{{Short description|Extinct language isolate of Brazil}} {{distinguish|Xavante language|Hodï language}} {{Expand Portuguese|Língua otí|date=October 2020}} {{Infobox language | name = Otí | nativename = {{lang|oti|Otí}}<ref name=":0" /> | states = Brazil | region = State of São Paulo, Paranapanema River basin | extinct = early 20th century | familycolor = American | family = Language isolate | iso3 = oti | glotto = otii1244 | glottorefname = Oti | ethnicity = Otí | map = Oti language map.svg | mapcaption = Map of the Otí language | altname = Chavante, Xavante }}

The '''Otí language''', also known as '''Chavante''' or '''Euchavante''', is a language isolate or an unclassified language once spoken in the state of São Paulo, Brazil, between the Peixe and Pardo rivers.<ref>Lyle Campbell, 1997. ''American Indian Languages: The Historical Linguistics of Native America.'' Oxford: Oxford University Press. {{ISBN|0195094271}}</ref> The language became extinct at the beginning of the 20th century. Only a few wordlists are preserved, totaling 110 words.

== Classification == Oti is left unclassified by Lyle Campbell due to a paucity of information.<ref>{{Citation |last=Campbell |first=Lyle |title=Classification of the indigenous languages of South America |date=2012-01-13 |work=The Indigenous Languages of South America |pages=59–166 |editor-last=Campbell |editor-first=Lyle |url=https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110258035.59/html |access-date=2025-03-31 |publisher=DE GRUYTER |doi=10.1515/9783110258035.59 |isbn=978-3-11-025513-3 |editor2-last=Grondona |editor2-first=Verónica|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Greenberg classified Oti as a Macro-Jê language, but he provided almost no supporting data and has not been followed by other researchers.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Rodrigues |first=Aryon D. |author-link=Aryon Rodrigues |url=https://ribeiro.wdfiles.com/local--files/temp%3A1/The_Amazonian_Languages__Cambridge_Language_Surveys.pdf |title=The Amazonian languages |date=1999 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-57021-3 |editor-last=Dixon |editor-first=Robert M. W. |series=Cambridge language surveys |location=Cambridge, UK ; New York |chapter=Macro-Jê |editor-last2=Aĭkhenvalʹd |editor-first2=A. I︠U︡}}</ref><ref name="Nikulin-Macro-Je" /><ref>{{Cite thesis |last=Ribeiro |first=Eduardo Rivail |title=A grammar of Karajá |date=2012 |degree=phd |publisher=University of Chicago |place=Chicago}}</ref> ''Glottolog'' classifies it as a language isolate.<ref>{{Glottolog|otii1244|Oti|5.3|2026}}</ref>

==History== The Oti were largely exterminated in the late 19th century out of fear that they were Kaingang.<ref>Ute Ritz-Deutch, 2008. ''Alberto Vojtech Fric, the German Diaspora, and Indian Protection in Southern Brazil, 1900–1920''</ref> Nimuendajú estimated that there were some 50 Oti in 1890.<ref>Nimuendajú, Curt 1942. ''The Šerente.'' Los Angeles.</ref> By 1903, there were only 8, divided between two locations, one a few kilometers east of Indiana and east of Presidente Prudente, between the Peixe and Paranapanema rivers, and one in Platina, some 50&nbsp;km northwest of Ourinhos. The traditional Oti lands up to 1870 had been located between these two places.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Fabre |first=Alain |url=http://www.ling.fi/Entradas%20diccionario/Dic=Oti.pdf |title=Diccionario etnolingüístico y guía bibliográfica de los pueblos indígenas sudamericanos. Edición electrónica |date=2005}}</ref> In 1910, three Oti people remained.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Nimuendajú |first=Curt |date=1993 |orig-date=1910 |title=O fim da tribo Oti |url=https://etnolinguistica.wdfiles.com/local--files/biblio%3Animuendaju-1993-oti/nimuendaju_1993_oti.pdf |journal=Carta': falas, reflexões, memórias / informe de distribuição restrita do Senador Darcy Ribeiro |volume=9 |pages=205–211}}</ref> In 1988, the last Oti died.<ref>CEDI 1991. ''Oti-Xavante.'' CEDI 1991: 580–581.</ref>

