Payaguá (Payawá) is an extinct language isolate, proposed to be a member of the Mataco–Guaicuru languages, formerly spoken in Paraguay and Argentina by the Payaguá.
Classification Viegas Barros (2004) proposed that Payaguá may be a Macro-Guaicurúan language.Viegas Barros, José Pedro. 2004. Guaicurú no, macro-Guaicurú sí: Una hipótesis sobre la clasificación de la lengua Guachí (Mato Grosso do Sul, Brasil). Ms. 34pp. However, Campbell (2012) classifies Payagua as a language isolate.
Dialects Two distinct dialects of Payaguá are distinguished by (2024), who proposes that either one is derived from the other, or that the two varieties coexisted at one time, but one was replaced by the other.
Vocabulary A total of 630 words are known in the language. +PayaguáGlossyamIhamoyouyorohe
Notes
References
Boggiani, G. (1900). Lingüística sudamericana: Datos para el estudio de los idiomas Payagua y Machicui. Trabajos de la 4a sección del Congreso Científico Latinoamericano, 203-282. Buenos Aires: Compañía Sud-Americana de Billetes de Banco. Schmidt, M. (1949). Los Payaguá. Revista do Museu Paulista N.S., 3:129-317.