Munduruku language

Munduruku
RegionBrazil
Ethnicity10,100 Munduruku (2002)[1]
Native speakers
7,500 (2006)[1]
Tupian
Language codes
ISO 639-3myu
Glottologmund1330
ELPMundurukú
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Munduruku is a Tupi language spoken by 10,000 people in the Tapajós River basin in north central Brazil, of which most of the women and children are monolingual.

Gomes (2006) points out that Munduruku is one of the languages of the Tupian family and constitutes, together with Kuruaya, the Munduruku linguistic branch [...] The Portuguese language has made significant inroads among the Munduruku. Some loss of the Munduruku language is occurring among those who live in the area of the Madeira River and in the outskirts of the towns next to the Tapajós River; however, the situation is not as bad as it seems, as even here, the language of the majority of is Munduruku, and bilingualism only takes place after Munduruku has already been acquired (around 10 years of age), usually as a result of learning Portuguese at school.

Those who live in the villages of the Tapajós River valley speak only Munduruku, even in the presence of non-indigenous people. There are elementary schools located in almost all villages, and courses promoted by the Brazilian government have turned over education to the Mundurukú, who are starting to take control of their own formal education."[2]

  1. ^ a b Munduruku at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. ^ Gomes, Dioney Moreira (2006). Estudo morfológico e sintático da língua mundurukú (tupí) [Morphological and Syntactic Study of the Mundurukú Language (Tupí)] (PDF) (Doctor's thesis) (in Portuguese). Universidade de Brasília.