Kaingang: gender or classifiers?

The Kaingang language presents a particular vocalic alternation involving low nasal vowels, which has traditionally been treated either as dialect differences or as a case of “free variation”. My two-decade contact with native speakers of several Kaingang communities – particularly from Xapecó (SC), Nonoai, and Inhacorá (RS) – allows me to consider this vocalic alternation as a kind of “classifier” with some characteristics of “gender”. This paper argues that these distinctions in pronunciation are not mere dialect differences in Kaingang. The linguistic reality is much richer, more revealing and more interesting than the magical discard of “free variation”.