both in the Argentine and Brazilian army there were people with Guarani roots who spoke the language in question.

News

After the advent of Paraguayan democracy, Guarani was established in 1992 in the new constitution as an official language equivalent to Spanish, and from that decade the MEC promoted the teaching of Guarani as one more subject in public schools, both in oral and written communication. However, teaching in the rest of the subjects continues to be predominantly in Spanish, so most Guarani-speakers have learned the language at home.

Guarani became a written language relatively recently, therefore most Guarani-speakers only know how to speak (orally) the language. Few know how to read or write it correctly in the current writing system taught by the Paraguayan Ministry of Education since the end of the last century.

In 2006 it became the official language of Mercosur, along with Spanish and Portuguese. As of 2010, the Guaraní Language Academy was created, which is in charge of ensuring its preservation and evolution, and the Language Law (No. 4251) was promulgated. It was not until 2015 when the president of the Paraguayan government opted to write the first official decree in Guaraní. In Bolivia, the 2009 Political Constitution of the State recognizes 37 official languages, including Guarani, spoken especially in the south. In the case of the Argentine province of Corrientes, Guaraní has been official since 2004 and its teaching is incorporated into all levels of the provincial educational system. In addition, the provincial constitution also has its version in the Guarani language, made in 2007. In 2015, the Judiciary of the Argentine province of Formosa announced that it will publish the provincial Family Violence Law in the Qom and Guarani languages.

Today, there are a large number of pages and websites in Guarani. The Guarani Wikipedia project has also fueled the digital progress of this language. Some Paraguayan newspapers, such as ABC Color and Última Hora, publish some articles in this language, although its use is still minimal. The Mandriva/Mageia distribution (formerly Mandrake Linux) incorporated the option of localization in Guaraní/Avañeꞌẽ since 2005 and also since the same period the community of free software users tries to expand the Guarani dictionary for LibreOffice/Openoffice. The JW.ORG site of Jehovah's Witnesses contains the Bible online, various publications and videos (for married couples, teenagers and children) in this language. It is the website with the most content in Jopará Guarani and Bolivian Guarani and Mbya Guarani. Duolingo, a platform dedicated to language teaching, included a Guarani (Jopará) course in September 2016. In 2022, the Google translation service added the Guarani language.

Despite the advances in preserving and increasing the status of the language, the Guarani language is threatened due to insufficient government efforts to promote the language in the high social and official strata. It is also due to the advance of public education taught mainly in Spanish, the effects of urbanization and access to new technologies such as the Internet, cell phones, television, among others, which promote the spread of Spanish, especially in the new generations raised in urban areas. Proof of this is that between 2002 and 2012, at least 10% of the Paraguayan population stopped using the Guaraní language, according to the Paraguayan Census of the DGEEC in 2012.

Variants

Three main variants of the Guarani language can be distinguished, not fully intelligible among themselves: the missionary or Jesuit language, the tribal Guarani spoken by the Guarani and the modern/Creole Guarani, the latter the most widely spoken today, in its Paraguayan version.

• The Guaraní missionary (Jesuitic) spoke in the area and time of influence of the Jesuit missions, between 1632 and 1767. This variety had disappeared completely by 1870, but left important written documents.

• The Guaraní Tribal: it covers the dialects spoken by five or six ethnic groups settled within the Paraguayan territory and geographically limited: "Western Guaraní", "Paí tavyterá", "ava guaraní" and "Guraní mbya language". It is also known as the "guaraní-ete", as well as "pure or closed Paraguay", and is used mostly by the Guaraní indigenous tribes.
• Guaraní criollo or modern: it encompasses its modern variants, such as the Paraguayan Guaraní and the Guaraní corntino (pertaining both subvaries to the variety known as "guaraní criollo", which has its origins in the cario-guaraní tribe of the centuryXVI), have a wide use between mestizo and non-indigenous populations themselves. This variant has a slight influence on Castilian, unlike the Tribal Guaraní, which is a more "puro" Guaraní.

