Tupi-Sprache
Xambioá is spoken on the east bank of the Araguaia, close to the mouth of the Maria River (a western tributary of the Araguaia), which makes it the northernmost variety of Karajá. Ribeiro (2012) reports that there were only 8 fluent speakers in 1998, all of them elderly. Phonologically, Xambioá is characterized by the progressive palatalization of to following an , as in [] ‘fox’ (unlike in Karajá, this does not lead to a neutralization with ). Another phonological feature of Xambioá is the occurrence of the oral allophone of (i.e., ) where other dialects have : Xambioá ‘man’, ‘Pimelodus| fish’, ‘canoe’ vs. Karajá , , . Some Xambioá words are not found in other dialects, such as the Língua Geral Amazônica borrowing ‘paper’ (in Karajá and Javaé, the term for ‘skin, bark, cloth’ is used instead: Karajá ♀ , Javaé ♀ , Karajá/Javaé ♂ ).