On the Guaranian evidence for two Proto-Tupi-Guarani affricates

Fernando O. de Carvalho (Федеральный университет Рио де Жанейро; fernaoorphao@mn.ufrj.br)

Journal of Language Relationship, № 20/1-2, 2022 - p.81-112

Abstract: It has been recently claimed that the orthodox reconstruction of two affricate segments for Proto-Tupi-Guarani (PTG) is untenable because the relevant reflexes are too chaotic. Under this view, PTG is best reconstructed with a single affricate segment, the multiplicity of correspondence patterns being explained as the result of later dialectal borrowing among Guaranian varieties. This view is discussed and rejected here after detailed evaluation. I show that the correspondences in question are not as chaotic as implied, and that evidence from the Guaranian branch calls for the reconstruction of two affricate segments for PTG. Minor correspondence patterns with special reflexes in Guaranian and in other Tupi-Guarani languages are plausibly explained by other, independent developments such as palatalization, dialectal borrowing, and sporadic/reductive losses in compounds. Although the traditional reconstruction of two segments is vindicated, we offer here the first explicit formulation of this proposal backed up by comparative reconstruction of PTG etyma.

Keywords: Tupi-Guarani languages, sound change, phonological reconstruction

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