Use and geographic distribution

Guarani can be considered Creole, but it is said that it is better to call it modern, since it is the most widely spoken variant within the Guarani language, especially its Paraguayan variant. Tribal Guarani is spoken by indigenous minorities of Guarani origin and tourists who spread out in isolation among their respective tribes in Paraguay, northern Argentina, western Brazil, and southeastern Bolivia, among others.

Geographical extension of the Guaraní language.

Guarani is spoken by about 6.5 million speakers, according to data from Ethnologue (2020). Most Guarani-speakers are bilingual in Spanish, that is, they know and speak both languages, although a significant percentage continues to speak almost exclusively in Guarani (Paraguayans from rural areas).

Most of the Guarani-speakers in their Creole or modern version are Paraguayans residing in the country. Likewise, it is spoken by a significant number of Paraguayans residing abroad, or foreigners with Paraguayan ancestry. It is also spoken by non-Paraguayan Guarani-speakers, generally located in the northeast of Argentina, center-west of Brazil and southeast of Bolivia. It is estimated that as a mother tongue it is spoken by about 5.5 million people, and as a second language, by about 1 million people, for those who were raised and/or mainly use Spanish or another language.

In Paraguay

Unlike what happens in other countries of the continent, and despite the fact that its indigenous population is only around 1.5% of the total (being the majority mestizos and whites), 77% of Paraguayans speak and /o understands the Guaraní language (either as a mother tongue or as a second language), in its variant derived from the extinct indigenous Carians. Paraguay is one of the few almost completely bilingual nations in the world.

According to data from the 2017 Permanent Household Survey, carried out by the General Directorate of Statistics, Surveys and Censuses, the languages most spoken at home most of the time by the population aged 5 or over in Paraguay They are: 40% only Guarani, 30% Spanish and Guarani, and 26.5% only Spanish. The rest speak other languages. The departments where the Guarani language is most widely spoken at home are: San Pedro (78.87%), Caazapá (77.39%) and Concepción (71.34%); while where Guarani is least spoken are: Asunción (8.95%), Central (15.9%) and Alto Paraná (37.75%).

In the urban centers and mainly in the capital, jopará is spoken, a Creole dialect that adopts Spanish words to the grammatical and prosodic structure of Guaraní. The Guarani spoken mostly in the country is the so-called Guarani jeheꞌa, a Creole dialect characterized by the transformed mixture of words from Spanish to Guarani.

Despite the official rank of the Guarani language in the country and despite the high number of Guarani-speakers, the Spanish language continues to be used mostly in governmental matters, in official documents, judicial processes, administrative processes, professionals, in business, in the media and in education —classes are taught mainly in Spanish—, which is why Guaraní is relegated to use in a more colloquial environment, between family and friends.

In other countries

In Bolivia, the 2009 Political Constitution of the State recognizes 37 official languages, including Spanish, Guarani and other languages spoken by the indigenous peoples of Bolivia. The Guarani language is spoken by about 100,000 inhabitants (the 1% of the population) according to the 2012 census. It is spoken especially in the south, towards the Gran Chaco region, bordering Paraguay.

In Argentina, Guarani is spoken in the northeastern provinces, bordering Paraguay, such as Corrientes, Misiones, Chaco, Formosa, Entre Ríos Also in the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires and the Province of Buenos Aires there is a good number of Guarani-speakers, where Argentine Guarani language dialects are spoken or known by about one million people, including Paraguayan immigrants who speak Paraguayan Guarani or Jopará (2005). In the province of Corrientes, in where the Argentine Guarani dialect is spoken, the co-official status of the Guarani language was decreed in 2004 and its obligatory use in education and government. In addition, the provincial constitution also has its version in the Guarani language, made in 2007. In 2015, the Judiciary of the Argentine province of Formosa announced that it will publish the provincial Family Violence Law in the Qom and Guarani languages.

