Kwaza language

Kwaza
Koaiá
Pronunciation	[kwaʔða]
Native to	Brazil
Region	Rondônia
Native speakers	25 (2014)[1]
Language family	unclassified
Language codes
ISO 639-3	xwa
Glottolog	kwaz1243
ELP	Kwaza
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Kwaza (also written as Kwazá or Koaiá) is an endangered Amazonian language spoken by the Kwaza people of Brazil.^[2] Kwaza is an unclassified language. It has grammatical similarities with neighboring Aikanã and Kanoê, but it's not yet clear if that is due to a genealogical relationship or to contact.^[3]

Little is known about Kwaza people and language due to the minimal historical sources available; if mentioned in reliable documents, it is usually in reference to its neighbors. What is known, is that the Kwaza people were at one point a nation of a few thousand people, which could be subdivided into various groups.^[3]

The Kwaza language is threatened by extinction. In 2004, the language was spoken on a day-to-day basis by just 54 people living in the south of the state of Rondônia, Brazil. Of those 54, more than half were children, and half were trilingual, speaking Kwaza, Aikanã, and Portuguese, and some were bilingual, also speaking Portuguese.^[2] They live south of the original home of the Kwaza, on the Tuba Rao-Latundê indigenous reserve.^[4]

Van der Voort (2005) observes similarities among Kwaza, Kanoê, and Aikanã, but believes the evidence is not strong enough to definitively link the three languages together as part of a single language family. Hence, Kwaza is best considered to be a language isolate.^[5]

An automated computational analysis (ASJP 4) by Müller et al. (2013)^[6] also found lexical similarities between Kwaza and Aikanã. However, since the analysis was automatically generated, the grouping could be either due to mutual lexical borrowing or genetic inheritance.

Jolkesky (2016) notes that there are lexical similarities with the Taruma, Arawak, Jeoromitxi, Arawa, Jivaro, Mura-Matanawi, Nambikwara, Peba-Yagua, Aikanã, and Kanoe language families due to contact.^[7]

The history of the Kwaza people is one marked with tragedy, which may contribute to why their language is endangered. in the 1960s, the Kwaza people lost many of their members due to the opening of the BR-364, an inter-state highway in Brazil connecting the southeast states to the western states. Today there are only about 40 individuals, Kwaza, Aikanã and Latunde peoples, who have been living together for a number of decades in the south of Rondônia. These peoples also lived in the state of Rondônia and were also expelled from the fertile lands that they originally lived on, which may be why they live together now.^[2] The majority of the Kwaza have either been decimated or dispersed, and their culture destroyed by the national society which has been highly influenced by Western states. This may be the biggest conflict that the Kwaza people have faced, thus contributing to the endangerment and possible extinction of their language.

The traditional habitat of the Kwaza was the high forest in the Amazon, living and settling around rivers.^[2]

Due to the extremely limited documentation, combined with the semi-nomadic lifestyles of the Kwaza speakers and the lack of permanent settlements from a slash and burn agriculture, the historical location of the people is largely unknown. In addition, disease brought by Western contact and the imposed culture actively worked to destroy the local materials and societies. However, according to oral tradition and sporadic instances of documentation, the Kwaza lived along the São Pedro and Taboca rivers in addition to along the headwaters of the Pimenta Bueno River.^[8]

Before contact with the "national society", the Kwaza held various rituals and activities. These included a several month isolation of young girls, anthropophagy, and the sport of head-ball. They decorated their bodies with shells, earrings, teeth, and painted their bodies with various dyes. Some of the Kwaza still plant bananas, manioc, peanuts, yams and tobacco. They also gather fruits and keep various types of animals such as monkeys, birds, and pigs as pets.^[2]

In the modern day, speakers live on the indigenous reserve of Tubarão - Latundě. This lies on the headwaters of Apediá or Pimento Bueno River, in the southeast of the federal Brazilian state of Rondônia. Rondônia is part of the Guaporé region, the most diverse linguistic region of South America. Over 40 indigenous languages can be found here, including 8 unique macro-families, and possibly 10 isolates. Kwaza is therefore set in extreme linguistic diversity. However, like Kwaza, most of the languages here are endangered with extinction and are poorly documented.^[3]

