Basic Data

• Name: Suruí de Rondônia
• Alternative Names: Suruí, Suruí of Rondônia
• Auto-Denomination: Paiter
• Language Classification: Tupi, Mondé, Suruí
• Population: 900
• Location: Rondônia, on the border between Rondônia and Mato Grosso

About the Suruí

The Suruí were first contacted in 1969. No one knows how many there were at that time. At least half died from measles, tuberculosis, and hepatitis B during the first five years. The first population count in the 70's showed between 200 and 300 Suruí. In 1988 there were about 450. At last count in 1999 there were 840.The Suruí population continues to grow since the first years of the contact when they were decimated.

As far as the Surui language status, there are no separate dialects. There are a few slight differences in the pronounciation of a few sounds. This is becoming more pronounced between the young people and the old people. With Portuguese being spoken more and more, there are many borrowed words. The only differences between the sexes in language usage are the kinship terms and bodily function terms.

Publications

Bontkes, Carolyn, 1985, Subordinate Clauses in Surui (230 kB), Porto Velho Workpapers: 189-207.

———, 2007, A Prosódia Silábica Surui (in Portuguese, 190 kB), Associação Internacional de Lingüística, Cuiabá, MT.

———, 2009 (1974), Tentative Observations of Morphphonemic Changes in the Verbs and Possessed Nouns of Surui (245 kB), Associação Internacional de Linguística, Anápolis, GO.

Bontkes, Willem and Carolyn Bontkes, 2009 (1978), Phonemic Analysis of Surui (662 kB), Associação Internacional de Linguística, Anápolis, GO.

Bontkes, Willem and Robert A. Dooley, 1985, Verification Particles in Surui (240 kB), Porto Velho Workpapers: 166-188.

van der Meer, Tine, 1982, Phonology of the Suruí Language (Abstract, 34 kB), unpublished Master's dissertation, UNICAMP.

van der Meer, Tine H. 1985, Case Marking in Surui (215 kB), Porto Velho Workpapers: 208-230.