In Brazil, the municipality of Tacuru, in the State of Mato Grosso do Sul, has had the Guarani language as official since 2010 along with Portuguese. On the other hand, the municipality of Paranhos, also in the State of Mato Grosso do Sul, the Guarani language is in the approval phase for its officialization. Likewise, the language is spoken by Paraguayan immigrants and their descendants in the Brazil, as well as in areas bordering Paraguay by the brasiguayos, who speak a mixture of portuñol that would be a mixture of the Portuguese language and Spanish and Guaraní.

In other regions of the world, especially Latin America, Spain and the United States, there are minorities that speak Guarani, most of whom are Paraguayan immigrants or descendants of them.

Importance

Guarani was the first Native American language to achieve official language status. In Paraguay, since the Independence from Spain, it was used in various government instances, until the end of the Triple Alliance war, when its use was prohibited as a result of the defeat before the invading armies. During the Chaco War, it was used as the main language in the Army fighting against Bolivia. Since the Constitution of 1967, the Guaraní language is recognized as the national language and Spanish the official language of the Republic of Paraguay. With the enactment of the 1992 Constitution, both languages are official.

In other countries, such as Bolivia, the Guaraní language is official along with Spanish and along with 35 other languages, according to the Political Constitution of the State of 2009. In the province of Corrientes, Argentina, the Guarani language is official along into Spanish since 2004. In Brazil, the municipality of Tapucu in Mato Grosso do Sul has Guarani as its official language along with Portuguese since 2010.

In other countries, such as Bolivia, the Guaraní language is official along with Spanish and along with 35 other languages, according to the Political Constitution of the State of 2009. In the province of Corrientes, Argentina, the Guarani language is official along into Spanish since 2004. In Brazil, the municipality of Tapucu in Mato Grosso do Sul has Guarani as its official language along with Portuguese since 2010.

It is preferable to learn a language of ours, which is authentically Latin American, that to exchange expressions and ideas with other clothing. The European Union contains dozens of official languages to regions whose population does not exceed one million. Why isn't Guaraní given due attention here, since other native languages have expired? Latin America has the opportunity to give examples to the world. This attention given to Guaraní does not mean the gradual abandonment of Portuguese or Spanish in the Mercosur countries, but rather a way to give voice to one of our roots, the indigenous, and to value the same without any feeling of backwardness or guilt. Countries called "developed" will have to learn Guaraní and respect Latin American cultural space.

Bruno Peron Loureiro, journalist.

Likewise, musical genres such as Guarania, Paraguayan Polka or Chamamé (the latter being a Unesco Intangible Cultural Heritage), are influenced by the Guarani culture and the lyrics of their songs are mostly written in the Guarani language. Other artists of modern musical genres also include the Guarani language in their songs. On the other hand, the Guarani is present in Paraguayan cinema through films such as "Hamaca Paraguaya" (2006) by Paz Encina, "7 boxes" (2012) by Juan Carlos Maneglia and Tana Schémbori, and "Empty Cans" (2014) by Hérib Godoy, "Gritos del Monday" (2016) by director David Miranda. After Latin and Greek, Guarani is the language that contributed the most names to scientific nomenclature.

Writing system

Their modern alphabet is basically a subset of the Latin script. Its orthography is largely phonemic, with letter values mostly similar to those of Spanish. The Latin letters B, C and D are used only as components of digraphs, while F, Q, W, X, Z are never used. The letter L, the digraph Nt and the digraph Rr are only used in words borrowed from Spanish, influenced by Spanish phonology, or non-verbal onomatopoeia. The digraph Ll is not used. Some letters are pronounced in a particular way such as "H" which is pronounced as "ha" and "J" which is pronounced as "ya".

