Tupi are based on the tupinambá dialect, spoken in what is now the Brazilian state of São Paulo, but there were other dialects as well. According to Edward Sapir's categories, Old Tupi could be characterized as follows: With respect to the concepts expressed: complex, of pure relation, that is, it expresses material and relational content by means of affixes and word order, respectively. With respect to the manner in which such concepts are expressed: a) fusional-agglutinative, b) symbolic or of internal inflection (using reduplication of syllables, functionally differentiated). With respect to the degree of cohesion of the semantic elements of the sentence: synthetic. Sample vocabulary Colors îub = yellow, golden (s)oby = blue, green pirang = red ting = white (s)un = black Substances (t)atá = fire itá = rock, stone, metal, y = water, river yby = earth, ground ybytu = air, wind People abá = man (as opposed to woman), Indian or Native-American (as opposed to European), human being (as opposed to the animal world) aîuba = Frenchman (literally "yellow heads") maíra = Frenchman (the name of a mythological figure that the Indians associated with the Frenchmen) karaíba = foreigner, white man (literally means "spirit of a dead person"). Means also prophet. kunhã = woman kunhãtã'ĩ = girl kunhãmuku = young woman kunumĩ = boy kunumĩgûasu = young man morubixaba = chief peró = Portuguese (neologism, from "Pero", old variant of "Pedro" = "Peter", a very common Portuguese name) sy = mother tapy'yîa = slave (also the term for non-Tupi speaking Indians) The body akanga = head îuru = mouth îyba = arm nambi = ear pó = hand py = foot py'a = heart (t)esá = eye (t)etimã = leg tĩ = nose (t)obá = face Animals aîuru = parrot, lory, lorykeet arara = macaw, parrot îagûara = jaguar ka'apiûara = capybara mboîa = snake, cobra pirá = fish so'ó = game (animal) tapi'ira = tapir Plants ka'api = grass, ivy (from which the word capybara comes) ka'a = plant, wood, forest kuri = pine (s)oba = leaf yba = fruit ybá = plant ybyrá = tree, (piece of) wood ybotyra = flower Society oka = house taba = village Adjectives beraba = brilliant, gleamy, shiny katu = good mirĩ, 'í = little panema = barren, contaminated, unhealthy, unlucky poranga = beautiful pûera, ûera = bad, old, dead (s)etá = many, much ûasu, usu = big Sample