Only three families speak the Kwaza language today. Two are scattered among the Aikanã within different indigenous terriroties, and one family is located in a Portuguese-speaking town. The Kwaza language is currently being transmitted to younger generations in two of the families.^[9]: 721

The Kwaza people neighbored the Mekens/Sakurabiat, the Tupari, Aikanã and the Kanoê, both with unclassified languages, the Salamai of the Monde language family, and various others, several of which have gone extinct.^[2] Despite all the contact that the Kwaza people may have had with other indigenous peoples, Kwaza language not have a great amount of similarities to any other indigenous language.^[5] In fact, the Guapore region (where the Kwaza people lived), is known as one of the most linguistically diverse regions of South America, with numerous language families represented such as Tacana, Tupi, Pano, as well as ten unclassified languages, one of which is Kwaza.^[5]

The most prominent neighbors of Alaina people groups lived along Tanaru tributary, 20 km south, but all the groups in the area formed alliances across linguistic borders.^[8] The first contact with Euro-Americans is hypothesized to have been around the mid 16th century from Spanish expeditions. The middle of the 17th century offered Jesuit missionaries in Northeast Bolivia. A relationship of avoidance developed between Portuguese and indigenous people, flaring to hostility in cases of contact.^[3]

The 19th century rubber boom caused non-Indians to settle permanently in Rondônia, and the posture of avoidance and indifference turned into one of enslavement for the Kwaza people. The effects of this are seen in the turn of the language towards the Euro-Americans. Increased contact also caused detrimental epidemics among the indigenous populations. Occasionally the native groups believed the cause of the epidemics were instigated by sorcery of other tribes, which caused violent clashes between the groups and further dwindled numbers to the extreme.^[3]

When the highway B-364 opened, impoverished Brazilians, logging companies, and cattle ranchers infiltrated the area and forced the indigenous people off the best lands and onto reserves, further encouraging them to let go of their native language. By 2004, the indigenous population barely hits 5,000 out of a total population of 1.5 million.^[3]

Kwaza is referred to as an isolate, however, it is truer to refer to it as an unclassified language. Research has not been able to prove Kwaza's connection to any other language, but there have been attempts to identify possible linguistic relationships with unclassified neighboring languages.^[10] Kanoê and Aikanã, neighboring languages of Kwaza, appear to have classifiers, a trait they share with Kwaza.^[5]

Kwaza shares the inclusive vs exclusive distinction in subject reference with Tupi languages.^[5] The most striking evidence of Kwaza possibly being related to languages in the area is lexical. The long history of contact between the peoples of Rondônia has caused cultural similarities and the occurrence of linguistic similarities. Van der Voort, in a paper submitted to the Leiden Research School, demonstrated similarities between Kwaza, Kanoê, and Aikanã (all three unclassified) with the Tupari Languages Akuntsu, Koaratira and Mekens.^[10]

Before 1995, data on Kwaza was not properly gathered and analyzed.^[5] Knowledge on its grammar did not exist in written form.^[5] Outside of its native speakers, lexical knowledge from early scientists and explorers of the Rondônia territory did not exist.^[5] The first documentation of the Kwaza people was made in 1913 by Candido Rondon because of his expeditions with telegraph lines in areas of Rondônia. In the 1930s, the first written sources of Kwaza words were taken by Claude Levi-Strauss, an anthropologist. Levi-Strauss was on a reconnaissance expedition documented words on standardised enquiry forms developed for this purpose.^[3]

The standardised forms used allowed for easy lexical comparisons between different languages explorers encountered. Levi-Strauss's 1938 glossary is the oldest source of data from Kwaza and is available in van der Voort's book. The glossary contained fifty-one French words with their equivalent in Kwaza. In 1942, Lieutenant Estanislau Zack created a 222-comparative word list of four languages, including Kwaza. Kwaza was forgotten until Harvey Carlson rediscovered the language in 1984. The third recorded documentation of Kwaza was taken as an unpublished word-list by Carlson. During linguistic fieldwork as an M.A. student from Berkley, he took down fifty Kwaza words, which is available in "A Grammar of Kwaza". The present description of Kwaza is the result of Carlson's word list, as he brought the language to the attention of the linguistic world.^[3]

