The Structure of Akroá and Xakriabá and their relation to Xavante and Xerente: A contribution to the historical linguistics of the Jê languages

The goal of this paper is twofold: on the one hand, we aim at clarifying aspects of the phonology and morphology of Akroá and Xakriabá, to the extent that these are discernible on the basis of both the interpretation of XIX century vocabulary lists collected by explorers and the comparison with their closest extant relatives, the Xavante and Xerente languages. On the other hand, we show that by means of this comparison our knowledge of the relations among these four languages which are taken to form the central branch of the Jê linguistic family, is greatly advanced, contributing in this way to the historical investigation of the Jê languages at large