It is used in many everyday domains, but there is a lack of transmission to younger generations, as well as an evident language shift to Portuguese.
Several Catholic missionaries of the Anchieta congregation forced Paresi children into boarding schools, where attempts were made to suppress their language, and also assumed control of the entire Utiariti area from the local Waimaré people.
[16][full citation needed] Brandão has written a verbal morphology description dealing with verb classes, tense, aspect, and modality.
[17][full citation needed] A morphosyntax description addressing functional morphemes with respect to negation, aspect, and mood has also been written.
[18] There are other pedagogical materials available[19][full citation needed] in addition to student theses written by undergraduate Paresi speakers from the State University of Mato Grosso.
The goal of the project is to involve the indigenous community by offering basic archival and linguistic training to analyze speech data in the form of mythical tales and sociolinguistic interviews.
hati-kanatsehouse-mouthma-txihola-ty-oaNEG-door-TH-MMhati-kanatse ma-txihola-ty-oahouse-mouth NEG-door-TH-MM‘The door of the house opened’katxolodogetolits-oalie.down-MMkatxolo etolits-oadog lie.down-MM‘The dog lays down (the dog lays itself down)’hala-halo-ty-oa-hetapaint-FEM-TH-MM-PERFhala-halo-ty-oa-hetapaint-FEM-TH-MM-PERF‘She painted herself’tyalok-oabite-MMtyalok-oabite-MM‘Get bitten’The suffix /-wi/ is a much more straightforward reflexive, and is exclusively used with verbs that would normally have two very distinct arguments, unlike those made reflexive by /-oa/.
kazatyajacubawi-tsere-hena1PL-drink-TRSzakoreFRUSTa-heka-e-tsaCAUS-be.drunk-CAUS-THwitso1PLkazatya wi-tsere-hena zakore a-heka-e-tsa witsojacuba 1PL-drink-TRS FRUST CAUS-be.drunk-CAUS-TH 1PL‘We were drinking jacuba, and unfortunately we got drunk.’The other frustrative marker /motya/ indicates that the verb contradicts one’s assumptions or expectations drawn from visual evidence.
If one were to see that the sky was cloudy, and from that expected it to rain, but then it did not, they would utter the following: motyaFRUSTatyoTOPiteFUTone-henawater-TRSwi-hiye1PL-BENmotya atyo ite one-hena wi-hiyeFRUST TOP FUT water-TRS 1PL-BEN‘Apparently it was going to rain (but it did not).’The two dubitative markers, /zamani/ and /kala/ are different in levels of certainty, the formers marks something that the speaker is quite uncertain of, while the latter indicates a non-absolute, but high degree of certainty, the speaker may have even witnessed the event personally.
KatxolohokotsetxoaOsmall.dogalaFOCaniSwaspxakatetyaVstingKatxolohokotsetxoaO ala aniS xakatetyaVsmall.dog FOC wasp sting‘The wasp was stinging the dog.’These cases can be disambiguated with the topic marker atyo, which marks a new conversational subject, or the focus marker ala, which usually marks an object that has been moved to first position.
Wi-halanatseOour-dogmenetseSanacondatoka-olatyaVhold-tieWi-halanatseO menetseS toka-olatyaVour-dog anaconda hold-tie‘An anaconda held and tied our dog.’Paresi sentences also very occasionally have OVS word order: KalaDUBkolohoOforestmiyatyaVdestroymahalitihareSnon-nativehokathenKala kolohoO miyatyaV mahalitihareS hokaDUB forest destroy non-native then‘Then the non-native destroyed the forest.’The first four numbers in Paresi are lexical items (listed below), and anything above 4 is counted using base-5, using body parts (ie: fingers, toes, hands, feet).
Unlike demonstratives, these quantifiers can also take personal clitics and aspect markers, which are normally only found on verbs.
'kahare-henaa.lot-TRShaiyaIND2halitipersonenamanohirowomanzoahaandØ-waiyore-ta3SG-know-IFVkahare-hena haiya haliti ena ohiro zoaha Ø-waiyore-taa.lot-TRS IND2 person man woman and 3SG-know-IFV'Many Paresi people, men, and women, know.
'3OBJ:third person, object ATTR:attributive BEN:benefative CON:connective DUB:dubitative FRUST:frustrative IFV:imperfective IND2:one of two indefinite pronouns MM:middle marker NMLZ:nominalizer TH:thematic suffix TRS:transitional UNPOSS:unpossessed