Linguist Hein van der Voort's involvement in the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NOW) in 1994 led to the first modern grammar of Kwaza. In his book "A Grammar of Kwaza", Van der Voort presented the first descriptive grammar of the language. The descriptive grammar included phoneme inventory describing the oral vowels, nasal vowels, and place of articulation. Van der Voort provides a complex description of the vowels, with descriptions on minimal pairs, contextual pairs and variation. Consonants were also recorded with their matching IPA transcriptions, places of articulation, and classification. He provides an interpretation of glides, descriptive rules of syllable structure, stress, length, and intonation. Kwaza loan phonology is described with examples. A comprehensive section on parts of speech of Kwaza is available with information on noun phrases, verb phrases, types of morphemes, and word order. Van der Voort includes texts of tales translated from Kwaza to English to bring attention to Brazilian indigenous culture in an effort to preserve it. These texts include traditional tales, historical personal accounts, modern personal accounts, and translated songs. The last section of van der Voort's book is a dictionary of Kwaza to English. Hein van der Voort's work on the language has given the Kwaza the ability to preserve the language through making it available for others to learn, including non-indigenous people.^[3]

Kwaza has eight oral and seven nasal vowel phonemes, which are all attested in a minimal pair set, despite the rare /œ/ occurrence. The consonant inventory consists of 19 phonemes.^[3]

Vowels in Adapted^[11] IPA^[12]

	Oral Vowels			Nasal Vowels
	Front	Central	Back	Front	Central	Back
Close	i		u	ĩ		ũ
Close-mid	e	ɘ		ẽ	ɘ̃
Open-mid	ɛ	œ	ɔ	ɛ̃		ɔ̃
Open		a			ã

• /a/ can sometimes be heard as [ɑ] when before back vowels /u, ɔ/.
• /ɛ/ can also be heard as [æ] free variation.
• /ɘ/ can be heard as [ɨ̞] in free variation, as [ə] in unstressed position, or as a glide [ɨ̯] in syllable-final position. /ɘ̃/ can be heard as [ɨ̞̃] in free variation.
• /œ/ can be heard as [œ̈] in free variation.

Consonants in IPA^[13][14]

		Labial	Lamino- alveolar	Apico- alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Plosive	Voiceless	p	t	t̠̺		k	ʔ
	Implosive	ɓ		ɗ
Affricate			ts		tɕ
Fricative			s	s̠̺			h
Nasal		m		n	ɲ
Tap				ɾ
Approximant		w		l	j

• Implosives /ɓ, ɗ/ can also be heard as voiced plosives [b, d] in free variation.
• /h/ can be heard as voiced [ɦ] in intervocalic positions.
• /w, ɾ, j/ are nasalized as [w̃, ɾ̃, j̃] within nasal vowels.
• Sounds /s̠̺, w/ are heard as [ɕ, w̜] before front vowels.

Personal pronouns^[15]

Person	Associate	Pronoun	Meaning
1	-	si	Example
2	-	xyi	Example
1	2	txa'na	Example
1	3	tsi'tsɛ	Example
2	3	xyi'tsɛ	Example
3	-	ĩ	Example

Examples:

Kwaza has four parts of speech: particles, verbs, adverbs, and nouns. No adjectives occur in the language. In Kwaza, the majority of the bound grammatical morphemes are suffixes. Kwaza is morphologically complex in its verbs. Word order is relatively free, but SOV and SVO are more dominant. In the language, it is mandatory to inflect verbs to express mood and subject person. First and second person singular are distinguished by subject agreement marking, as are first person inclusive and exclusive, and the second persona plural. The third person is not pronounced. There is no difference between third person singular and plural, or between feminine and masculine.^[10]

Hein van der Voort (2000) categorizes Kwaza as a 'pro-drop' language because subject agreement is obligatory, while pronominal reference is optional. Definite argument morphemes can agree with explicit lexical arguments, but overt pronouns have a contrastive effect by emphasizing them.^[10]

Verb morphology in Kwaza can express numerous moods. These moods include exhortative, interrogative, declarative, imperative, and negative. The imperative only happens with second person subjects. The second person singular usually has no expression. There are several verbal-final elements in Kwaza, which exist as subordinate clause mood markers. In adverbial clause construction, subordinate clause mood markers are used, for example in concessive and conditional clauses. The same object and subject morphemes are used, while the third person is not expressed. There is also a semantically abstract 'mood' marker used to connect clauses that are both coordinated and subordinated.^[10]

