Mbyá
/mɨˈβja/noun
A Guaraní-speaking Indigenous people of South America, especially associated with Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina.
Did you know?The Mbyá Guaraní maintain a distinct spiritual worldview in which forests, sacred plants, and ancestral traditions remain central to community identity.
Etymological Timeline
Pre-Columbian period
Proto-Tupí-Guaraní
*mbyá
“Reconstructed ancestral form associated with the later ethnonym; the deeper meaning is not securely established.”
16th–17th Century
Guaraní
Mbyá
“Name used within the Guaraní linguistic and cultural sphere for a distinct Indigenous group.”
18th–19th Century
Spanish
Mbyá / Mbya
“Ethnonym recorded by colonial and later ethnographic sources for a Guaraní-speaking people.”
19th–20th Century
Portuguese
Mbyá Guarani
“Name used in Brazilian scholarship and administration for the Mbyá Guaraní.”
Modern English
English
Mbyá
“An established ethnonym referring to the Mbyá Guaraní people of South America.”