Jê

Macro-Jê is a South American language family spread mainly across the Brazilian planalto and cerrado and into eastern Bolivia, with the Jê languages at its core. Jê itself divides into northern tongues such as Timbira and Kayapó, central ones such as Xavante, and southern ones led by Kaingang; the inclusion of Bororo, Kariri and Guató in the wider family is still debated.

Its speakers kept the interior savanna and highlands even as Tupi–Guarani peoples occupied the coast, so that when the Portuguese founded São Paulo in 1554 the hinterland still belonged almost entirely to Macro-Jê communities.

Long contact with Tupi–Guarani and later Portuguese brought loanwords. The family is marked by irregular morphology shared with Tupian and Cariban, a small consonant set, a rich vowel inventory and contrastive nasalization.