A relationship of avoidance developed between Portuguese and indigenous people, flaring to hostility in cases of contact.

[3] The 19th century rubber boom caused non-Indians to settle permanently in Rondônia, and the posture of avoidance and indifference turned into one of enslavement for the Kwaza people.

[3] When the highway B-364 opened, impoverished Brazilians, logging companies, and cattle ranchers infiltrated the area and forced the indigenous people off the best lands and onto reserves, further encouraging them to let go of their native language.

[4] An automated computational analysis (ASJP 4) by Müller et al. (2013)[6] also found lexical similarities between Kwaza and Aikanã.

Van der Voort, in a paper submitted to the Leiden Research School, demonstrated similarities between Kwaza, Kanoê, and Aikanã (all three unclassified) with the Tupari languages, being Akuntsu, Koaratira and Mekens.

[8] Jolkesky (2016) notes that there are lexical similarities with the Taruma, Arawak, Jeoromitxi, Arawa, Jivaro, Mura-Matanawi, Nambikwara, Peba-Yagua, Aikanã, and Kanoe language families due to contact.

Today there are only about 40 individuals, Kwaza, Aikanã and Latunde peoples, who have been living together for a number of decades in the south of Rondônia.

[2] The majority of the Kwaza have either been decimated or dispersed, and their culture destroyed by the national society which has been highly influenced by Western states.

This may be the biggest conflict that the Kwaza people have faced, thus contributing to the endangerment and possible extinction of their language.

The traditional habitat of the Kwaza was the high forest in the Amazon, living and settling around rivers.

[2] Due to the extremely limited documentation, combined with the semi-nomadic lifestyles of the Kwaza speakers and the lack of permanent settlements from a slash and burn agriculture, the historical location of the people is largely unknown.

In addition, disease brought by Western contact and the imposed culture actively worked to destroy the local materials and societies.

This lies on the headwaters of Apediá or Pimento Bueno River, in the southeast of the federal Brazilian state of Rondônia.

Two are scattered among the Aikanã within different indigenous terriroties, and one family is located in a Portuguese-speaking town.

Levi-Strauss was on a reconnaissance expedition documented words on standardised enquiry forms developed for this purpose.

[3] The standardised forms used allowed for easy lexical comparisons between different languages explorers encountered.

Levi-Strauss's 1938 glossary is the oldest source of data from Kwaza and is available in van der Voort's book.

In 1942, Lieutenant Estanislau Zack created a 222-comparative word list of four languages, including Kwaza.

The present description of Kwaza is the result of Carlson's word list, as he brought the language to the attention of the linguistic world.

Van der Voort includes texts of tales translated from Kwaza to English to bring attention to Brazilian indigenous culture in an effort to preserve it.

[3] Kwaza has eight oral and seven nasal vowel phonemes, which are all attested in a minimal pair set, despite the rare /œ/ occurrence.

[7] Hein van der Voort (2000) categorizes Kwaza as a 'pro-drop' language because subject agreement is obligatory, while pronominal reference is optional.

kẽi?ỹ-'he-tsesmooth-NEG-DECkẽi?ỹ-'he-tsesmooth-NEG-DEC'It isn't smooth' [21]ja-'he-tseeat-NEG-DECja-'he-tseeat-NEG-DEC'He did not eat' [21]Reduplication in the language is very common, and occurs in many contexts, some of which include lexical roots, constituent syllables of roots, verbal person inflections and other parts of morphemes.

For example: Hãidi=hãi'di-tsedrip=drip-DECHãidi=hãi'di-tsedrip=drip-DEC'It is dripping' [24]haka=ha'ka-hỹ-tɛold=old-NOM-NOMhaka=ha'ka-hỹ-tɛold=old-NOM-NOM'Very old thing' [24]hy=hy-'dwa-kigo=go-DR:onto-DEChy=hy-'dwa-kigo=go-DR:onto-DEC'He is walking (on) the path' [24]There is also another way in the Kwaza language where reduplication occurs to intensify meaning.

Repetition of a syllable of the lexical root may also occur with repetitive and intensifying meaning, oftentimes it is the first syllable which is reduplicated: do-do'te-kiRED-shed-DECdo-do'te-kiRED-shed-DEC'It is leaking' [25]ca-ca'ri-kiRED-shoot-DECdutu'repigca-ca'ri-ki dutu'reRED-shoot-DEC pig'He killed many pigs' [25]tsitsɛ-'wãwe.EX-AOe-e'sa-eteja-kiRED-sting-1PO-DECtsitsɛ-'wã e-e'sa-eteja-kiwe.EX-AO RED-sting-1PO-DEC'many wasps stung us' (t) [25]Kwaza has two periodic tense markers, nocturnal sile- and matutinal kore-.

There is one case van der Voort describes a syntactic government relation between verb and argument.

It is especially useful when they are both third person arguments:[3] wãbeezjwãu-'wãJoão-AOe'xyi-kisting-DECwã zjwãu-'wã e'xyi-kibee João-AO sting-DEC'a wasp stung João' [29]hiri'nishamanzjwãu-'wãJoão-AOisi'xwe-kimedicate-DEChiri'ni zjwãu-'wã isi'xwe-kishaman João-AO medicate-DEC'the shaman is treating João' [29]-wã is not always necessary to differentiate between object and subject, because verbal cross-reference obligatorily expresses the subject.

Even though cross-reference agreement is enough to distinguish subjects and objects, -wã is still obligatory in some cases:[3] zjwãu-'wãJoão-AOtsa'si-da-kifollow-1S-DECzjwãu-'wã tsa'si-da-kiJoão-AO follow-1S-DEC'I went after João' [30]wãbeesi-'wãI-AOe'xyi-ta-kisting-1O-DECwã si-'wã e'xyi-ta-kibee I-AO sting-1O-DEC'(a) wasp stung me' [30]Without -wã, syntactic ambiguity occurs.

This can be seen in the following third person examples of an animate subject and inanimate object:[3] uru'huvulturexare'ja-kisearch-DECaufleshho-'tεrotten-NOMuru'hu xare'ja-ki au ho-'tεvulture search-DEC flesh rotten-NOM'the vulture is looking for rotten meat' [31]ZjwãuJoãoywynwỹ-ko'rotree-CL:armto'wε-kibreak-DECZjwãu ywynwỹ-ko'ro to'wε-kiJoão tree-CL:arm break-DEC'João broke a branch off the tree' [31]When verbs with the transitivising morpheme -ta- occur with animate objects, they must be marked with -wã:[3] zjuze-'wãJosé-AOoja-'ta-da-kigo-TRA-1S-DECzjuze-'wã oja-'ta-da-kiJosé-AO go-TRA-1S-DEC'I visited José' [32]When the causative -dy is attached to intransitive verbs, they are transitivised.

-na is often seen with verbs that have a directional suffix:[3] a'xy-nahouse-LOCa'xy-nahouse-LOC'in the house' [35]ʃupi'ngwaja-naChupinguaia-LOCojabu'ru-da-kiarrive.there-1S-DECilatoyesterdayʃupi'ngwaja-na ojabu'ru-da-ki ilatoChupinguaia-LOC arrive.there-1S-DEC yesterday'I arrived there in Chupinguaia yesterday' [35]-ko is used to mark nouns that function as an instrumental argument verbs:[3] prego-kospike-INS'twe-kipierce-DEClo'tedoorprego-ko 'twe-ki lo'tespike-INS pierce-DEC door'the spike went through the door' [36]co'ha-kofoot-INS'dai?oce-'raclear-IMPco'ha-ko 'dai?oce-'rafoot-INS clear-IMP'kick it aside with your foot!'