The tilde is used with many letters that are considered part of the alphabet. In the case of Ñ / ñ, it differentiates the palatal nasal from the alveolar nasal (as in Spanish), while marking stressed nasalization when used over a vowel (as in Portuguese): ã, ẽ, ĩ, õ, ũ, and. (Nasal vowels have been written with various other diacritics: ä, ā, â, ã.) The tilde also marks nasality in the case of G̃/g̃, used to represent the nasalized velar approximant by combining the velar approximant & #34;G" with the nasalizing tilde. The letter G̃ / g̃, which is unique to this language, was introduced into the orthography relatively recently in the mid-20th century, and there is disagreement about its use. It is not a precomposed character in Unicode, which can cause typographical inconveniences, such as the need to press "delete" twice, or imperfect rendering when using computers and fonts that do not support the complex design feature of glyph composition.

Only stressed nasal vowels are written as nasals. If an oral vowel is stressed and it is not the final syllable, it is marked with an acute accent: á, é, í, ó, ú, ý. That is, the stress falls on the vowel marked as nasalized, if there is one, more on the syllable marked with stress, and if none appears, then on the final syllable. For blind people there is also a Guarani Braille.

Phonology

Guarani distinguishes at least 33 phonemes, of which 12 are vowels and 21 are consonants.

Vowels

Of the 12 Guarani vowels (puꞌae), 6 are oral (puꞌae jurugua), 6 nasal (pu'ae tĩgua), one is given the name guttural (puꞌae ahyꞌogua) (y = /ɨ/) and another is called guturonasal (puꞌae ahyꞌotĩgua) (ỹ = /ɨ̃/).

The spelling of all these phonemes is identical to their IPA sign except for the spellings <y, ỹ> used to denote phonemes /ɨ, ɨ̃/.

The vowel y in Guarani means «water»

Consonants

Of the 21 Guarani consonants (pundie), 8 are plosives, 5 fricatives, one affricate, one approximant, 2 trills and one sibilant. The following chart represents the chart of phonemes according to the mode of articulation and the point of articulation of the phonemes and the usual spelling for each of them:

		the	Alveolar	post- Alveolar	alveo-palatal	ensure that	labiovelar	glotal
Nose		[m] m	[n] n		[]] ñ
oclusive	oral and deaf	[p] p	[t] t			[k] k		[both]
	nasal and sound	[mb] mb	[nd] [nt] nd nt			[GRUNTS] ng
cold			[s] s	[CHUCKLES] ch				[h] h
approximate		[]] v			[d impetus~͡ intended] j	[]] []] g	[w] [w] gurus
vibrant			[ worship] r

Allophones

[ʋ] → [β] or [v].

[ʃ] → [ɕ].

[h] → [x].

[kW] → [kʷ] or [ku].

[ŋgw] → [g̃ʷ], [g̃w] or [g̃u].

[d͡ʒ] → [ɟ͡ʝ], [j], [ɟ] or [ʒ].

[ɰ] → [ɣ].

[ɰ̃] → [ŋ].

[w] → [ɰʷ] or [wu].

[w̃] → [ɰ̃ʷ] or [w̃u].

In Spanish lexical borrowings, the multiple trill /r/ also intervenes. Voiced stops can be articulated as proper stops in non-nasal contexts or as nasals in nasal contexts. The phoneme /t/ can sound like [t] or as [ɾ]. The phoneme /ɰ/ is often pronounced like the phoneme /ɣ/ in its non-nasal form. Plosive phonemes /b̃, d̃, g̃/ have both prenasalized allophones [ⁿb, ⁿd, ⁿg] as totally nasal allophones [m, n, ŋ] (the latter occur in "nasal word"), the phoneme /ʒ/ has two allophones, one non-nasal [ʒ] and other nasal [ɲ].

