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Ethnologue > Web version > Country index > Americas > Brazil > Xavánte

Xavánte

A language of Brazil

ISO 639-3xav

Population  10,000 (2000 SIL). 7,000 monolinguals.
Region  Mato Grosso. 6 noncontiguous reservations, 80 villages.
Language map  Brazil, reference number 104
Alternate names   A’uwe Uptabi, A’we, Akuên, Akwen, Chavante, Crisca, Pusciti, Shavante, Tapacua
Classification  Macro-Ge, Ge-Kaingang, Ge, Central, Acua
Language use  Vigorous. All domains. All ages. Positive attitude. Some also use Portuguese.
Language development  Literacy rate in L1: 10%–30%. Literacy rate in L2: 25%–50% (most men, few women). Xavante teachers of Xavante reading and writing. Dictionary. Grammar. NT: 2004.
Writing system  Latin script.
Comments  In 1950s contact with outsiders began and their diseases killed hundreds. Forced to abandon seminomadic means of survival when placed on reservations. Learned swidden agriculture. During the transition many died. OSV. Hunter-gatherers traditionally; swidden agriculturalists: rice, maize, squash, bananas. Traditional religion, Christian.

Entries from the SIL Bibliography about this language:

Academic Publications

BURGESS, Eunice, author. 1971. "Duas análises das sílabas do xavánte."  Available online

BURGESS, Eunice, author. 1986. "Focus and topic in Xavante."  Available online

BURGESS, Eunice, author. 1987. "Foco e tópico em xavánte."  Available online

GRIMES, Joseph E., editor. 1986. Sentence initial devices.  Available online

GRIMES, Joseph E., editor. 1987. Série lingüística.

GUDSCHINSKY, Sarah C., author. 1971. "Ofaié Xavánte, a Jê language."  Available online

GUDSCHINSKY, Sarah C., editor. 1971. Estudos sôbre línguas e culturas indígenas: Trabalhos linguísticos realizados no Brasil (edição especial).

HALL, Joan, author. 1979. Xavante profile.

HALL, Joan, author. 1979. Os sistemas fonológicos e gráficos xavante e português: Análise contrastiva.  Available online

HALL, Joan, author. Available: 2009; Created: 1961. Xavante Noun Phrases and Morpheme Classes.  Available online

HALL, Joan; MCLEOD, Ruth; MITCHELL, Valerie, authors. 1987. Pequeno dicionario: xavánte-português, português-xavánte.

HALL, Joan; MCLEOD, Ruth; MITCHELL, Valerie, compilers. 2004. Pequeno dicionário: Xavante-Português, Português-Xavante.  Available online

HARRISON, Alec, author. 1990. Language learning tips.

HARRISON, Alec, author. 2001. Xavante morphology and respect/intimacy relationships.  Available online

HOLLENBACH, Barbara E., author. 1991. Review of: Sentence initial devices, by Joseph E. Grimes, editor.

MCLEOD, Ruth, author. 1970. "Learning Xavante monolingually."

MCLEOD, Ruth, author. 1974. "Fonemas xavánte."  Available online

MCLEOD, Ruth, author. 1974. "Paragraph, aspect and participant in Xavante."

MCLEOD, Ruth, author. 2003. "Learning Xavante monolingually."

MCLEOD, Ruth; MITCHELL, Valerie, authors. 1977. Aspectos da língua xavánte.

PINI'AWĒ, Airton; WI'I, Coronel, authors; HARRISON, Alec, facilitator. 1999. Dahi'rata nhimirowasu'u: duréi wasu'u (Ancient legends of the Xavante people).  Available online