Trans-Tocantins languages

The Trans-Tocantins languages are a proposed subgroup of the Northern Jê languages, which comprises four languages spoken to the west of the Tocantins River: Apinajé, Mẽbêngôkre, Kĩsêdjê, and Tapayúna.^[1]: 7 It is subdivided in a binary manner into Apinajé, spoken to the east of the Araguaia River, and the Trans-Araguaia subbranch, which includes the remaining three languages. Together with the Timbira dialect continuum, the Trans-Tocantins languages make up the Northern branch of the Jê family.

Trans-Tocantins
Geographic distribution	Tocantins, Pará, Mato Grosso
Linguistic classification	Macro-Jê Jê Cerrado Jê of Goyaz Northern Jê Trans-Tocantins
Subdivisions	Apinajé Trans-Araguaia (Mẽbêngôkre, Kĩsêdjê, Tapayúna)
Language codes
Glottolog	None

The defining innovations of the Trans-Tocantins languages include the replacement of Proto-Goyaz Jê and Proto-Northern Jê *a-mbə ‘eat (intransitive)’ (as preserved in Canela/Krahô/Parkatêjê apà, Pykobjê aapỳ, Panará -ânpâ) with Proto-Trans-Tocantins *ap-ku (> Apinajé apku, Mẽbêngôkre aku, Kĩsêdjê/Tapayúna akhu).^[2]: 274 as well as the fortition of Proto-Northern Jê *j to *ĵ in unstressed syllables (except if preceded by the low vowel *a), as shown below.^[1]: 234

Proto-Northern Jê	gloss	Proto-Trans-Tocantins	Apinajé	Mẽbêngôkre	Kĩsêdjê	Tapayúna
*jujarẽñ	‘to narrate (nonfinite)’	*ĵujarẽñ	xujarẽnh	djujarẽnh	tujarẽn	tujarẽj
*jəbir	‘to go up (nonfinite)’	*ĵəbir	xàpir	djàbiri	tápiri	tàwiri

References

1. Nikulin, Andrey (2020). Proto-Macro-Jê: um estudo reconstrutivo (PDF) (Ph.D. dissertation). Brasília: Universidade de Brasília.
2. Nikulin, Andrey; Carvalho, Fernando O. de (2019). "Estudos diacrônicos de línguas indígenas brasileiras: um panorama" (PDF). Macabéa – Revista Eletrônica do Netlli. 8 (2): 255–305. Retrieved 6 August 2020.