Plosives

• p: Bilabial deaf occlusive consonant. Like the "p" of English and similar to that of Spanish.
• mb: An occlusive bilabial nasalized sound consonant; similar to a "mb" or "mp" set in Japanese and similar to Spanish. He starts with his mouth shut and then opens his lips.
• t: Deaf dental occlusive. Just like the "t" of Spanish.
• nd: An occlusive occlusive nasal sound lipdental; similar to a set "nd" or "nt" in Japanese and similar to Spanish. It starts with the mouth barely open, and the tongue in contact with the upper teeth.
• nt: An occlusive lipdental nasalized sorda; similar to a "nt" set in Spanish. It starts with the lips barely separated, closed teeth (or almost closed) and tongue against the upper teeth.
• k: Consonante oclusiva guard derda. Like the English "k" or the "c" of the Spanish before "a", "o" and "u" (kilo, koala, house, Something).
• ng: Occlusive consonant watch nasalized sorda; similar to a final "ng" set in English in "song". It starts with the semi-open mouth, and the tongue withdrawn in contact with the palate veil.
• (Put it on.): Sorda glotal occlusive consonant. It abruptly disrupts sound emission.

Fricatives

• v: Consonant lipdental sound cold. Similar to the "v" of English or French and the "w" of German; never "b".
• ch: Consonante fricativa palato-alveolar sorda. Just like the "sh" of English, the "ch" of French or the "sch" of German; in the Guaraní of Argentina, like the Mbya-guaraní do, it is made with the post-alveolar "ch".
• g: Consonante fricativa vigila sonora oral. Like the "g" of Spanish to "a", "o" and "u" (gasa, cap).
• g: Fricative consonant watch nasal sound; similar to "g", but simultaneously emitted by mouth and nose.
• h: Consonant glotal deaf. Similar to the "h" of English or German or to the "jota" of Mexican or Andalusian Spanish. Always with aspiration.

Africate

• j: African consonant sound palatal. Just like the "j" of English, similar to the use of "y" as a Spanish consonant in the words "plaster", "yogo".

Approximant

• l: Approximate lateral sound alveolar. Just like the English "l" and similar to that of Spanish.
• j: Approximate palatal consonant. Similar to the "y" of English, similar to the use of "y" as consonant in Spanish in the words "plaster", "yogo".
• rr: Approximate alveolar consonant. Same as the English / laughing

Nasals

• m: Bilabial sonic nasal consonant. Just like the "m" of Spanish.
• n: Nose consonant sound alveolar. Just like the "n" of Spanish.
• ñ: Nose consonant sound palatal. Just like the "he" of Spanish.

Vibrant

• r: Vibrant vibrating alveolar simple sound. Just like the "r" intersilábica of Spanish in the words "but", "expensive".
• rr: Approximate alveolar consonant. Same as the English / laughing

Whistling

• s: Consonante sibilante alveolar sorda. Sound like the "s" of the Spanish rioplatense or English.

Observations

Nasal words

Guarani distinguishes between nasal and oral phonemes. The nasality of any phoneme is extended to the whole word, for reasons of euphony, and causes sandhi phenomena in the suffixes that are added to it. Therefore, words are only oral in which none of the phonemes that make it up have a nasal character.

Nasales: akã (“head”), forã (“bonito”), kuñata (Miss) youmbireko (“wife”)

Orals: rajy (“hija”), ♪ (“father”), sy (“mother”), arapoty (“spring”)

Put

The put (in Spanish: pusó) or glottal stop appears only in intervocalic position and momentarily interrupts the emission; although it may appear to be simply an absence of sound, it is a phoneme in its own right, as it is in phonological opposition to continuous sound. Its name comes from the Guarani pu ("sound") + so ("to let go", "to separate"). In the syllable it accompanies the vowel that follows it.

Do not spell "put" in Guarani since it is a word in Guarani, and the acute words do not have a graphic tonic accent (the tilde is not graphic).

Accentuation

In Guarani no word ends in a consonant. Almost all of them have an accent (muanduhe) on the last vowel. The graphic accent is used only when the accented vowel is not the final one.

For example, the spelling tape («path») reads [ta'pe] and tata («fire») reads [ta'ta]; for its part áva («hair»), which reads ['a. va] or tái («spicy») ['tⁿaj], bear the graphic mark of their accentuation.

