Etymology Meets Ethnohistory: Linguistic Evidence for the Prehistoric Origin of the Guaná-Chané in the Northwestern Chaco

This article discusses linguistic evidence on the migrations of Arawakan groups to the Paraguay region of South America. The fact that Guaicuruan loanwords in the language of the Guaná-Chané cluster semantically in domains related to bodies of water is best explained by tracing the origins of the Guaná-Chané to dryer environments, these loanwords referring to novel aspects of the Paraguay landscape that they encountered as they moved into it. These findings, combined with evidence in the ethnohistorical literature, support the hypothesis of a single prehistoric origin for the Guaná-Chané in the northwestern Chaco.