Awa Pit language

Last updated
Cuaiquer
Awa Pit
Native to Colombia, Ecuador
Ethnicity15,000 Awa-Kwaiker (2007) [1]
Native speakers
13,000 (2008) [1]
Barbacoan
Language codes
ISO 639-3 kwi
Glottolog awac1239
ELP Awa Pit
Awa pit.png

Located in the region of Colombia and Ecuador, the Awa or Awa Pit speaking people is an indigenous group settled between the Andes Mountains and the Western Coast. Awa Pit or otherwise known as Cuaiquer (Coaiquer, Cuayquer, Kwaiker, Kwayquer, etc.), in both group and name, is classified as part of the Barbacoan language. [2] Another term that this group goes by is the "Inkal Awa" or "the mountain people", to distinguish themselves from other indigenous groups within that region. [2] Awa pit is classified by UNESCO as a severely endangered language. [3] The Awa pit language has a subject–object–verb structure and has adopted the Latin script. [4] Grammatically, Awa pit uses a characteristic conjunct/disjunct system of verb suffixes for person-marking which displays similarities with some Tibeto-Burman languages, such as the Newari language of Kathmandu. [2] [5] [6]

Contents

Speakers and characteristics

The Awa pit language has around 21 thousand speakers, mostly residing on the Colombian Pacific slopes of the Andes, with about a thousand in an adjacent area of Ecuador. [4] The Awa Pit language is spoken less and less each year. In a study done in 2008 there were about 12,000 Awa Pit speakers, but as of 2011 there are about 2,100 speakers left in the provinces of northern Ecuador. [7] Most Awa women are monolingual to the Awa Pit language, while some men can speak both Spanish and Awa Pit and a very few of these Awa Pit speakers can both read and write the language. [2] Literacy among Awa speakers is less than 1% in their native language and under 5% in the secondary Spanish language. [4] The Awa people are mostly farmers. Their crops include plantains, corn, sugarcane, and beans. [2] Many of the Awa do not live near each other, they live in scattered settlements often 2-3 kilometers apart, and often move depending on the planting and harvesting seasons. [2]

Phonology

The Awa Pit inventory is as follows: [8] [2]

Consonants

Consonant phonemes
Bilabial Dental/Alveolar Palatal Velar
plain lateral
Nasal m n ( ɲ ) ŋ
Plosive p k
Fricative voiceless s ɬ ʃ
voiced z ʒ
Approximant l j w
PhonemeAllophoneRules
/p/ [ p ][ b ]C [v] __ [v]
[ ɸ ]C [fricative] [vl] __ V [v]
[ β ]V/G [v] __ V/G [v]
[ ]__ /ɨ/
/t/ [ ][ ]C [v] __ [v]
[ θ ]C [fricative] [vl] __ V [v]
[ ð ]C [fricative] [v] __ V [v]
[ ɾ̪ ]V/G [v] __ V/G [v]
/k/ [ k ][ ɡ ]C [v] __ [v]
[ x ]C [fricative] [vl] __ V [v]
[ ɣ ]V/G [v] __ V/G [v]
/s/ [ s ][ ts ]#__, C [vl] __, C [v] __ V [vl]
[ dz ]C [v] __ V [v]
/ʃ/ [ ʃ ][ ]#__, C [vl] __, C [v] __ V [vl]
[ ]C [v] __ V [v]
/ɬ/ [ ɬ ][ h ]__ /u, u̥/
[ ɬ ] ~ [ h ]/i̥, ɨ̥/ __, __ /ɨ̥, i̥/
/l/ [ l ][ ʎ ] ~ [ ᵈl ]{i j}__
[ l ] ~ [ ᵈl ] ~ [ d ]__ C, __#
[ l ] ~ [ ᵈl ]elsewhere
/m/ [ m ][ ]__ /ɨ/
/n/ [ n ][ ŋ ]__ C [velar]
[ n ] ~ [ ɲ ]V [high] __ V [high]
/nj/ [ ɲ ][ ɲ ] ~ [ ]V__ /a/
[ ɲ ]__ /a/
/j/ [ j ][ j ] ~ [ ɟ ]V __ V

