| Resumo: | Based on primary data and secondary sources, this paper analyzes the diatopicand diachronic variation of the pronominal object, which distinguishes thePilcomayeño and Bermejeño dialectal groups in Wichi/Weenhayek language(Mataguayan family, Argentina and Estado Plurinacional de Bolivia). Whereasthe Pilcomayeño dialect employs a prefix in non-derived and causative-derivedpredicates, and a suffix, in predicates derived by locatives/directionals, the Bermejeñodialect employs a suffix in all syntactic contexts. We argue that the developmentof the prefixing object in the Pilcomayeño follows the typologicalcorrelation to the VO word order, and develops from a change of lexeme>grammaticalmorpheme. In a different way, the suffixing paradigm in predicates with locatives/directionals in both dialectal groups mirrors the old word order in the asymmetrical serial verb construction and develops from a reanalysis of this construction. This reanalysis leads, also, the grammaticalization of the locatives and directionals from verbal roots. Syntactic cognates in the language family lead us to propose the hypothesis that this syntactic reanalysis could at least have started in the Proto-Mataguayan. Finally, we argue that the Bermejeño dialect regularized the object paradigm to suffixes, and thus, separating from the Mataguayan language family and leading the change.
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