[2] Today, most members of the group are found in the Pyreneus de Souza Indigenous Territory in the state of Rondonia.
Due to harsh working conditions, many of the Sabanê people tried to flee to the forest, however this action was met with violent retaliation from the tappers who would return them to the village and murder multiple leaders.
[5] In addition, Sabanê people suffered from epidemics brought on by contact with the invaders of their land.
This led to an immense loss of lives bringing the Sabanê people close to extinction.
By the beginning of 1940, there was the first school called “Irmãzinhas da Imaculada Conceição”, where small groups of children learned to read and write.
Consequently, with arrival of rubber tappers many roads began to open near the Nambikwara villages, which allowed for the formalization of indigenous education.
The word Nambikwara, Tupi in origin and meaning pierced ear, was designated to the people occupying the northwest Mato Grosso and the border areas of Rondônia.
[4] The first mention of the Sabanê people being described using this very distinction occurred in 1914, in an account from Cândido Rondon, a Brazilian explorer of Indigenous and Portuguese descent, while building a telegraph line through Nambikwaran land.
[3] Linguistic documentation did not occur until Claude Lévi-Strauss, a philosopher on a French cultural expedition did so in 1948.
While there was documentation of the language concerning classification done in 1919 by Edgar Roquette-Pinto, and again in 1948 by Rondon and Faria, these two reports did not include any linguistic details.
The most notable of these comparative studies comes from David Price, from the University of Brasília in 1978, who described the phonology of Nambikwara languages in comparison to one another.
[3] Another notable documentation of the Sabanê language, Levi-Straus’ work, was supported by the French government.
However, the Southern Nambikwara languages have different phonemes such as glottalized and aspirated consonants as wells as only one implosive /ɗ/ and one affricate /tʃ/.
[3] In Sabanê the pronouns uli and towali are free morphemes which means that they do not appear affixed to the verb.
The third person singular and plural object are only phonologically expressed when the verb begins with a consonant.
towali1SUBJkiatacorn-k-OBJilulto eat-i-VS-datinan-PRET.EVtowali kiata -k ilul -i -datinan1SUBJ corn -OBJ {to eat} -VS -PRET.EV‘I ate corn.’ [18]towali1SUBJilulto eat-i-VS-dana-PRES.EVtowali ilul -i -dana1SUBJ {to eat} -VS -PRES.EV‘I eat.’ [18]ManoelManoelt-1OBJ-osato give-n-VS-ntal-PRET.NEUT-i-ASSRanosebowl-mi-REFManoel t- osa -n -ntal -i anose -miManoel 1OBJ- {to give} -VS -PRET.NEUT -ASSR bowl -REF‘Manoel gave me a bowl.’ [19]Agentive pronouns are used in Sabanê to mark volitional verbs (controlled actions), while patientive pronouns are used to mark non-volitional verbs (uncontrolled actions).
[3] Subjects in transitive sentences are unmarked if they are a proper noun and the object is marked by -k. Agreement markers in Sabanê do not exist, shown particularly through the lack of grammatical gender, and lack of morphological opposition between animate and inanimate objects.
[3] Unlike many other Brazilian languages, Sabane consists of three tenses: the past, the present and the future.
wayuludog-mi-REFipto run-i-VS-datinan-PRET.EVwayulu -mi ip -i -datinandog -REF {to run} -VS -PRET.EV‘The dog ran.’ [24]-tika is used when the speaker uses hearsay evidence for the factuality of an event.
ileypelutodaya-3OBJ-kalitto cook-i-VS-datinan-PRET.EVileypelu a- kalit -i -datinantoday 3OBJ- {to cook} -VS -PRET.EV‘S/he cooked it today.’ [25]ileytikayesterdaya-3OBJ-kalitto cook-i-VS-ntal-PRET.NEUT-i-ASSRileytika a- kalit -i -ntal -iyesterday 3OBJ- {to cook} -VS -PRET.NEUT -ASSR‘S/he cooked it yesterday.’ [25]There are two morphemes that are used to mark present tense in Sabane: -al assumes neutrality in the sentence ilulto eat-i-VS-say-PROG-al-PRES.NEUT-i-ASSRilul -i -say -al -i{to eat} -VS -PROG -PRES.NEUT -ASSR‘S/he is eating.’ [25]-dana is used to infer factuality of the sentence and implies that there is sensory evidence towali1SUBJilulto eat-i-VS-dana-PRES.EVtowali ilul -i -dana1SUBJ {to eat} -VS -PRES.EV‘I eat.’ [26]There are two morphemes that are used to mark future tense in Sabane: -tapanal can only be used in a non-factual or elicited sentence ilulto eat-i-VS-tapanal-FUT.NEUT-i-ASSRilul -i -tapanal -i{to eat} -VS -FUT.NEUT -ASSR‘S/he will eat.’ [26]-telon can only be used in a sentence in which the speaker is confident regarding its factuality amaylto rain-i-VS-telon-FUT.EVamayl -i -telon{to rain} -VS -FUT.EV‘It is going to rain.’ [27]Selected Sabanê plant and animal names from Antunes (2004):[3] OBJ:object 1OBJ:first person, object 2OBJ:second person, object 3OBJ:third person, object 1SUBJ:first person, subject 2SUBJ:second person, subject 3SUBJ:third person, subject NEUT:neutral tense NEG:negative ASSR:assertive VS:verbal suffix