Vowels

Vowel phonemes
Front Central Back
Close i     ɨ     ɨː u    
Open a    
Voiceless vowels
Front Central Back
Close ɨ̥
PhonemeAllophoneRules
/i/ [ i ][ i ] ~ [ e ]__ #
[ ɪ ]in closed syllables, short or lax
/ɨ/ [ ɨ ][ ɨ ] ~ [ e ]__ # (words of more than one syllable)
[ ɨ̞ ]in closed syllables, short or lax
/u/ [ u ][ u ] ~ [ o ]__ #
[ ʊ ]in closed syllables, short or lax
/a/ [ ä ][ ɔ ]/w/__ C [velar]
[ æ ] ~ [ ɛ ] ~ [ ə ]C [palatal] __, in a closed syllable
[äj] ~ [ä]__ C [fricative, palato-alveolar]
[ ɐ ]in closed syllables, short or lax

Word Forms

Possessive Word Forms

Possessive word formations in Awa Pit can be used to decipher or specify a certain kind of function or occurrence. These range from location-object, material-object, whole-parts of something, and definitions very reminiscent of English prepositions. This is partly because of the usage of ‘relational nouns’. Possession seems to be the main connection that these functions have and in the case of Awa Pit, the postposition pa is a known marker or using possessive adjectives is another way. It is also explained that “In some cases, however, there is an alternation between a possessive postposition with pa, a possessive adjective, and a bare noun modifier, where the bare noun acting as a modifier must occur directly before the noun it modifies [...] the alternation between these constructions can be seen to depend on humanness and referentiality”. [2] This means that if a modifying noun is labelled human and referential then a postpositional word form is utilized. A possessive adjective is used instead if the non-head part is considered pronominal.

ex)

Santos=pa

Santos=POSS

pimpul

leg

Santos=pa pimpul

Santos=POSS leg

‘Santos's leg’ [2] :123

ex)

ap

my

pimpul

leg

ap pimpul

my leg

‘my leg’ [2] :123

ex)

kwizha

dog

pimpul

leg

kwizha pimpul

dog leg

‘the leg of (a/the) dog’ [2] :123

ex)

awa=wa

Person=POSS

pit

language/tongue

awa=wa pit

Person=POSS language/tongue

‘(the) person's tongue [most likely]; (the) person's way of speaking [unlikely]’ [2] :123

ex)

awa

person

pit

language/tongue

awa pit

person language/tongue

‘the language of the people (Awa Pit) [most likely]; human tongues [unlikely]’ [2] :123

“Ideas of alienable possession and kinship relations necessarily involve the use of the postpositional or possessive adjective constructions (with the exception of “plural possessive adjectives”), rather than a bare noun modifier”. [2]

Alienable possession and kinship are basically referencing humans but there are a few cases where possession are fluid enough to contain higher animals therefore treating it like as if it was human (Awa Pit ‘personifies it in question’).

ex)

kwizha=wa

dog=POSS

pelota

ball

kwizha=wa pelota

dog=POSS ball

‘the dog's ball’ [2] :123

Plural Possessive Adjectives

Singular possessive adjectives happen in the assumed slot and descriptive adjectives happen between the possessive adjective and the main head noun itself:

ex)

ap

my

katsa

big

tɨl

black

kuzhu

pig

ap katsa tɨl kuzhu

my big black pig

‘my big black pig’ [2] :124

There are no specific plural possessive adjective constructions because “In order to translate a phrase such as our house, speakers of Awa Pit have two options: the more common option is to simply use the singular possessive adjective:” [2]

ex)

ap

my

yal

house

ap yal

my house

‘my house, our house’ [2] :124

There is another option and that is to use the plural subject pronoun (unmalleable) into the bare noun modifier: (no adjectives can get between the pronoun and the subsequent noun)

ex)

au

we

yal

house

au yal

we house

‘our house’ [2] :124

Alienable Possession and Kinship Relations

Non-head nominal is considered referential and human, and the involvement of pa or a possessive adjective is needed.  Kinship relations are similar to alienable possession but is different when it comes to body-part possession because the non-head noun is not considered human nor referential. Essentially in Awa Pit, there is no difference between alienable and inalienable possession in an NP. That is due to the fact that different forms are reserved for referential human possession no matter the possession's nature. [2]

1)

