Language Contact and Documentation: Contacto Linguistico y Documentacion

Introduction 5
their syntactic properties, such as the possibility of their combining with other
word classes, being integrated into complex and descriptive constructions or
functioning as a predicate or relative clause. Such properties help to clarify the
status of proper names within the class of names. Likewise, the article describes
and compares the nomination processes as cultural practices among
the Pilagá and Wichí peoples. The data were collected within the framework
of the documentation of the two languages. The ethnographic information is
compared with descriptions and analyses of proper names carried out by wellknown
anthropologists in the area. In sum, the article seeks to contribute to
the knowledge of this linguistic category, from the perspective of two Chacoan
societies.
Golluscio explores the traces of paths and contacts in the linguistic system of
Vilela, a severely endangered language spoken in the Argentine Chaco. The
analysis centers on some phonetic-phonological features, grammatical categories
and syntactic strategies which provide evidence of the fusion of distinct
linguistic layers through diverse periods of contact between the speakers of
Vilela and peoples of the Andes, the Chaco, and the Guarani region. In light
of these findings, the author defines the status of Vilela as an absorption-andlayered
language. This research contributes to stressing the relevant role that
the so-called “terminal” or “last” speakers play, not only in documenting and
preserving their language but also in the comprehension and knowledge of the
genetic and contact linguistic relationships in a specific area, as well as the
interaction and displacement of populations over the centuries.
Menihaku & Franchetto focus on the multilingual and multiethnic system that
has developed in the Upper Xingu region of Brazilian Amazonia. This constitutes
a complex regional system, from both historical and ethnographical viewpoints,
with traditions of distinct origins, genetically distinct languages and
varieties internal to each language, an amalgam of diversity and similarity,
expressed by processes of translation in the different languages of a shared
core of concepts and objects. This article focuses on the multicultural and plurilingual
formations of the Upper Xingu peoples. The fact that these peoples
have been seen to be linguistically homogenous within each village and culturally
homogenous within the borders of the Upper Xingu regional system constitutes
a strong limit to our understanding of their complexity, affirm the authors.
Indeed, the socio-cultural formation of the Upper Xingu was constituted
in a continuous process of transformation and recreation. The article centers
on the idea of tetsualü in relation to people and languages. As the authors
explain in the introduction of the paper, the Kuikuro word tetsualü can be
translated as ‘mixed,’ like a mixture of colors, of different foods or of different