Itonama | |
---|---|
sihni pandara | |
Native to | Bolivia |
Region | Beni Department |
Ethnicity | 2,900 (2006) [1] |
Native speakers | 1 (2012) [1] |
Latin | |
Official status | |
Official language in | Bolivia |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | ito |
Glottolog | iton1250 |
ELP | Itonama |
Itonama is classified as Critically Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger | |
Itonama is a moribund language isolate once spoken by the Itonama people in the Amazonian lowlands of north-eastern Bolivia. It was spoken on the Itonomas River and Lake [2] in Beni Department.
In Magdalena town on the western bank of the Itonama River (a tributary of the Iténez River), located in Iténez Province, only a few elderly people remember a few words and phrases. [3] : 483
Jolkesky (2016) notes that there are lexical similarities with the Nambikwaran languages due to contact. [4]
An automated computational analysis (ASJP 4) by Müller et al. (2013) [5] found lexical similarities between Itonama and Movima, likely due to contact.
Front | Central | Back | |
---|---|---|---|
High | i | ɨ ⟨ï⟩ | u |
Mid | e ~ ɛ ⟨e⟩ | o | |
Low | a ⟨a⟩ |
Diphthongs: /aiau/⟨ay aw⟩.
Bilabial | Alveolar | Post- alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Nasal | m | n | |||||
Plosive/ Affricate | plain | p | t | tʃ ~ ts ⟨ch⟩ | tʲ ⟨ty⟩ | k ⟨k⟩ | ʔ ⟨’⟩ |
ejective | tʼ | tʃʼ ~ tsʼ ⟨chʼ⟩ | kʼ ⟨kʼ⟩ | ||||
voiced | b | d | |||||
Fricative | s | h | |||||
Liquid | lateral | l | |||||
rhotic | ɾ ⟨r⟩ | ||||||
Semivowel | w ~ β ⟨w⟩ | j ⟨y⟩ |
The postalveolar affricates /tʃtʃʼ/ have alveolar allophones [tstsʼ]. Variation occurs between speakers, and even within the speech of a single person.
The semivowel /w/ is realized as a bilabial fricative [ β ] when preceded and followed by identical vowels. [6]
Itonama is a polysynthetic, head-marking, verb-initial language with an accusative alignment system along with an inverse subsystem in independent clauses, and straightforward accusative alignment in dependent clauses.
Nominal morphology lacks case declension and adpositions and so is simpler than verbal morphology (which has body-part and location incorporation, directionals, evidentials, verbal classifiers, among others). [7]
Loukotka (1968) lists the following basic vocabulary items for Itonama. [2] They are shown here alongside the forms cited in the Intercontinental Dictionary Series (IDS).
gloss | Itonama (Loukotka) | Itonama (IDS) |
---|---|---|
one | chash-káni | ukʼa’ne |
two | chash-chupa | -chupa |
tooth | huomóte | ohwomotʼe |
tongue | páchosníla | ohpochosnila |
hand | mapára | uhmaʼpara |
woman | ubíka | wabï’ka |
water | huanúhue | wanu’we |
fire | ubári | ubari |
moon | chakakáshka | u’tyahka’ka’ka |
maize | udáme | |
jaguar | ótgu | |
house | úku | uku |
The Waorani (Huaorani) language, commonly known as Sabela is a vulnerable language isolate spoken by the Waorani people, an indigenous group living in the Amazon rainforest between the Napo and Curaray Rivers in Ecuador. A small number of speakers with so-called uncontacted groups may live in Peru.
Boran is a small language family, consisting of just two languages.
Puquina is a small, putative language family, often portrayed as a language isolate, which consists of the extinct Puquina language and Kallawaya. It is assumed that the latter is just a remnant of the former mixed with Quechuan, Puquina speakers are last mentioned in the early nineteenth century.
Yuracaré is an endangered language isolate of central Bolivia in Cochabamba and Beni departments spoken by the Yuracaré people.
Kunza is a mostly extinct language isolate spoken in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile and southern Peru by the Atacama people, who have since shifted to Spanish. The last speaker was documented in 1949; however, it has since been learned that the language is still spoken in the desert.