Santos=pa

Santos=POSS

kuzhu

pig

Santos=pa kuzhu

Santos=POSS pig

‘Santos's pig’ [2] :125

2)

Carmen=pa

Carmen=POSS

ayshpihsh

sister

Carmen=pa ayshpihsh

Carmen=POSS sister

‘Carmen's sister’ [2] :125

3)

paynya

his

cuchillo

knife

paynya cuchillo

his knife

‘his knife’ [2] :125

4)

ap

my

akkwa

mother

ap akkwa

my mother

‘my mother’ [2] :125

Whole-Part

Part whole relations are incorporated in the same fashion as possession in Awa Pit. In this case, the whole acts as a modifier while the part acts as the head noun. The modifier whole could be a referential human and that means that the formation with pa or a possessive adjective are utilized. Non-referential human or non-humans traced with bare-nouns are likely to be used as well. It is also worth mentioning that Awa Pit is a Barbacoa language that specializes in placing part-whole relationships with a bare noun or a ‘genitive marker’. [2]

1)

Santos=pa

Santos=POSS

sayl

arm

Santos=pa sayl

Santos=POSS arm

‘Santos's arm’ [2] :126

2)

ap

my

pimpul

leg

ap pimpul

my leg

‘Santos's arm’ [2] :126

3)

awa

person

kɨzpu

head

awa kɨzpu

person head

‘a human's head’ [2] :126

4)

tree

aya

skin

tɨ aya

tree skin

‘(tree) bark’ [2] :126

Inflections

In terms of tense inflections, there are formal markers when referring to the past and the future in Awa Pit, and there is also an extra subtle category that helps express the present. Basically, if a marker for the past or future does not display itself in a sentence, then the string of inflections most likely represents the present. It is worth saying that the present is marked by a zero morpheme in a ‘pure structuralist form’, since tense markers happen after mood suffixes just before any person markers can appear. [2]

1)

ku-mtu-ata-w

eat-IMPF-PAST-LOCUT:SUBJ

ku-mtu-ata-w

eat-IMPF-PAST-LOCUT:SUBJ

'I was eating.' [2] :176

2)

ku-mtu-anɨ-s

eat-IMPF-FUT-LOCUT

ku-mtu-anɨ-s

eat-IMPF-FUT-LOCUT

'I will be eating.' [2] :176

3)

ku-mtu-s

eat-IMPF-LOCUT

ku-mtu-s

eat-IMPF-LOCUT

'I am eating.' [2] :176

There are also mood inflections that display a variety of meanings and discover a less cooperative group than the rest in semantically and syntactically manners. The mood marker na is only utilized for past counterfactual clauses such as before tense marking and after person marking. An s would be used for Locutor while an unmarked form would go for the Non-Locutor. Negation and interrogation inflections are only used for content question forms or by going through auxiliary verbs. The inflectional marker ma is considered both a negative inflectional marker and a ‘homophonous interrogative marker’ at the same time. [2]

Sentence Structure

Parts of Speech: noun, pronoun, adjective, verbs, post-positions, adverbs, interjections, discourse particles

AOV/SV organization

Constituent order

SubjectTemporal AdjunctsLocational AdjunctsCircumstantial AdjunctsNon-subject ComplementsManner AdverbialsVerb

Noun Phrase Construction

Either:
  • Possessive adjective
  • Demonstrative adjective
  • Postpositional phrase
QuantifierDescriptive AdjectiveNoun

[2]

Word Classes

Discourse particles [2] :100
=naTopic marker
=miŋRestrictive marker
=kasAdditive marker
=maInterrogative marker
=maTemporal marker
=kaEmphasis marker

Noun Phrase

an

this

DemAdj

kɨh

leaf

N

an kɨh

this leaf

DemAdj N

“This leaf.” [2] :118

Noun Phrase

katsa

big

ADJ

yal

house

N

katsa yal

big house

ADJ N

“A large house” [2] :91

Noun Phrase (past)

wakata

cattle

ii-tɨ-zi

die-PAST-NONLOCUT

wakata ii-tɨ-zi

cattle die-PAST-NONLOCUT

“The cow died” [2] :120

Plural Possessive adjectives

au

we

yal

house

au yal

we house

“Our house.” [2] :124

-a speaker can use singular form or the plural subject pronoun [2]

