[7] The first contact the Trumai had with a white person was in 1884 when Karl von den Steinen explored the Upper Xingu region.
[3] In the time between the Trumai's first arrival in the upper Xingu and Von den Steinen's first contact with them, they were continuously being attacked by the native communities in the region, including the Suyá and Ikpeng.
[7] Following a period of contacts from researchers, including Buell Quain in 1938,[3] the Trumai moved to a new territory again, this time because of a flu and measles epidemic.
[7] After recovering from this, the subsequent population increase led to the emergence of more Trumai villages in the Upper Xingu region, while their former territories have since become occupied by other communities.
[3] Quain was the first researcher to focus on the Trumai culture specifically, however, this was an anthropological study, not linguistic.
[9] Monod-Becquelin's early work was followed by Greenberg's research, which includes his aforementioned proposal that Trumai, instead of being a completely isolated language, belongs to the Equatorial stock.
[12] DoBeS is one of the many language documentation organizations operating in Brazil, and is funded by the Volkswagen Foundation.
The first was done by Buell Quain, who spent four months with the Trumai and gathered information on many aspects of the culture and community.
[3] More recently, De Vienne has conducted ethnographic studies on Trumai focussing on language and communication in the community, such as joking[13] and ritual singing traditions.
[15]: 1077 Jolkesky (2016) notes that there are lexical similarities with the Macro-Mataguayo-Guaykuru, Tupi, and Mochika language families due to contact.
[16]: 426 This inventory is atypical of Amazonian languages in its ejective consonants, the lateral fricative /ɬ/, and the alveolar–dental distinction.
The morphological aspects of Trumai as covered in Guirardello's grammar of the language include the parts of speech: nouns, verbs, and auxiliaries.
Chapter 5 explores further analyses of each of these aspects of the parts of speech in terms of "Simple Declarative Clauses".
They are also affected by the type of Noun Phrase (henceforth "NP") they appear in (absolutive, ergative, or dative), which are distinguished by suffix insertion.
The following are tables of the Trumai personal pronouns with examples included for the absolutive case:[4] ha1hu’tsaseechï(_in)FOC/Tens[huksitukukcapybarayi]-kiYI-DAT[yayankedeertam]COMha hu’tsa chï(_in) [huksitukuk yi]-ki [yayanke tam]1 see FOC/Tens capybara YI-DAT deer COM“I saw a capybara and a deer.”[4] Unknown glossing abbreviation(s) (help);[Karu],Karu[Kumaru],Kumaru[Atawaka]Atawakahai-ts1-ERGamidoxoscallke.KE[Karu], [Kumaru], [Atawaka] hai-ts amidoxos ke.Karu Kumaru Atawaka 1-ERG call KE‘I called Karu, Kumaru, and Atawaka.’[4] Unknown glossing abbreviation(s) (help);kiki-kman-ERGatlat-øpan-ABSkï̡tïgiveha wan-ki.1-DATkiki-k atlat-ø kï̡tï {ha wan-ki}.man-ERG pan-ABS give 1-DAT‘The man gave it to us.’[4]1st-person/exclusive pronouns are formed in ha, inclusive with ka, 2nd person with hi, and 3rd with in.
Suffixes are used to mark ergative (-ts for 1sg, otherwise -ek/-ak), dative, locative, allative, comitative, and instrumental case.
In a sentence, these particles appear as so: ka_in: [[Yaka]Yakachumuchu]lie.downka_inFOC/Tenstehnene-n.floor-Loc[[Yaka] chumuchu] ka_in tehnene-n.Yaka lie.down FOC/Tens floor-Loc‘Yaka lay.down on the floor.’chï_in: [ha1ayen]-atlgrandfather-DATchï_inFOC/Tens[hai]-ts1-ERG[okemedicineyi]YIkï̡tï.give[ha ayen]-atl chï_in [hai]-ts [oke yi] kï̡tï.1 grandfather-DAT FOC/Tens 1-ERG medicine YI give‘I gave medicine to my grandfather (emphasis).’ Unknown glossing abbreviation(s) (help);As a whole, particles in Trumai are defined as a verb modifier that is not an adverb or auxiliary instead of being placed in a class of its own.
[editorializing] In the language, they are defined as verb modifiers "associated with the domain of aspect, mood, and spatial orientation (this last domain is subdivided into body posture of the entity performing the event and directionality of the event being performed)".
Here are some examples of each of these auxiliaries used in sentences: Aspect/Mood: iyiIYIsone-kma-ndrink-Perf-3Absde.alreadyiyi sone-kma-n de.IYI drink-Perf-3Abs already‘He already finished drinking.’ OR ‘He already drank all.’ Unknown glossing abbreviation(s) (help);Body Posture: iyiIYImaeatchumuchu-n.lie-3Absiyi ma chumuchu-n.IYI eat lie-3Abs‘He is eating lying (on the floor).’ Unknown glossing abbreviation(s) (help);Directionals: ha1ka’chïwalklako.Dir(down hill)ha ka’chï lako.1 walk {Dir(down hill)}‘I go down walking.
'Guirardello makes a point of noting the significant differences between auxiliaries and verbs in Trumai: there is no independent argument structure, no lexical content, some experience phonological reduction, and they form a closed class.
[4] Trumai is a language with ergative–absolutive case assignment and therefore has three argument types: absolutive, ergative, and dative.
An interesting phenomenon in Trumai syntax is the NP morpheme iyi/yi because of its lack of a clear function.
When it is present in Ergative and Dative sentences, the enclitics for each case are still added to the end of the NP: Reduced form: [inatl3Pr(FEM)yi]runpechFOC/Tenska_in.
[iyi] pech-e ka_in.run-3.ABS FOC/Tens‘She/he is running.’ Mismatch in the number of words between lines: 3 word(s) in line 1, 2 word(s) in line 2 (help);Ergative/Dative: [ni’dakthat.onewanPLyi]-k-ERGchï_inFOC/Tensha1disi.beat[ni’dak wan yi]-k chï_in ha disi.that.one PL -ERG FOC/Tens 1 beat‘They (these ones) beat me.’For verb phrases in Trumai, case marking provides four verb categories: Intransitive, Transitive, Extended Intransitive, and Extended Transitive, where Intransitive verbs can have Absolutive case, Transtive verbs have Absolutive and Ergative case, and the Extended categories also have Dative case on top of this.
These clauses are proof of the Ergative-Absolutive argument of Trumai, as we see S and O undergo the same marking, while A is treated differently.
In sentences, they would appear as follows: Intransitive: Spet’ew-øfrog-ABSVachïkidajumpS Vpet’ew-ø achïkidafrog-ABS jump‘The frog jumps.’ (256)Transitive: Aine-k3-ERGVØbreak-3.ABS mapa-n A Vine-k Ø mapa-n3-ERG break-3.ABS‘He broke it (a valuable pan).'
While this makes it similar to a simple Transitive clause, the difference is that the Absolutive enclitic is marked on the particle instead of the verb.