Verbal derivation in Kwaza includes valency and valency change, negation, modality, aspect, and tense which are marked with various optional verbal morphemes. Some modality morphemes, according to van der Voort, could be grammatically related to mood markers. Verbs can be turned into adverbs or nouns through stem-final nominalizing morphemes. Kwaza has two subdivisions of derivational morphemes, directional and classifiers. While verb morphology in Kwaza is complex, nominal morphology is not. Kwaza has no gender or number inflection. Nouns can have animate object case marking. They can also have one of the oblique case markers: beneficiary, locative, comitative, and instrumental. Nouns are turned into verbs through attaching mood marking. As mentioned, Kwaza does not have adjectives.^[10]

Attributive modification of nouns occurs by comparing them with other nouns. Kwaza also has many classifying morphemes that only 'agree' with specific nouns. Classifiers are used widely. They can be used in verb stems, attach to bare nouns, and also modify adverbs. Classifiers are used in the position of nominalizers. Classifiers in Kwaza support van der Voorts statement of the language being pro-drop as they have functions similar to the functions of verbal agreement morphemes. These properties of classifiers rely heavily on the environment in which they are used, and according to van der Voort are not as dynamic as the properties of cross-reference morphemes. In complex nominalized clauses, specific classifiers cannot replace the nominalizer.^[10]

In the Kwaza language, the morpheme -ry- is used to describe a grammatical number for words in contexts where a few of their referents are described or referred to, also known as paucal. In both nouns and verbs of Kwaza, the morpheme -ry- is associated with paucal number, but does not occur in word-final position, and is always followed by a nominaliser (formation of a noun from a verb or adjective).^[18]

For example:

It is also important to note that the paucal morpheme -ry- applies only to humans and animals in Kwaza. For example:

In Kwaza, the morpheme -he- is one of the negation morphemes, which creates the negative in predicates and propositions when bound together. In this negation morpheme, the negative usually comes before the person and mood marking.^[3] For example:

However, if the clause in the sentence is declarative, and there is no clear argument cross-reference, the declarative mood marker is -tse.

Reduplication in the language is very common, and occurs in many contexts, some of which include lexical roots, constituent syllables of roots, verbal person inflections and other parts of morphemes. In Kwaza, reduplication can also represent a past tense construction, if the person cross-reference morpheme is reduplicated. This is particularly interesting since in the Kwaza language, there is zero specific marking of past and present.^[3] An example of this is shown here:

Whereas something involving pain in the present tense would take this form:

In these examples, we see the reduplication of the first person singular, which in the language presents a first person past tense state. Another form of reduplication is root reduplication, which occurs with the repetition of the entire root which can occur with repetitive, progressive, durative and intensifying meaning which is attested both with verbal and adverbial roots . For example:

There is also another way in the Kwaza language where reduplication occurs to intensify meaning. Repetition of a syllable of the lexical root may also occur with repetitive and intensifying meaning, oftentimes it is the first syllable which is reduplicated:

Kwaza has two periodic tense markers, nocturnal sile- and matutinal kore-.^[26][27]

All syllables in Kwaza are vowel-final and generally adhere to the /(C)V/ syllable structure. The exceptions occur in glides and glottal stops. Any syllables that could begin with a vowel instead are preceded by a voiceless glottal stop.^[3]

Since the language is so morphologically complex it is often described as a non-configurational language. The flexibility in word order is possible due to almost every word in the sentence having case inflection. However, generally the structures are head-final, with SVO (Subject-Verb-Object) being most common in instances of two over arguments. Otherwise, both SV and OV occur frequently.^[28]

Van der Voort, in his "Grammar of Kwaza", states that in Kwaza, there is no required morphological distinction in how pronouns and nouns function as objects and subjects. However, in certain cases, case inflection of nouns occurs. There is one case van der Voort describes a syntactic government relation between verb and argument. The suffix -wã conveys this case, which is called the "animate object" case. Kwaza displays a small number of "oblique" or "local" case markers which display semantic relations amongst verbs and possible nominal satellites. The suffix -ko expresses "instrumental" case, -na expresses "locative", -dynỹ expresses "comitative" and -du expresses "beneficiary".^[3]

In some transitive verbs, specific animate non-subjects of verbs are marked by -wã. -wã is applied under situations not completely understood. What is known is -wã often places stress on the animate non-subjects.^[3] -wã is necessary for most verbs with animate nouns that have a direct object function:

Other than elucidating which animate argument is the object, -wã also disambiguates the subject from the object. It is especially useful when they are both third person arguments:^[3]

-wã is not always necessary to differentiate between object and subject, because verbal cross-reference obligatorily expresses the subject. For first and second person, subject cross-reference is not zero, but it is in third person. Even though cross-reference agreement is enough to distinguish subjects and objects, -wã is still obligatory in some cases:^[3]

Without -wã, syntactic ambiguity occurs. But in cases with differences in animacy, no semantic-pragmatic ambiguity occurs. This can be seen in the following third person examples of an animate subject and inanimate object:^[3]

When verbs with the transitivising morpheme -ta- occur with animate objects, they must be marked with -wã:^[3]

When the causative -dy is attached to intransitive verbs, they are transitivised. In these cases only animate objects are marked:^[3]

The indirect object is usually marked in common ditransitive verbs while the animate object is unmarked:^[3]

If transitive verbs with animate objects have classifying morphemes, -wã is also attached. This occurs if the classifier added to the verb stem and when it is not:^[3]

In Kwaza, objects of transitive verbs are usually case marked because they are of the animate category. Case marking becomes ungrammatical when they are inanimate. Case marking is not required to differentiate the object from the subject. The subject can be identified through cross-reference marking on the verb. This changes if all arguments are in third person, when arguments are in third person there can be ambiguity. Without case marking, on the basis of syntax alone, there is no way to distinguish third person animate subjects and objects. Case marking is obligatory with transitive verbs have arguments that are the same in person and animacy. -wã- has two functions: it marks objecthood and animacy.^[3]

In Kwaza, the case ending -na expresses the sense of "in". -na can be used as a general marked to express several locational senses such as: "under, from, into", etc. -na is often seen with verbs that have a directional suffix:^[3]

-ko is used to mark nouns that function as an instrumental argument verbs:^[3]

-du marks beneficiary arguments:^[3]

-dynỹ marks comitative arguments. The matrix verb may be intransitive or transitive.^[3]

Loukotka (1968) lists the following basic vocabulary items for Koaiá.^[39]

gloss	Koaiá
head	i-soteː
ear	gasí
tooth	miki
hand	enurí
woman	etál
water	há
fire	í
stone	akí
maize	achechí
tapir	aruín

For a more extensive vocabulary list of Kwazá by Manso (2013),^[40] see the corresponding Portuguese article.

Selected Kwazá plant and animal names from Manso (2013):^[40]

