More evidence for an internal classification of Tupi-Guarani languages

Description

In this paper I will consider linguistic e v i d - ence from phonology and morphology for internal classification of Tupi-Guarani. Lexical coherence has been shown by various authors, including L e m - le ( 1 9 7 1 ) , although her first aim was a phonological classification. Leite (1982) studied the place of Tapirapé within the Tupi-Guarani family on the basis of vowel changes. It is evident that the grouping of languages depends on the criteria a p - plied. Rodrigues, for instance, showed that the traditional division of the family into Tupi and Guarani languages, which was founded on the c o n - servation of - s - in Tupi and its change to - h - in Guarani, is not sufficient for a genetic c l a s s i f i c a - tion and that lexical comparison leads to quite different results (Rodrigues 1964:103). Rodrigues' recently published paper on the "Internal r e l a t i o n - ship within the Tupi-Guarani language family" ( R o - drigues 1 9 8 4 / 8 5 ) is based on evidence from h i s t o r i - cal phonology. 1.2.2. Ultimately, the purpose of the present study will be a genetic grouping, too, because the c r i t e - ria for the comparison of phonetic, phonological, and morphological properties were mostly chosen according to the principle of conservation or loss of a feature of one of the "classical" languages of the family, that is, of Tupinambá (Old Tupi) and Avañe'é (Modern Paraguayan Guarani). Questions of genetic relationship are also involved when we consider innovations unknown in one of the " c l a s - sical" languages