==Vocabulary== Only 110 words of Oti were preserved, in a total of three wordlists.<ref>{{Citation |last=Campbell |first=Lyle |title=Unclassified and Spurious Languages |date=2024-06-25 |work=The Indigenous Languages of the Americas |pages=280–338 |url=https://academic.oup.com/book/57386/chapter/464721551 |access-date=2026-05-10 |edition=1 |publisher=Oxford University PressNew York |language=en |doi=10.1093/oso/9780197673461.003.0005 |isbn=978-0-19-767346-1|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

=== Nikulin (2020) === Some Otí words given by Nikulin (2020),<ref name="Nikulin-Macro-Je">Nikulin, Andrey. 2020. ''[http://etnolinguistica.org/local--files/tese%3Anikulin-2020/Nikulin_2020_Proto-Macro-Je.pdf Proto-Macro-Jê: um estudo reconstrutivo]''. Tese de Doutorado em Linguística, Universidade de Brasília.</ref>{{rp|78–79}} cited from Quadros (1892),<ref>Quadros, F. R. E. [http://www.etnolinguistica.org/local--files/biblio:quadros-1892-memoria/quadros_1892_memoria.pdf Memoria sobre os trabalhos de exploração e observação efetuada pela secção da comissão militar encarregada da linha telegráfica de Uberaba a Cuiabá, de fevereiro a junho de 1889]. ''Revista do Instituto Histórico e Geográfico Brasileiro'', Rio de Janeiro, v. 55, n. 1, p. 233–260, 1892.</ref> Borba (1908: 73–76),<ref>Borba, T. [http://www.etnolinguistica.org/local--files/biblio:borba-1908-actualidade/borba_1908_actualidade_google.pdf ''Actualidade Indígena (Paraná, Brazil)''.] Curitiba: Impressora Paranaense, 1908. 171 pp.</ref> and Nimuendajú in Ihering (1912: 8).<ref name=":0">Ihering, H. von. [http://www.etnolinguistica.org/local--files/biblio:ihering-1912-a-ethnographia/ihering_1912_a_ethnographia.pdf A ethnographia do Brazil meridional.] Extracto de las ''Actas del XVII° Congreso Internacional de Americanistas'', pág. 250 y siguientes. Buenos Aires: Imprenta de Coni Hermanos, 1912.</ref> For the original word lists by Quadros (1892) and Borba (1908), see the corresponding Portuguese article.

:{| class="wikitable sortable" ! Portuguese gloss <br/>(original) !! English gloss <br/>(translated) !! Otí |- | cabeça || head || ursube; ufúbe |- | cabelo || hair || eteche; naôdj |- | olho || eye || acli, athli |- | orelha || ear || aconxe; acóti; kō's(h)a |- | nariz || nose || assondlaibe; sonduái |- | dente || tooth || vê; ûa |- | boca || mouth || afót |- | peito || chest || instúa |- | mão || hand || insua |- | pé || foot || jube; fum |- | sangue || blood || astaete |- | água || water || ocochia; kos(h)îa; diélsede |- | fogo || fire || iná; achô; úgide |- | árvore || tree || tajane |- | terra || earth || biroa |- | pedra || stone || rátcha |- | chuva || rain || chanin; béia |- | sente-se! || sit down! || roiábe |- | deite fora! (?) || throw it away! (?) || bója |}These wordlists are also reproduced in Ihering (1903).<ref>{{Cite book |last=von Ihering |first=Hermann |url=https://etnolinguistica.wdfiles.com/local--files/biblio%3Aihering-1906-anthropology/Ihering_1906_The_Anthropology_of_Sao_Paulo_2ed.pdf |title=The Anthropology of the State of São Paulo, Brazil |date=1903 |publisher=Duprat & Comp. |location=São Paulo}}</ref>

==References== {{reflist}}

==External links== {{sister project |project=wiktionary |text=Wiktionary has a word list at '''''Appendix:Oti word list'''''}}{{Languages of Brazil}} {{South American languages}}{{Language families}} Category:Languages of Brazil Category:Indigenous languages of South America (Central) Category:Languages extinct in the 20th century