Mamaindê, also known as Northern Nambikwara, is a Nambikwaran language spoken in the Mato Grosso state of Brazil, in the very north of the indigenous reserve, Terra Indígena Vale do Guaporé, between the Pardo and Cabixi Rivers.
Their endangerment arose as a result of various intertribal wars and massacres in the 30s and 40s as well as measles outbreaks, leaving them with only 50 Mamaindê members by 1965 according to SIL workers Peter and Shirley Kingston.
[4] Traditionally located in the Cabixi river region, the Mamaindê people belong to the Nambikwara language family.
This language family was extensively studied by American Anthropologist and Ethnologist, David Price, who describes the discovery of gold in the Coxipo river in 1719 as the root for the initial presence of Portuguese and other non-indigenous people in the Mato Grosso region.
Being a variety of Northern Nambikwara, the Mamaindê indigenous group, specifically, only came into contact with Brazilian society about three generations ago.
[5] It wasn’t until 1911 that the Portuguese actually starting to settle in the Nambikwara area, following the spread of the telegraph line throughout Brazil.
[6] Though contact between the indigenous and non-indigenous was both violent and peaceful, measles and massacres ultimately began to exterminate most Nambiwaran tribes.
This genocide, which occurred in a span of 30 years, paved the way for the assimilation of the survivors to local Brazilian populations (especially after losing their land), and eventually led to the creation of pidgins/dialects between their indigenous languages and Portuguese.
They decided to walk back to their original land anticipating better living conditions, though lost 30% of their already decaying population on their 400km journey.
[7] During these arduous times when their population was down to 50 people and on the path to extinction, SIL International, a non-profit language development organization, became involved in their communities.
[8] Pushing for sustainability and working towards community development, SIL was able to kick-start their advancement in preserving the Mamaindê culture, language and population.
[8] David Price contributed greatly to research on the Nambikwara community and focused his fieldwork on them for his doctoral dissertation in anthropology (1967-1970).
This work includes information on the languages in the Nambikwara family in terms of Grammatical Clauses, Verbs, Nouns, Vowels, Phrases, Syllables, Adjectivals, Consonants, etc.
Beginning in the 60s, SIL International (formerly Summer Institute of Linguistics, Inc.) worked among the Mamaindê which could be considered a documentation project of the language.
Miller has a PhD in Social Anthropology (CAPES Concept 7) from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, UFRJ, Brazil and has work entitled The Things.
She conducted a research project from 2007 - 2008 called Objectivization and subjectivation regimes in Amazonia: a study of the body adornments of Mamainde (Nambiquara).
The project works to foster spaces of cultural knowledge exchange among the Mamaindê for example by valorizing the tradition of hand crafted utensils (Curriculo Lattes).
In this language, the classifier is obligatory "in such a construction"[24] as nouns are frequently characterized by physical attributes (shape, state, function, etc.).
[25] nũsa-halo-kʰuPS1.PL-land-NCL.LAND[26] nũsa-halo-kʰuPS1.PL-land-NCL.LANDour landnakatos-tuNegarotê-FNSna-halo-kʰuPS3-land-NCL.LANDun-jeʔ-latha-Ø-wa.far-EMP-S3-PRS-DECL[26] nakatos-tu na-halo-kʰu un-jeʔ-latha-Ø-wa.Negarotê-FNS PS3-land-NCL.LAND far-EMP-S3-PRS-DECLThe land of the Negarotê is very far away.nãinʔtoh,CN.EVEN.SOna-kʰuPS3-NCL.LANDnaihstillʔaḭ-ten-aʔ-Ø-wa.go-DES-1P-PRS-DECLnãinʔtoh, na-kʰu naih ʔaḭ-ten-aʔ-Ø-wa.CN.EVEN.SO PS3-NCL.LAND still go-DES-1P-PRS-DECLEven so, I’m still intending to go to their land.mãn-kalo-tube.hot-NCL.FLAT.THING-FNS[26] mãn-kalo-tube.hot-NCL.FLAT.THING-FNSflat hot thing/cloth/clothesIn Mamaindê, suffixed reduplication occurs in nouns and verbs.
This pattern of default values, as exemplified by Eberhard findings on Mamaindê, is also found with gender and temporal markers.
[22] ta-sawis-anãʔã hiksamañ-ta-latʰa-Ø-wa.PS1-grandchild-PL long.for-O1-S3-PRS-DECL.I miss my grandchildren.hãiPN3nalik-ka-hensoʔremember-OBL-ALWAYSna-naʔ-Ø-wa.COP-S1-PRS-DECL.hãi nalik-ka-hensoʔ na-naʔ-Ø-wa.PN3 remember-OBL-ALWAYS COP-S1-PRS-DECL.I remember (about) them all the time.hãi-nãʔãPN3-PLna-set-sa̰PS3-speak-NCL.SPEECHtakoʔtakon-latʰa-Ø-wa.crooked-S3-PRS-DECL[36] hãi-nãʔã na-set-sa̰ takoʔtakon-latʰa-Ø-wa.PN3-PL PS3-speak-NCL.SPEECH crooked-S3-PRS-DECLAll of them, their speech, it is crooked.nakatosa-nãʔãNegarotê-PLha̰i-soʔka-ta-nãʔãPN3-NCL.HUM-FEM-PLkanih-jeʔ-latʰa-Ø-wa.many-EMP-S3-PRS-DECL[37] nakatosa-nãʔã ha̰i-soʔka-ta-nãʔã kanih-jeʔ-latʰa-Ø-wa.Negarotê-PL PN3-NCL.HUM-FEM-PL many-EMP-S3-PRS-DECLThe Negarotê women are many.Mamaindê is a language that bases "the personhood of the accusative, the dative and the oblique"[38] on a single set of verbal affixes that also agree with the person of the object (which can be any type).