Graphics

To write Guarani, the Latin alphabet provided with diacritics is commonly used to mark nasal vowels, plus an additional sign for the glottal stop or "saltillo" and other phonemes, and some prenasalized phonemes are represented by digraphs (ch, mb, nd, ng, nt, rr). Modern orthography with these conventions is highly phonemic, that is, it faithfully represents the phonology of the language.

After the conquest and Jesuit literacy in the Guarani missions region, the communities used the Latin alphabet for transcription. The Jesuit Antonio Ruiz de Montoya collected and documented the state of the language in his famous works Treasure of the Guaraní language (a Guarani-Spanish dictionary), Art and Vocabulary of the Guarani language (a Spanish-Guarani grammar compendium and dictionary) and Catechism of the Guarani language (a Guarani grammar).

The spelling of the language was not standardized, however, until recently. The detailed supra in the phonology section corresponds to the one officially established in 1950 by the Guaraní Language Congress of Montevideo, which is currently used for language teaching in Paraguay; This, which replaced the rules of the Congress of Writing called in 1867 by Marshal Francisco Solano López, tried to mark the phonological differences between Spanish and Guaraní by adopting a notation very similar to that of the international phonetic alphabet. However, important works such as the Great Castilian-Guarani and Guarani-Castilian dictionary by Antonio Ortiz Mayans have not respected the legislation, despite being after its promulgation.

The frequent place-names of Guarani origin in Argentina and Uruguay use the Castilian spelling, as well as that of Portuguese in Brazil, thus losing the distinction between nasals and orals.

People with visual disabilities have Guarani Braille.

Numbering system

Historically, the Guarani had a counting system that was limited from one to five, and sometimes, the expressions to denote higher amounts were vague. In the dialect spoken by the Mbyás, it is usually interpreted by duplicating and unitary adding numbers, as is the case with the number six, where mboapy meme means "twice three"; meanwhile, irundy meme rire becomes "twice four and what follows". However, in Paraguayan-standardized Guarani, numbers after five are composed using syllable fusion, a morphological system proposed in the 20th century. by linguists Antonio Guasch and Reinaldo Decoud Larrosa. For example, in the case of the number six: Poteĩ (Po + peteĩ); the number eleven, Pateĩ (Pa + peteĩ); the number sixteen, Papoteĩ (Pa + poteĩ). For ordinal numbers the suffix -ha is added, as in poapyha (eighth) and paha (tenth). The number zero is represented under the name mba'eve, which also means "nothing". The digit numbers in their respective dialects are:

Grammar

Guarani is a strongly agglutinative language, of a polysynthetic type; that is, each word is composed of numerous chained morphemes that provide units of meaning. Unlike fusional-type languages, such as Spanish, semantic and syntactic features —such as tense, person, gender, or mode— are not expressed by alterations in the verbal root, but by the addition of specific units..

However, and exceptionally among agglutinative languages, Guarani is prone to sandhi between morphemes; a specific form, known as eclipse, governs the mutation of the phoneme [t] at word beginnings. The phonetic nasal or non-nasal realization of a phoneme is also subject to rules of phonetic sandhi.

Tense and mood marks are represented not by authentic affixes but by clitics and may be displaced from adjacent to the verb stem for reasons of prosodic elegance or conceptual clarity; in the first case, called metáthesis, the affix is preceded to anticipate the mood or tense of the following phrase, while in the second, called hyperthesis, an affix of time A mode is shifted to avoid repetition or to specify exactly which part of the compound phoneme it applies to.

The language lacks distinction between singular and plural forms and grammatical case, and does not use the definite article.

Conjugation

There is only one verb mood in Guarani, the indicative, which has the present, future and past simple tenses. There are seven grammatical persons:

(*): For oral verbs use "ja-", for nasal verbs use "ña-". To conjugate according to the grammatical persons, prefixes and suffixes are added: karu (to have lunch), jakaru (we have lunch), jakarúta (we will have lunch). As in Spanish, in Guarani there is a tacit subject, so that pronouns can be omitted in a sentence. The prefixes for the present tense are as follows: para "che" is "a-"; to "where" is "re-"; for "haꞌe" and "haꞌekuéra" is "o-"; for "ñande" is "ha-" -if the verb is an oral word- and "ña-" -if it is a nasal word-"; for "ore" is "ro-"; and for "peẽ" is "pe-".