Kwazá	Scientific name	Portuguese common name
dɨisa	Acrocinus sp.	besouro-arlequim
pororai	Ageratum conyzoides	erva-de-São-João
huri	Agouti paca	paca
tamũkɨ	Alouatta seniculus	guariba
wero	Amazona ochrocephala	papagaio-estrela
wãtsĩ	Amazona farinosa	papagaio-caboclo
hɛ	Amburana cearensis	cerejeira
urumãinwa	Anacardium occidentale	cajueiro
açɨhi	Anadenanthera peregrina	paricá
husisi	Andropogon sp.	sapé
temũ	Anostomus sp., Leporinus sp., Schizodon sp.	piau
ausisiti	Aotus nigriceps	macaco-da-noite
mama	Apeiba sp.	pau-mole
jẽjẽkɨdɨ	Apis mellifera	abelha
owɨtikje	Apuleia sp.	garapa
kumada sikilo	Apteronotus albifrons	ituí-cavalo
tjẽrĩ	Arachis hypogaea	amendoim
nãrãku	Aramides cajanea	saracura
hoi uruhu	Artibeus sp.	morcego-grande
dudukerũ	Astrocaryum gynacanthum	mumbaca
wadɛ	Astrocaryum tucuma	tucumã
hadutu	Astrocaryum murumuru	murumuru
erihi	Astyanax sp.	piabão
hɨrikoro	Ateles belzebuth	coata, macaco-preto
darija	Atelocynus microtis	cachorro-do-mato
tsilɛmãi	Atta spp.	saúva
mẽsĩ	Attalea maripa	inajá
tjokoru	Attalea phalerata	bacuri
kuricɨi	Attalea speciosa	babaçu
daritjoha	Avicularia spp.	caranguejeira
hakuku	Bactris gasipaes	pupunha
dudu	Bactris spp.	marajá
hãçɨi, mãbi; nũrũrũ, wesi	Bambusa spp.	taquara
kũtjẽ	Bertholletia excelsa	castanha-do-Pará
toro	Bixa orellana	urucu
takwanarẽtʃa	Boa constrictor, Epicrates cenchria	jiboia
merumeru	Bombus spp.	abelha
tsutu	Bothrops spp.	jararaca
tauta	Bradypus variegatus	preguiça-de-bentinho
humu	Brosimum acutifolium	mururé
hĩtsã	Brosimum sp.	amapá
araka	Bryconops sp.	piabão
ãkãki	Bufo marinus	sapo-cururus
kurukuru	Bufo marinus	sapo de cor preta
(wɨ̃wɨ̃kurjo)	Buteogallus urubitinga	gavião
kɨrɨmujã	Byrsonima crassifolia	murici
dakainwã	Caesalpinia spp.	pau-brasil
hatsi; manariçu	Calathea spp.	arumã
wãrũwãrũ	Callicebus moloch	zogue-zogue
mĩtjẽ	Callithrix argentata	sauim-branco
wakaro	Caluromys philander	mucura-xixica
kaka	Camponotus femoratus	formiga
hade	Capsicum spp.	pimenta
ukesĩ	Caryocar glabrum	pequiarana
ukenũ	Caryocar villosum	pequiá
hɨri	Cebus apella	macaco-prego
watsirai	Cecropia spp., Pourouma spp.	imbaúba
tukutɛ; tʃaja	Cedrela fissilis	cedro
kaka-sikikoko	Cephalotes atratus	formiga
darija-tʃũhũi	Cerdocyon thous	raposa
husi-hãnãɨ̃hɨ̃	Chironectes minimus	cuíca, mucura-d'água
hiribɛɁɨ̃hɨ̃; hɨrikoro-bɛʔĩhɨ̃	Chiropotes albinasus	macaco-cuxiú
baɨtsɨtõi; çɨinitõi	Citrus aurantifolia	limão
doi; duma	Clelia clelia	muçurana
hudai	Clusia spp.	apuí
açu	Coendou prehensilis	cuandu
terai	Columba cayennensis	pomba-galela
makuitʃato	Columba speciosa	pomba-pedrês
huhu	Columbina spp.	rolinha
deda-wãsĩ	Corallus spp.	cobra
mũli	Crotophaga sp.	anu
jũtsĩ	Crypturellus soui	inambu
tsĩ	Crypturellus strigulosus	inambu
utetaɨ	Crypturellus strigulosus	inambu
darɨro	Cucurbita sp.	abóbora-do-mato
kurukuru	Dactylomys dactylinus	rato-toró
kataɨ	Dasyprocta spp.	cutia
harurai	Dasypus kappleri	tatu-quinze
haru	Dasypus novemcinctus	tatu-galinha
kaçanuje	Davilla rugosa	cipó-de-fogo
nãĩ	Dermatobia hominis	larva de mosca
husi	Didelphis marsupialis	mucura
taramãçu, uitsi	Dinoponera gigantea	tocandira
mouru	Dryocopus lineatus, Campephilus spp.	pica-pau-grande
