The validity of Aryon Dall’Igna Rodrigues reconstructive hypothesis of two proto-affricated phonemes for Proto-Tupí-Guaraní
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: This article discusses the reconstruction of two affricates for Proto-Tupí-Guaraní (PTG) – *ts and *tʃ –, proposed by Aryon Dall’Igna Rodrigues (1984-1985), which has been criticized by some linguists who suggest the reconstruction of a single affricate *ts. Our purpose is to revisit Rodrigues’ reconstruction and discuss its validity, demonstrating why the criticisms made against it are unfounded. Among the arguments we have gathered, we highlight the absence of data to support the palatalization in PTG of *ts to *tʃ when preceded by *i, a process that would have given rise to an allophone *tʃ of the PTG *ts, as proposed by the opponents of the reconstruction in question, to justify the reconstruction of a single affricate *ts for PTG (Schleicher 1998; Meira and Drude 2015). Our arguments also include reflexes of what would have been an alveo-palatal affricate in PTG in languages of sub-branches IV and VIII, in addition to strong evidence of contrast between two affricates that would be reflexes of a contrast existing in PTG in languages of sub-branch I. We also show problems with the reconstructions proposed by Schleicher (1998), used as evidence to support the reconstruction of a single affricate for PTG. A preview of our study, developed since 2019, was presented in 2021 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKIU4NcNCcY).
Subfield: Language and Linguistics
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
Funder: Universidade de Brasília
OpenAlex ID: W7204200108