Candoshi-Shapra is an indigenous American language isolate, spoken by several thousand people in western South America along the Chapuli, Huitoyacu, Pastaza, and Morona river valleys. There are two dialects, Chapara and Kandoashi (Kandozi). It is an official language of Peru, like other native languages in the areas in which they are spoken and are the predominant language in use. Around 88.5 percent of the speakers are bilingual with Spanish. The literacy rate in Candoshi-Shapra is 10 to 30 percent and 15 to 25 percent in the second language Spanish. There is a Candoshi-Shapra dictionary, and grammar rules have been codified.
Canichana, or Canesi, Joaquiniano, is a possible language isolate of Bolivia. In 1991 there were 500 Canichana people, but only 20 spoke the Canichana language; by 2000 the ethnic population was 583, but the language had no L1 speakers left.
Andaqui is an extinct language from the southern highlands of Colombia. It has been linked to the Paezan or Barbacoan languages, but no connections have been demonstrated. It was spoken by the Andaqui people of Colombia.
Irántxe /iˈɻɑːntʃeɪ/, also known as Mỹky (Münkü) or still as Irántxe-Münkü, is an indigenous language spoken by the Irántxe and Mỹky peoples in the state of Mato Grosso in Brazil. Recent descriptions of the language analyze it as a language isolate, in that it "bears no similarity with other language families". Monserrat (2010) is a well-reviewed grammar of the language.
Aikanã is an endangered language isolate spoken by about 200 Aikanã people in Rondônia, Brazil. It is morphologically complex and has SOV word order. Aikanã uses the Latin script. The people live with speakers of Koaia (Kwaza).
Harakmbut or Harakmbet is the native language of the Harakmbut people of Peru. It is spoken along the Madre de Dios and Colorado Rivers, in the pre-contact country of the people. There are two dialects that remain vital: Amarakaeri (Arakmbut) and Watipaeri (Huachipaeri), which are reported to be mutually intelligible. The relationship between speakers of the two dialects is hostile.
Urarina is a language isolate spoken in Peru, specifically in the Loreto Region of Northwest Peru, by the Urarina people. There are around 3,000 speakers in Urarinas District. It uses the Latin script. It is also known as Itucali, Simacu or Shimacu.
Guató is a possible language isolate spoken by 1% of the Guató people of Brazil.
Warao is the native language of the Warao people. A language isolate, it is spoken by about 33,000 people primarily in northern Venezuela, Guyana and Suriname. It is notable for its unusual object–subject–verb word order. The 2015 Venezuelan film Gone with the River was spoken in Warao.
Tequiraca (Tekiráka), also known as Abishira, Aiwa, Ixignor, or Vacacocha, is an extinct language once spoken in Peru. In 1925 there were between 50 and 80 speakers in Puerto Elvira on Lake Vacacocha. It is presumed extinct some time in the mid 20th century, though in 2008 two rememberers were found and 160 words and short sentences were recorded. Today, most ethnic Aiwa people have shifted to Kichwa and Spanish.
Cayubaba is a moribund language of the Bolivian Amazon. The Cayubaba people inhabit the Beni region to the west of the Mamoré River, North of the Santa Ana Yacuma, with a population of 794 inhabitants.
The Yaruro language is an indigenous language spoken by Yaruro people, along the Orinoco, Cinaruco, Meta, and Apure rivers of Venezuela. It is not well classified; it may be an isolate, or distantly related to the extinct Esmeralda language.
Chimané (Tsimane') is a South American language isolate. Some dialects are known as Mosetén. Chimane is a language of the western Bolivian lowlands spoken by the Tsimane peoples along the Beni River and the region around San Borja in the Department of Beni (Bolivia). Sakel (2004) classifies them as two languages for a number of reasons, yet some of the variants of the language are mutually intelligible and they reportedly have no trouble communicating and were evidently a single language separated recently through cultural contact.
The indigenous languages of the Americas form various linguistic areas or Sprachbunds that share various common (areal) traits. The following list of linguistic areas is primarily based on Campbell.
The indigenous languages of South America are those whose origin dates back to the pre-Columbian era. The subcontinent has great linguistic diversity, but, as the number of speakers of indigenous languages is diminishing, it is estimated that it could become one of the least linguistically diverse regions of the planet.