Re: Consonant Harmony?

"Daniel A. Wier" wrote:

> >From: "Thomas R. Wier" <artabanos@...>
>
> >Nik Taylor wrote:
> >
> > > nicole perrin wrote:
> > > > I was toying with the idea of vowel harmony in a new lang, but I never
> > > > really liked it as a trait, so I got curious.  Are there any natlangs
> > > > that use "consonant harmony?"
> > >
> > > Yes.  I believe it's Guaraní, a native american language spoken in Peru
> > > (?)
> >
> >Paraguay  (mostly).
>
> And spoken more than Spanish as a first language in that country -- even a
> de facto second official language if I've heard right.  This could happen in
> Peru and Ecuador with Quechua given a few decades...
Here's what the Ethnologue has to say on the matter:

  GUARANÍ, PARAGUAYAN (AVAÑE'E~) [GUG] 4,648,000 in Paraguay (1995),
  95% of the population; hundreds of thousands in Argentina in regions bordering Paraguay.
  Tupi, Tupi-Guarani, Guarani (I). Dialect: JOPARÁ (YOPARÁ). 52% of rural Paraguayans
  are monolingual in Guaraní. Used some in education. 80% lexical similarity with Chiriguano
  and 75% lexical similarity with Mbyá. One speaker of Chiripá indicated it was bilingualism
 rather than linguistic closeness that made Paraguayan Guaraní intelligible to
him, Jopará is the
  colloquial form mixed with Spanish loanwords, used by 90% of the population in and around
  Asunción. National language. Typology: SVO. Bible in press (1996). NT 1913-1977. Bible
  portions 1905-1994.

Now, I *believe* that "national language" here means that it has official status, which would
make it rare among countries of the American continents.

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Tom Wier <artabanos@...>
ICQ#: 4315704   AIM: trwier
"Cogito ergo sum, sed credo ergo ero."
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