çuruatũi	Duranta erecta	creolim
itjorɨ; karuto	Eciton sp.	formiga
hure	Eira barbara	irara
kɨrɨjaje	Electrophorus electricus	poraquê
tekoretɛ	Erythrinus erythrinus	acarapuru
deda-hãnãɨ̃hɨ̃	Eunectes murinus	sucuri, sucuriju
kaikuri	Euphractus sexcinctus	tatu-peba
wiriɁu	Euterpe oleracea	açaí
owɨ	Genipa americana	jenipapo
kẽwẽ-kiʔɨ̃hɨ̃	Geochelone carbonaria	jabuti-piranga
kẽwẽ	Geochelone denticulata	jabuti-amarelo
tsotsinijẽ; tsotsinĩnjẽ	Gossypium spp.	algodão
apara çukurje	Heliconia hirsuta	bico-de-guará
kitsoroi	Hemidactylus mabouia	osga-de-casa
tai-açɨnaɨ̃hɨ̃	Hemidactylus mabouia	osga-de-casa
tsiloto	Hevea spp.	seringueira
haçɛ	Heteropsis jenmanii	cipó-titica
tekore	Hoplerythrinus unitaeniatus	jeju
çunũtε	Hoplias sp.	traíra
sikitje	Hoplosternum spp.	tamboatá
jara	Hydrochaeris hydrochaeris	capivara
manini-jereçwa	Hydrolycus sp.	peixe-cachorro
ukato	Hyla boans	perereca
kẽinjũ	Hymenaea courbaril	jatobá
kẽitjakwe	Hymenaea sp.	jatobá-mirim
tai ekũkũtɛ	Iguana iguana	camaleão
tjukwe	Inga spp.	ingá
tjaɨ	Jacaratia sp., Carica papaya	jaracatiá
ĩtsãi	Lachesis mutus	surucucu
kudɨ; kudɨkãi	Lagenaria siceraria	cabaça
hɨrikoro-haɁɨ̃hɨ̃	Lagothrix lagotricha	macaco-barrigudo
ururitsunwã; ururitsunwɨ̃	Lantana sp.	cambará-rosa
jereçwa-erereɁɨ̃hɨ̃	Leopardus pardalis	maracajá-açu
wɨitsitsu	Leopardus wiedii	maracajá-peludo
huwa	Leptodactylus pentadactylus	mãe-da-chuva
huhukɨ	Leptodactylus stenodema	mãe-de-chuva
kuikuijo	Lipaugus vociferans	cricrió-seringueiro
beçɨi	Lonchocarpus nicou	timbó
mãtete	Lontra longicaudis	lontrinha
jo	Manihot utilissima	mandioca
manakuʔɨi	Manilkara huberi	massaranduba
hakare	Mauritia flexuosa	buriti
aɁũ-kiɁĩhi	Mazama americana	veado-mateiro
aɁũ-tʃuhũi	Mazama gouazoupira	veado-catingueiro
tʃikere	Melanerpes cruentatus	pica-pau-negro
terei	Mitannis sp.	pacu-prata
heçunwã	Mezilaurus itauba	itaúba
tsjatoro	Micrurus spp.	cobra
perjutsjenju	Muscivora tyrannus	tesourinha
asitsu	Myrmecophaga tridactyla	tamanduá, tamanduá-bandeira
kihãrẽ	Myroxylon balsamum	cabreúva
haduru	Nasua nasua	quati
tu	Nectarina lecheguana	enxu
bɨbɨtsu	Odontomachus chelifer, Paraponera clavata	tocandira
uruçeçu	Oenocarpus bacaba	bacaba
uru	Oenocarpus bataua	patauá
kãrãwɨto	Ormosia arborea	mulungu
kotorε	Osteocephalus taurinus	perereca
hudi; tjutjutjudɨtsahã	Otus spp., Ciccaba spp.	corujinha
ĩtsẽ; jereçwa	Panthera onca	onça-pintada
hoitswatũ; jukare	Passiflora spp.	maracujá
çitɨi	Pediculus spp.	piolho
wã-tʃihɨ̃tɛ	Pepsis sp.	marimbondo-caçador
hariɁiçu	Phaseolus spp.	feijão
hedaka	Phenakospermum guyannense	sororoca
baɨkaloɨi	Philodendron goeldii	cipó-ambé
hakoro	Phlebotomus spp.	tatuquira
wãwã	Phrynohyas resinifictrix	cunauaru
koko	Phyllomedusa spp.	perereca
purutʃa	Physalis spp.	camapu
uhu tʃihĩtɛ; uhu-tʃũhũi	Pilherodius pileatus	garça-real
tanã	Pilocarpus sp.	jaborandi
tsɨitsu	Pimelodus spp., Pimelodella sp.	mandi
dururu	Pithecia monachus	parauacu, macaco-cabeludo
çoçoto	Platonia sp., Rheedia spp.	bacuri
tai tsjõ	Plica umbra, Anolis fuscoauratus	papa-vento
kẽwẽdori	Podocnemis unifilis	tracajá
sakarũ	Potamotrygon spp.	arraia