To conjugate in the future tense, add the suffix "-ta". For the past tense the suffix "-kuri" is added; in nouns it is used ''-kue''. Example 1 "We": u (to eat), roꞌu (we eat), roꞌuta (we will eat) and roꞌukuri (we ate). Example 2 "You/You": ke (to sleep), peke (you sleep/sleep), pekéta (you will sleep/ they will sleep) and pekekuri (you slept/slept). Example 3 "He/She": mbaꞌapo (to work), ombaꞌapo (works), ombaꞌapóta (will work) and ombaꞌapokuri (worked).

Verbs

There are three regular conjugations in Guarani:

This classification is governed by the prefix ending of the first person singular. According to Carlos Gatti Batillana, this criterion was applied for the first time by the missionary E.L.G. Powys, in the language of the Paraguayan Chaco ethnic group.

• Them sandal verbs or 1a conjugation in a, most of them are verbs of medium action. They are the prototypically active verbs, also called own verbs. In them, for some, the agent is the one who performs and controls the action. However, in the passive voice, where the same determining prefixes are used, there is no such thing (see 'Voice of the verbs'). The relationship between agent and patient or between agents and patients, in Guaraní is determined by the Voz modifier, which can be applied to all types of verb, and not by the determinant prefix of conjugation.

• Air Verbs: are built by adding a /i/ linked to the verbal determinants or prefixes of conjugation of the sandal verbs. They are mostly verbs of immediate or non-durable action. Some consider it a mixed-type structure, in which the agent performs an action that falls back on it. For these the /i/ is a brand of agent or object incorporated.

• Czech verbs: are constructed by the possessive-attributive determinants before a qualitative adjective or lexema. It is also called “attributive verb”, but this denomination calls deceit, because only the calls are constructed with it qualitative attributive prayers (those whose attribute is expressed by a adjective) and not the classification or substantive attributive sentences (the attribute is expressed by a substantive) that are built or have another structure. In addition, there are several copulative verbs to build other attribute structures (see 'The Guaraní Attributive Prayer').

Denial

Negation is indicated by a circumfix: "n/nd" + verb + "i/ri", in Guarani. The preverbal portion of the circumfix is "nd-" for oral bases and n- for nasal bases. For the 2nd person singular, an epentetic is inserted before the base, for the first person plural inclusive, an epentetic is inserted.

The postverbal portion is "-ri" for stems ending in "-i", and only "-i" for all the others. However, in spoken Guarani, the "-ri" of the circumfix is often omitted for bases ending in "-i"

Negation can be used in all tenses, but for future or unreal reference, the normal timestamp is replaced by moꞌã, resulting in n(d)(V)-base-moꞌã-i as in Ndajapomoꞌãi, "I will not do it".

There are also other negatives, such as: ani, ỹhỹ, nahániri, naumbre, naꞌanga.

Tense and aspect morphemes

• -bouquet: indicates the action in the past, albeit very close, which is often translated as "appears" or 'receive'. Example: Oguahēbouquet"He just got here."
• -kuri: indicates the action, in time past. Example: Ha:ukuri, "I have just eaten" (ha.u irregular form of the first person of the singular of.u, "comer"). It can also be used after a pronoun. Example: ha che kuri, che po".a, "and about what happened to me, I was lucky."
• -vaekekue: indicates a fact that happened, but a long time ago. Okañyvaekekue"He disappeared a long time ago."
• -raee: indicates that the speaker had doubts before, but he is sure at the time he talks. Example: Nde rejoguaraee pete". ta".angambyry pyahu, "You bought it was a new television."
• -rakaee: expresses the uncertainty of a fact in perfect time. Peikorakaee Paraguay, "I think you lived a while in Asunción." However, today this morphism has lost part of its meaning, using more ra.e and va.ekue.

