Malalí is an extinct Maxakalian language of Brazil, formerly spoken in the state of Minas Gerais. Little is known of Malalí other than a few wordlists recorded in the 19th century by European explorers; however, they reveal that Malalí was the most divergent member of the Maxakalían subgroup of the Macro-Jê languages.
Geographical distribution Malalí was historically spoken in an area between the Jequitinhonha River, Araçuaí River, and Suaçuí Grande River near Minas Novas, Minas Gerais.Ramirez, H., Vegini, V., & França, M. C. V. de. (2015). Koropó, puri, kamakã e outras línguas do Leste Brasileiro. LIAMES: Línguas Indígenas Americanas, 15(2), 223 - 277.
Documentation Two wordlists of Malalí were recorded in the early 19th century by Prince Maximilian of Wied-Neuwied (1826) and Augustin Saint-Hilaire (1830). These form the only contemporary documentation of the language. Both wordlists are of extremely limited quality, however.
Classification Malalí has been shown to be the most divergent member of the Maxakalían language family. It is conservative compared to other members of the family, displaying certain phonological traits and sharing lexical retentions with Krenák, which have been lost in the other languages. Maxakalian, along with Krenák and possibly Kamakã, form the Trans–São Francisco branch of the Macro-Jê language family.
Historically, the classification of Malalí was disputed, with scholars such as Rivet and Loukotka correctly placing Malalí in the Maxakalían family, while others, such as Curt Nimuendajú, treated it as a distinct language family instead.
Phonology Reconstructed Malali phonemes are as follows.
Consonants The European explorers described Malali as a language with many guttural and nasal sounds. +Malalí consonantsLabialDental/AlveolarPalatalVelarGlottalVoicelessobstruent NasalApproximant occurs as an allophone of before nasal vowel nuclei. All consonants except may occur in the onset of a syllable, although this may be simply due to a lack of attestation in the corpus. are attested in the coda position.
Vowels FrontCentralBackplainnasalplainnasalplainnasalNon-low Low
Vocabulary +Malalí vocabularyGlossMalalíGodchurchfirewatershirtaxefathermother
References