Contributing to the study of variation in Wichi/Weenhayek (Mataguayan). Dialectal differences in the lexicon

Abstract

This paper analyzes the dialectal variation in the Wichi/Weenhayek language (Mataguayan). On the one hand, we distinguish differences that result from phonological and morphological variations. The phonological variation impacts on the phonemic representation or pronunciation of the lexical items, and the morphological variation impacts on the morphological configuration of the words (complex words). On the other hand, we distinguish differences that have exclusively to do with the lexicon, that is, the alternate words for the same concept distributed in different geographical areas. In addition, we analyze the historical variation of the words for ‘water’, since it gives us hints for the understanding of lexical change and diffusion through the Wichi/Weenhayk territory. The data analyzed in this study come from primary sources (a bilingual Wichi/Weenhayek-Spanish dictionary created collectively together with Wichi native speakers from different geographical areas) and from secondary sources (descriptive grammars and vocabularies). The results of this study contribute new elements to the division into two dialectal groups, Pilcomayeño and Bermejeño, identified previously on the basis of phonological and morphological features, which are speculated as having the longest time of divergence. At the same time, it opens new questions about the behavior of the lexicon and the setting of the two dialectal groups in relation to the historical and social nets.