There are distinct male and female forms of speech; one of the principal differences is that men drop the sound /k/, which is pronounced by women.

For example, Karajá bdi /bədɪ/ ‘honey’, -dkỹ /-dəkə̃/ ‘causative suffix’, -tka /-ɗəka/ ‘to tie’, kbò /kəbɔ/ ‘banzeiro’, kdò /kədɔ/ ‘termite’, rkù /ɾəkʊ/ ‘gourd’ correspond to Javaé and Xambioá bidi /bɪdɪ/, -nỹkỹ /-də̃kə̃/, -taka /-ɗaka/, kòbò /kɔbɔ/, kòdò /kɔdɔ/, rùkù /ɾʊkʊ/.

[2]: 37 [5]: 77, 92  Examples of lexical differences between Karajá proper and other dialects include lei ‘anaconda’, tõsõ ‘woodpecker’, makiti ‘sugarcane’, corresponding to Javaé and Xambioá rei, sõsõ, biditi.

Examples of lexical differences include N(orthern) ji(k)arỹ / S(outhern) di(k)arỹ ‘I’,[2]: 89  N wi / S wiu ‘song.♂’,[2]: 134  N adèrana / S wdèna ‘prostitute’, N bdòlèkè / S bdòkùjkè ‘pirarucu fish’, N butxi / S boti ‘clay pot’, N (k)õritxi / S (k)uritxi ‘curassow’,[6] and other word pairs.

[2]: 252  In addition, there is a difference regarding the occurrence of the centripetal prefix (n- or d-, phonologically /d-/) in the first person of the realis mood.

[2]: 169  Phonologically, Javaé is characterized by the occurrence of /e/ corresponding to Karajá /ə/ and Xambioá /i/ preceding a syllable which contains a /i/: Javaé -tebiè ‘to raise, to feed’, hetxi ‘bottom, buttocks’, exi ‘soft’, -teji ‘to put’ correspond to Karajá -tbiè, htxi, àxi, tdi; Xambioá -txibiè, hitxi, ixi, tidi.

[2]: 9, 23  Phonologically, Xambioá is characterized by the progressive palatalization of /k/ to [c] following an /i/, as in ikòrò [icɔˈɾɔ] ‘fox’ (unlike in Karajá, this does not lead to a neutralization with [tʃ]).

Some examples of the differences between men's and women's speech, especially the presence or lack of /k/ (including in borrowings from Portuguese),[7][2] follow.

The first (Northern Karajá, Javaé, Xambioá: ♀ jikarỹ, ♂ jiarỹ /di(k)aɾə̃/; Southern Karajá: ♀ dikarỹ, ♂ diarỹ /dɪ(k)aɾə̃/) and third (tki /ɗəkɪ/, ♂ optional male form: tii /ɗɪɪ/) person pronouns differ based on gender of the speaker, but the second person pronoun kai /kai/ is an exception to this rule, and is pronounced the same by men and women.

[2] It is hypothesized (Ribeiro 2012) that in the past this process of the k-drop became a sign of masculinity and women resisted it in order to keep a more conservative form of speech.

}/idə̃ boho {kədʊɾa ɾək-ɪ-ɾɔ=ɾ-ɛdə̃=kɾe/}{Karajá PL} fish 1PL.INCL-TRANS-eat=POT‘We (inclusive) will eat fish.’Possessive pronouns are not used but are instead marked by affixes (ie.

[2]: 51  In the example below, the verb rika ‘to walk’ is first nominalized by means of the process of consonantal replacement, yielding rira, and then causativized.

In Karajá, it is possible to demote a patient of a transitive verb to peripheral status by means of the antipassive prefix ò-:[2]: 196 Nadi/d-ādɪREL-motherròsùhòrèri.∅-ɾ-ɔ-θʊhɔ=ɾɛɾɪ/3-CTFG-ANTI-wash=CTFG-PROGRNadi ròsùhòrèri./d-ādɪ ∅-ɾ-ɔ-θʊhɔ=ɾɛɾɪ/REL-mother 3-CTFG-ANTI-wash=CTFG-PROGR‘My mother is washing (something).’Reflexivity in the Karajá language is marked by the reflexive prefix with two allomorphs, exi- ̣(on verbs) and ixi- (on postpositions):[2]: 52 Dikarỹ/dɪkaɾə̄Ikarexisuhokre.ka-ɾ-eθi-θʊhɔ=kəɾe/1-CTFG-REFL-wash=FUTDikarỹ karexisuhokre./dɪkaɾə̄ ka-ɾ-eθi-θʊhɔ=kəɾe/I 1-CTFG-REFL-wash=FUT‘I will wash myself.’Hãbu/habuManiximyiθi=bə̄REFL=LOCrobire.∅-ɾ-∅-obi=ɾ-e/3-CTFG-INTR-see=CTFG-IMPERFHãbu iximy robire./habu iθi=bə̄ ∅-ɾ-∅-obi=ɾ-e/Man REFL=LOC 3-CTFG-INTR-see=CTFG-IMPERF‘The man saw himself.’In these examples, the patient is coreferential with the agent (that is, they refer to the same individual).

Ribeiro (2012) finds a number of Apyãwa loanwords in Karajá (such as bèhyra ‘carrying basket’, kòmỹdawyra andu ’beans’, hãrara ‘macaw (sp.

)’, txakohi ‘Txakohi ceremonial mask’, hyty ‘garbage (Javaé dialect)’) as well as several Karajá loans in Apyãwa (tãtã ‘banana’, tori ‘White man’, marara ‘turtle stew’, irãwore ‘Irabure ceremonial mask’), Parakanã, and Asuriní of Trocará (sata ‘banana’, toria ‘White man’).

Examples include warikoko (Kayapó dialect) or watkoko (Xikrin dialect) ‘tobacco pipe’, rara ‘kind of basket’, wiwi ‘song, chant’, bikwa ‘relative, friend’, bero ‘puba flour’, borrowed from Karajá werikòkò, lala, wii, bikòwa, bèrò.

[2]: 18 Jolkesky (2016) notes that there are lexical similarities with the Karib, Puinave-Nadahup, and Tupi language families due to contact.