Hixkaryana language
E208123
Hixkaryana is an indigenous Cariban language of northern Brazil, noted for its rare object–verb–subject (OVS) basic word order.
All labels observed (2)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Hixkaryana language canonical | 6 |
| Hixkaryána language | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T1872695 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Hixkaryana language Context triple: [Carib languages, hasNotableLanguage, Hixkaryana language]
-
A.
Kayeli language
The Kayeli language is an Austronesian language once spoken on Buru Island in Indonesia, now critically endangered or possibly extinct.
-
B.
Kaxabu language
The Kaxabu language is an indigenous Formosan language of Taiwan spoken by the Kaxabu people and considered highly endangered.
-
C.
Rarámuri language
The Rarámuri language is an indigenous Uto-Aztecan language spoken by the Tarahumara (Rarámuri) people of northern Mexico.
-
D.
Puyuma language
The Puyuma language is an endangered Austronesian language spoken by the Puyuma Indigenous people of southeastern Taiwan.
-
E.
Kavalan language
The Kavalan language is an endangered Austronesian language of the indigenous Kavalan people of northeastern Taiwan.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Hixkaryana language Target entity description: Hixkaryana is an indigenous Cariban language of northern Brazil, noted for its rare object–verb–subject (OVS) basic word order.
-
A.
Kayeli language
The Kayeli language is an Austronesian language once spoken on Buru Island in Indonesia, now critically endangered or possibly extinct.
-
B.
Kaxabu language
The Kaxabu language is an indigenous Formosan language of Taiwan spoken by the Kaxabu people and considered highly endangered.
-
C.
Rarámuri language
The Rarámuri language is an indigenous Uto-Aztecan language spoken by the Tarahumara (Rarámuri) people of northern Mexico.
-
D.
Puyuma language
The Puyuma language is an endangered Austronesian language spoken by the Puyuma Indigenous people of southeastern Taiwan.
-
E.
Kavalan language
The Kavalan language is an endangered Austronesian language of the indigenous Kavalan people of northeastern Taiwan.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (49)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
Cariban language
ⓘ
indigenous language ⓘ natural language ⓘ |
| alignment | ergative–absolutive features ⓘ |
| basicWordOrder | OVS ⓘ |
| belongsToMacroArea | South America ⓘ |
| country | Brazil ⓘ |
| documentedBy | Desmond C. Derbyshire ⓘ |
| endangerment | vulnerable to language shift ⓘ |
| family |
Cariban
ⓘ
linked to:
Carib
|
| geneticRelation |
related to other Cariban languages such as Tiriyó
ⓘ
linked to:
Tiriyó language
related to other Cariban languages such as Waiwai ⓘ |
| glottocode | hixk1239 ⓘ |
| hasAlternativeName |
Hixkariana
ⓘ
Hixkariyana ⓘ
linked to:
Hixkaryána
Hixkaryána ⓘ |
| hasGrammaticalFeature |
case-like marking through verbal agreement and particles
ⓘ
head‑final noun phrases ⓘ person marking on verbs ⓘ postpositions instead of prepositions ⓘ prefixes and suffixes on verbs ⓘ rich verbal morphology ⓘ |
| hasImportantPublication | Hixkaryana and Linguistic Typology (Derbyshire) ⓘ |
| hasImportantWork | Desmond C. Derbyshire’s grammar of Hixkaryana ⓘ |
| hasNumberOfSpeakers | a few hundred to around one thousand speakers (approximate, varying by source and year) ⓘ |
| hasPhonologicalFeature |
contrastive nasalization
ⓘ
oral and nasal vowels ⓘ relatively small consonant inventory ⓘ |
| ISO639-3 | hix ⓘ |
| knownFor |
being one of the first well-documented OVS basic word order languages
ⓘ
influencing typological theories of word order universals ⓘ |
| languageFamily |
Cariban
ⓘ
linked to:
Carib
|
| morphologicalType | agglutinative language ⓘ |
| region |
Nhamundá River region
ⓘ
Rio Nhamundá basin ⓘ |
| script | Latin script ⓘ |
| spokenBy | Hixkaryana people ⓘ |
| spokenIn |
Brazil
ⓘ
northern Brazil ⓘ state of Pará ⓘ
linked to:
Pará
|
| status | endangered ⓘ |
| subfamily | Río Branco branch of Cariban ⓘ |
| typologicalFeature |
SOV and OVS alternations in some contexts
ⓘ
object–verb–subject basic word order ⓘ postpositional language ⓘ |
| usedFor |
daily communication within Hixkaryana communities
ⓘ
ritual and cultural practices ⓘ traditional oral narratives ⓘ |
| writingSystem | Latin alphabet ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Hixkaryana language Description of subject: Hixkaryana is an indigenous Cariban language of northern Brazil, noted for its rare object–verb–subject (OVS) basic word order.
Referenced by (7)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.