Ofayé language

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title: "Ofayé language" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["nuclear-macro-jê-languages", "languages-of-brazil", "indigenous-languages-of-south-america-(central)", "endangered-indigenous-languages-of-the-americas"] description: "Language within the Macro-Jê stock" topic_path: "linguistics" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ofayé_language" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Language within the Macro-Jê stock ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox language"]

Field	Value
name	Ofayé
states	Brazil
region	Mato Grosso do Sul
ethnicity	61 Ofayé people (2012)
speakers	12
date	2012
ref	e25
familycolor	macro-je
fontcolor	white
fam1	Macro-Jê
iso3	opy
glotto	ofay1240
glottorefname	Ofayé
map	Ofaye language.png
mapcaption	Map of Ofayé among the Macro-Jê languages
revived	effort underway
altname	Opaye
dia1	Guachi (Vaccaria)
map2	Lang Status 20-CR.svg
mapcaption2
::

| name = Ofayé | nativename = | states = Brazil | region = Mato Grosso do Sul | ethnicity = 61 Ofayé people (2012) | speakers = 12 | date = 2012 | ref = e25 | familycolor = macro-je | fontcolor = white | fam1 = Macro-Jê | iso3 = opy | glotto = ofay1240 | glottorefname = Ofayé | map = Ofaye language.png | mapcaption = Map of Ofayé among the Macro-Jê languages | revived = effort underway | altname = Opaye | dia1 = Guachi (Vaccaria) | map2 = Lang Status 20-CR.svg | mapcaption2 =

The Ofayé or Opaye language, also Ofaié-Xavante, Opaié-Shavante, is a language spoken in Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil which forms its own branch of the Macro-Jê languages. It is spoken by only a couple of the small Ofayé people, though language revitalization efforts are underway.

Documentation

Grammatical descriptions have been made by the Pankararú linguist Maria das Dores de Oliveira (Pankararu), as well as by Sarah C. Gudschinsky and Jennifer E. da Silva, from the Universidade Federal do Mato Grosso do Sul.

Geographical distribution

It was spoken on the Ivinhema River, Pardo River, and Nhandú River in Mato Grosso do Sul. Guachi, spoken on the Vacaria River in Mato Grosso do Sul, is a dialect.

Language contact

Jolkesky (2016) notes that there are lexical similarities with the Macro-Mataguayo-Guaykuru languages due to contact.

Phonology

The consonantal inventory of Ofayé is as follows. ::data[format=table title="Consonants"] | Labial | Alveolar | Postalveolar/ palatal | Velar | Labio-velar | Glottal | Nasal | Stop | voiceless | voiced | Fricative | Oral sonorant | |---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | ::

The vowel inventory of Ofayé is as follows. ::data[format=table title="Vowels"]

Front	Central	Back	Close	Close-mid	Open-mid	Open
::

Vocabulary

Loukotka (1968) lists the following basic vocabulary items.

:{| class="wikitable" ! gloss !! Opaie |- | one || enex-há |- | two || yakwári |- | tongue || chü-õrá |- | foot || chü-gareyé |- | fire || mitáu |- | tree || komekatá |- | jaguar || woki |- | house || shüa |- | white || õká |}

References

References

1. Oliveira, Maria das Dores de. (2006). "Ofayé, a língua do povo do mel: fonologia e gramática". Universidade Federal de Alagoas.
2. (1974). "Fragmentos de Ofaié: a descrição de uma língua extinta". Série Lingüística.
3. Loukotka, Čestmír. (1968). "Classification of South American Indian languages". UCLA Latin American Center.
4. Jolkesky, Marcelo Pinho de Valhery. (2016). "Estudo arqueo-ecolinguístico das terras tropicais sul-americanas". University of Brasília.

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::