User:Yaguati/sandbox

Reduplication
In Paraguayan Guaraní, reduplication of syllables and even full words is very common- as seen in these examples. These examples, by Khashayar Hamidzadeh and Kevin Russell from the University of Manitoba, are sentences that in addition to involving reduplication, also have a conceptual meaning related to copying or doing the same thing more than once.

... nda- i-   katú        -i        voi         avave    o-  u          che-rembe'y-jopy    jopy

NEG-B3-possible-NEG EMPH   nobody  A3-come  B1S-edge-   press   REDUP

"... nobody can push me around [repeatedly on my edges, like a pie crust], ..."

a-     po     apo

A1S-jump REDUP

"I jump over and over."

Ñande        ja-      je-     po-    héi     pohéi

we.INCL    A1P.I-REFL-hand-wash REDUP

"We're washing our hands over and over."

Guaraní loans in English (continued)
The Guaraní word kapibári very closely resembles the English "capybara".

Syntax subclasses
Words of the days of the week: “hour”, ”week”, ”morning”, “afternoon”, “night”, and “morning”, may occur as adverbial attributes. Nouns that are indicators for certain parts of an object: "back", "top", "surface", "middle part", "front part", "inferior part", "side", "proximity", "interior", "rear part", "middle", and "bottom", occur in the center of a noun phrase which is the axis of a postposition.

Morphological subclasses
Possessed nouns, such as words for body parts and kinship terms, are inflected for allocation. For example, in Guaraní one would not say "heart" but instead, "his heart", "my heart" etc.

Attitudes and Usage
Guarani is the national language, along with Spanish, in Paraguay. Many factors influence the social rules governing the attitudes and usages of Guarani and Spanish. Guarani is a sentimental language which is generally used in more intimate settings, such as at home with family or with a sweetheart. Spanish is used in most professional settings in urbanized areas. Because of this, a hierarchy of sorts exists between the two languages. Guarani is often stigmatized as a language of the disenfranchised, and therefore not socioeconomically beneficial to use in professional settings. Many Paraguayans do not necessarily agree with this idea, but there is still inequalities that exist between the usages of these languages.

The Future of Paraguayan Bilingualism
Some believe that Paraguayan Guarani will eventually be surpassed by Jopara, a language developed by the Ministry of Education in Paraguay that is compromised almost exclusively of Spanish loan words. For Guarani to be used more inclusively in professional settings in urban sectors of Paraguay, it must be further institutionalized as well as legitimized. A way to do this is through encouraging a more intensive Guarani pedagogy in schools, thereby making Guarani a language that stands next to Spanish not only in intimate and familial settings, but in professional ones as well.