The verb form without suffixes is a somewhat aorist present. Example: Upe ára resẽ reho mombyry, "That day you went out and went far".

• -ta: indicates that the speaker is speaking in the future, of immediate events, is also used as an authoritarian imperative. Example: Oujeýta agpreciate, "will be back soon."
• -Ma: it has the meaning of "ya". AjapoMa"I already did."

These two suffixes can be added together. Example: Ahátama, "I'll go".

• -va vaerã: indicates something not imminent or something to be done for social or moral reasons. Example: Péa ojejapova vaerã"That must be done."
• -ne: indicates something that will probably happen or something that the speaker imagines is happening. Example: Mitãnguéra agcuraa ogudahéne "Children are probably home now."
• -(in orals) (in nasal): indicates continuous action at the time of speaking. It also emphasizes an action. Example: Rojatapyhine"We're making fire";hine"I am!" (facing "me").
• -vo (vove): has a subtle difference with "hine" in which 'vo' indicates that what is being done is not necessarily the time to speak. Example: amba:apóVo"I'm working (not necessarily now)."
• -pota: indicates proximity immediately before the start of the process. Example: Ajukapota"I'm about to kill." (Here applies a particular rule: if the verbs end in "po", the suffix changes to mbota. Example: ajapombota"I'm about to do, or I'll do it right now."
• -pa: emphatically indicates that a process is over. Amboparapa pe ogyke, "I painted the wall completely or finished painting the entire wall.

This suffix can be joined with 'ma', forming 'páma'. Example: ñande jaikuaapáma nde remimo'ã, "now we get to know all your thought".

• -my: usual action in past time: Oumy"I used to come a lot."

These are unstressed suffixes: ta, ma, ne, vo, "mi"; so the stress falls on the last syllable of the verb or the last stressed syllable.

Other morphemes

• -♪: desiderative sufjo -to want at the moment. Example: "(Che) añemoarandu♪"I want to study."
• you- desiderative prefix - wanter on conditional time. Example: TaHaa, "I'd like to come in." Note that you-is the underlying form. It is similar to the negative in which it has the same alternations and removals of vowels, depending on the person marker in the verb.
• -rõ: indicates conditional, equivalent to yes. Example: Akarúrõ: "If I eat."
• -rã: comes from guarã but abbreviated, equivalent to "para" in nouns. Example: Rembirekorã "For your wife." For verbs, haguã is used.
• -Come on. equivalent to what. Example: Omimbíva. "That shines." It is also used as usual action of present time. Example: Che akaruGo. pyharevépe. "I usually eat tomorrow."
• -Go: superlative prefix. Example: Ko ara hakuGo.. "It's hotter today."

Concordance

The Guarani verb agrees in number and person with the subject. Furthermore, the third person singular and plural verb forms are identical, the difference remaining only in the first and second person. The name in Guarani does not have a grammatical gender.

Adjective

Adjectives are usually placed next to the noun, but their position varies depending on the type of the noun. The demonstratives, possessives, numerals and indefinite ones come before the noun, with the exception of ordinals, while the qualifiers are immediately postponed to the noun they govern. Postponed adjectives are invariable in gender and number.

Guarani uses a genitive construction without a preposition, immediately postponing the subject of the genitive to the object of the genitive; thus Peru rembireko means 'Peter's wife'.

Syntactic Order

In a sentence with a transitive verb that has an explicit subject (S), object (O) and verb (V), the most frequent order is SVO and in certain cases also OVS.

The respective position of nouns, verbs, adverbs and pronouns is not rigid, various orders being possible; depending on pragmatic choices, emphasis and aesthetics. Guarani uses postpositions instead of prepositions.

Lexical loanwords from Spanish

There are several words in Guarani whose origin is Spanish. Many of them are related to things unknown in the New World before Spanish colonization.