Two dialects have been identified based on scarce documentation of the language. The variety spoken in São José de Mossâmedes (as attested by Johann Baptist Emanuel Pohl[3] and Augustin Saint-Hilaire in short wordlists) is characterized by the retention of the Proto-Goyaz Jê rhotic *r. In contrast, the variety spoken in Santana do Paranaíba (as attested by Kupfer,[4] Carl Nehring,[5] and Joaquim Lemos da Silva in short wordlists) and in the Triângulo Mineiro region (as documented by Barbosa in an extensive wordlist) innovated by palatalizing the rhotic (i.e. *r >j) in certain environments and has been hypothesized to be the ancestor of Panará.[2]
^POHL, J. E. Reise im Innern von Brasilien: auf allerhoechsten Befehl seiner Majestät des Kaisers von Österreich, Franz des Ersten, in den Jahren 1817–1821 unternommen. Vol. 1. Viena: A. Strauss’s Sel. Witwe e J. B. Wallishausser, 1832. 448 pp.
^KUPFER, Dr. Die Cayapo-Indianer in der Provinz Matto-Grosso. Zeitschrift für der Gesellschaft für Erdkunde zu Berlin, Berlim, n. 5, p. 244–254, 1870.
^NEHRING, C. Sud-Cayapo: Wörterlisten. In: EHRENREICH, P. Materialen Zur Sprachekunde Brasiliens. Zeitschrift fur Ethnologie, n. 26, p. 136–137, 1894.
