Inflectional Morphology in the Zamucoan Languages

[Extract] According to the traditional classification, the Zamucoan family consists of two living languages, Ayoreo and Chamacoco, spoken in the Chaco Boreal area, in southeastern Bolivia and northwestern Paraguay. The family also includes an extinct language, Old Zamuco, spoken during the 18th century in the Jesuit reduction of San Ignacio de Samucos. Old Zamuco is closer to Ayoreo than to Chamacoco, but Ayoreo does not seem to stem directly from Old Zamuco. The previous tradition, based solely on lexical comparison and ethnographic criteria, has always supported the theory that Ayoreo and Chamacoco belong to the same language family. This work aims at describing the inflectional morphology of the Zamucoan languages in order to demonstrate their genetic relationship. The Zamucoan languages are poorly described, although a series of scientifically oriented studies have appeared very recently as part of a project at Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa, which began in 2007 and aims at providing an accurate synchronic and diachronic description of the Zamucoan languages and investigating the language contact with the surrounding languages (see, among others, Bertinetto 2009, Bertinetto & Ciucci 2012, Bertinetto, Ciucci & Pia 2010, Ciucci 2007/08, Ciucci 2009, Ciucci 2010a, 2010b). The need for a scientific description of Ayoreo and Chamacoco is motivated by the fact that both languages are considered endangered by UNESCO (see Crevels & Adelaar 2000/06). For this reason, I hope that the present investigation could contribute to preserve the languages and the cultural memory of Chamacoco and Ayoreo speakers and to raise awareness about the history of their respective languages