Guarani language
GuaranÃÂà(gwah-rah-'nee) [gwara'ni] (local name: avaÃÂñe'ẽ) is a language spoken in Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay and southwestern Brazil. It belongs to the Tupi-Guarani language subfamily.
It is estimated that there are approximately six million GuaranÃÂÃÂ speakers worldwide.
GuaranÃÂÃÂ became a written language relatively recently. (date?) using a largely phonetic orthography.
GuaranÃÂÃÂ is, alongside Spanish, one of the official languages of Paraguay. Thus, for example, Paraguay's constitution is bilingual, and its state-produced textbooks are typically half in Spanish and half in GuaranÃÂÃÂ. This policy seems to suggest that the two languages are "separate but equal".
Nonetheless, the two languages have a very complicated relationship. In practice, almost nobody in Paraguay speaks "pure Spanish" or "pure GuaranÃÂÃÂ". The more educated, more urban, and more European-descended population tends to speak Argentine-influenced Spanish with short phrases of GuaranÃÂàthrown in, while the less educated, more rural, and more native population tends to speak a GuaranÃÂàwith significant vocabulary-borrowing from Spanish. This latter mix is known as JoparÃÂá (joe-pah-'rah) [dZopa"4a]
Speakers of GuaranÃÂÃÂ who are not fluent in any other language have markedly limited opportunities for education and employment. There are very, very few speakers of GuaranÃÂÃÂ outside of South America. Those few that exist are either scholars, missionaries, or agents of the Peace Corps.GuaranÃÂÃÂ in Paraguay