Jeikó (Jeicó, Jeikó, Yeico, Geico, Eyco, Zyeikó) is an extinct language of southeastern Piauí, Brazil, known only from a 19th-century wordlist with interference from neighboring languages. It is considered a Macro-Jê language, but not always in the Jê language branch.
Classification Based on a 67-word list from the early 19th century in von Martius (1867), it appears to be a Jê language.
Davis (1968) found a number of lexical similarities with the Jê language family. He noted, however, that "[m]ost comparable Jeikó items, however, show no similarity to reconstructed Proto Jê forms".
However, Ramirez et al. (2015) doubts the accuracy of von Martius' list, and notes that the word list may actually consist of a wide mixture of languages spoken in Piauí, including from Pimenteira (Cariban) and Masakará (Kamakã).Ramirez, H., Vegini, V., & França, M. C. V. de. (2015). Koropó, puri, kamakã e outras línguas do Leste Brasileiro. LIAMES: Línguas Indígenas Americanas, 15(2), 223 - 277. Nevertheless, Nikulin (2020) still finds convincing evidence that Jaikó was a Macro-Jê language, but does not consider it to be within the Jê branch. At least 13 words from Martius' wordlist belong to a Macro-Jê language.
Geographical distribution Jaikó was spoken around the aldeia (village) of Cajueiro, located in what is now southeastern Piauí state. The name is derived from the town of Jaicós, which was located in the Jaikó people's territory around the Canindé River and Gurgueia River.Nikulin, Andrey. 2020. Proto-Macro-Jê: um estudo reconstrutivo. Doctoral dissertation, University of Brasília.
Vocabulary The full Geicó word list from von Martius (1867), with both the original Latin glosses and translated English glosses, is reproduced below.
Latin gloss (original) English gloss (translated) Geicó aethiopissa black woman tacayo asso, are roast tiloschung audio, ire hear uschiegkó auris ear aischeroh avunculus uncle iquaté brachium arm aepang brevis, e short nohtutudäng calidus, a, um hot ijahú capillus hair grangsché caput head grangblá coelum sky maecó collum neck aepurgó costa rib aemantaelä dens tooth ayanté diabolus devil pocklaeschü aqälé dies day tipiaco digitus finger aenaenongklang domus house y(l)rouró dormio, ire sleep uhliong edo, ere eat tiqua femur thigh aecroh filia daughter scharrepiú filius son scharrété foedus, a, um treaty nohmĕlĕniheh folium leaf arandische frigidus a, um cold ohntü(hl) homo albus white man tipiaeung homo niger black man tickah ignis fire ping juvenis young oopáung lavo, are wash namblú lingua tongue aenettá longus, a, um long nohriähniheng luna moon paang macer, a, um thin (person) nohnpütü(hl) mamma breast aejussi manus hand aenaenong mater mother ná membr. vir. man, male aereng membr. mul. woman, female aeoaénū morior die nong(e)roh nasus nose aenecopiöh nox night coco occido fall tiuing oculus eye alepuh os, oris mouth aingko paler stick já patera cucurbitina gourd bowl ae(e)rû pectus breast aejussi pes foot aepähno pinguis, e fat (adj.) nohtŏnĭheh puella girl juckqué pulcher, a, um beautiful nohr(l)äniheh ramus branch arandische semiaethiops (mulatto) mulatto mandattú sol sun chügkrá soror sister nempiaepiú stella star bräcklüh sylva forest oütü tabacum tobacco pâeih terra earth chgkü trulla ladle cărá venter belly aepu ventus wind ongkthü video, ere see u(l)epú umbilicus navel aequakrüng unguis fingernail aenaenongsiaé
References