kutʃikutʃi	Potos flavus	jupará
hakuçu	Pourouma cecropiaefolia	cucura
hakuçu	Pourouma cecropiaefolia	uva-do-mato
mĩdo	Pouteria pariry	pariri
mãtja	Pouteria spp.	abiurana
çoronã	Priodontes giganteus	tatu-canastra
owɨto	Pseudolmedia laevigata	pama
çoro	Pseudomyrmex spp.	taxi
maninitɛ	Pseudoplatystoma fasciatum	surubim
aratsabi	Psophia crepitans	jacamim
jereçwa-kiɁɨ̃hɨ̃	Puma concolor	onça-vermelha
bibitjenju	Ramphocelus carbo	pipira
jakukurɛ	Ricinus communis	mamona
bɨrɨrɨtũi	Rollinia mucosa	biribá
baha	Saimiri sciureus	macaco-de-cheiro
tʃãrãiçu	Sinan spp.	perereca
hatemã; hotemã	Sciurus spadiceus, Sciurus aestuans	esquilo
winɨkalo	Scleria spp.	tiririca
eri	Serrasalmus hollandi	piranha-pintada
eri hohoɨ̃hɨ̃	Serrasalmus rhombeus	piranha-preta
dore; katsutsu	Sylvilagus brasiliensis	coelho
takanasi; takanãsinwɨ̃	Simaba cedron	quina
kamũkamũ	Simarouba amara	cacheta
çu	Synbranchus marmoratus	muçum
tɛte	Simulium spp.	pium
wɨçɨi	Socratea exorrhiza	paxiúba
paira	Solanum spp.	jurubeba
ehe	Solenopsis sp.	formiga
hudi-tsãrãnãhĩ	Speotyto cunicularia sp.	coruja-do-campo
kaihũhẽ	Spilotes pullatus	caninana
haku	Spondias mombin	taperebá
hurerai	Swietenia macrophylla	mogno
murɨtjɨ; tʃeja	Swietenia sp.	cedro-lagoano
nanaɁũ	Tabebuia sp.	pau-d'arco
çoronwã	Tachigali sp.	taxi
sirisiri	Tamandua tetradactyla	mambira
ãrũi	Tapirus terrestris	anta
duture	Tayassu pecari	queixada
hajere	Tayassu tajacu	caititu
purukui	Terminalia brasiliensis	mirindiba
tai-marɛɁa	Thecadactylus rapicaudus	osga
ereto	Theobroma cacao	cacau
atʃitʃiɁũɨi	Tineola uterella	traça
terei hohoɨ̃hɨ̃	Tometes sp.	pacu
çediçu	Tetragonisca angustula	abelha
haço	Trigona spinipes	abelha
çatɨ	Oxytrigona tataira	abelha
hakai	Trigona trinidadensis	avô
çɨitjo	Tunga penetrans	bicho-de-pé
hãkoɁɛ	Tupinambis merianae	teju, jacuraru
marɛʔa-ekasiɛ	Tyto alba	rasga-mortalha
çudẽrẽ	Urera sp.	urtiga
nuhai	Vanellus chilensis	quero-quero
hakũĩtsĩ	Vernonia ferruginea	assa-peixe
kumada	Vicia faba	fava
huhuri	Xanthosoma sagittifolium	taioba
mĩkarẽ	Xanthosoma sagittifolium	taioba
dihu	Xylopia nitida	embira-amerela

• van der Voort, Hein (2000). "Kwaza or Koaiá, an unclassified language of Rondônia, Brazil" (PDF). Indigenous Languages of Lowland South America. 1: 39–52.
• van der Voort, Hein (2004). A Grammar of Kwaza. Berlin, New York: Mouton de Gruyter. doi:10.1515/9783110197280.
• van der Voort, Hein (2005). "Kwaza in a Comparative Perspective". International Journal of American Linguistics. 71 (4): 365–412. doi:10.1086/501245. JSTOR 10.1086/501245.
• Manso, Laura Vicuña Pereira (2013). Dicionário da língua Kwazá [Dictionary of the Kwazá language] (PDF) (M.A. thesis) (in Portuguese). Guajará-Mirim: Federal University of Rondônia.
• Jolkesky, Marcelo Pinho de Valhery (2016). Estudo arqueo-ecolinguístico das terras tropicais sul-americanas [An Archaeo-Ecolinguistic Study of the South American Tropics] (Ph.D. dissertation) (in Portuguese) (2 ed.). Brasília: University of Brasília.

• van der Voort, Hein (November 1998). "Kwazá". Encyclopedia of Indigenous Peoples in Brazil. Archived from the original on 2006-12-29. Retrieved 2007-02-08.