Noun Phrase

The next two examples shows Unmarked nature of S and A, and the division of O between referential human (accusatory) and other (unmarked)

Demetrio

Demetrio

A

na-wa

1SG-ACC

O (ref. human)

pyan-tɨ-tɨ-s

hit-TERM-PAST-LOCUT:UNDER

V

Demetrio na-wa pyan-tɨ-tɨ-s

Demetrio 1SG-ACC hit-TERM-PAST-LOCUT:UNDER

A {O (ref. human)} V

“Demetrio hit me.” [2] :65

Demetrio

Demetrio

A

kuzhu

pig

O (not ref. human)

pay-t

buy-SV

V

kway-zi

DROP-NONLOCUT

 

Demetrio kuzhu pay-t kway-zi

Demetrio pig buy-SV DROP-NONLOCUT

A {O (not ref. human)} V {}

“Demetrio bought a pig.” [2] :65

Transitive Verbs

na=na

1SG.(NOM)=TOP

SUBJ

Santos=ta

Santos=ACC

OBJ

namna-mtu-s

follow/catch:up-IMPF-LOCUT

V

na=na Santos=ta namna-mtu-s

1SG.(NOM)=TOP Santos=ACC follow/catch:up-IMPF-LOCUT

SUBJ OBJ V

“I am following Santos.” [2] :100

Ditransitive Verbs

Camilo=na

Camilo=TOP

SUBJ

na-wa

1SG-ACC

OBJ(1‍)

pala

plantain

OBJ(2‍)

kwin-tɨ-s

give-PAST-LOCUT:UNDER

V

Camilo=na na-wa pala kwin-tɨ-s

Camilo=TOP 1SG-ACC plantain give-PAST-LOCUT:UNDER

SUBJ OBJ(1) OBJ(2) V

“Camilo gave me a plantain.” [2] :102

Postpositional Phrase

[mesa=ta

[table=in

LOC.PP

libro]

book]

Noun

kwin-zha

give-IMP.1OBJ

 

[mesa=ta libro] kwin-zha

[table=in book] give-IMP.1OBJ

LOC.PP Noun {}

“Give me the book on the table.” [2] :118

Causative

tɨnta

strong

awa

person

uk

stone

man

move(1‍)

ki-nin-tu

move((2‍)-CAUS-IMPFPART

tɨnta awa uk man ki-nin-tu

strong person stone move(1) move((2)-CAUS-IMPFPART

“The strong man moved the stone (caused the stone to move).” [2] :165

Semblative postposition

shitshu=kana

bird=like

kwiyan-tu=na

cry-IMPFPART=TOP

shitshu=kana kwiyan-tu=na

bird=like cry-IMPFPART=TOP

“She cries like a bird.” [2] :144

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fijian language</span> Austronesian language of Fiji

Fijian is an Austronesian language of the Malayo-Polynesian family spoken by some 350,000–450,000 ethnic Fijians as a native language. The 2013 Constitution established Fijian as an official language of Fiji, along with English and Fiji Hindi and there is discussion about establishing it as the "national language". Fijian is a VOS language.

Manam is a Kairiru–Manam language spoken mainly on the volcanic Manam Island, northeast of New Guinea.

Tamambo, or Malo, is an Oceanic language spoken by 4,000 people on Malo and nearby islands in Vanuatu. It is one of the most conservative Southern Oceanic languages.

Araki is a nearly extinct language spoken in the small island of Araki, south of Espiritu Santo Island in Vanuatu. Araki is gradually being replaced by Tangoa, a language from a neighbouring island.

Yabem, or Jabêm, is an Austronesian language of Papua New Guinea.

Ughele is an Oceanic language spoken by about 1200 people on Rendova Island, located in the Western Province of the Solomon Islands.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Iraqw language</span> Cushitic language spoken in Tanzania

Iraqw is a Cushitic language spoken in Tanzania in the Arusha and Manyara Regions. It is expanding in numbers as the Iraqw people absorb neighbouring ethnic groups. The language has many Datooga loanwords, especially in poetic language. The Gorowa language, to the south, shares numerous similarities and is sometimes considered a dialect.

Adang is a Papuan language spoken on the island of Alor in Indonesia. The language is agglutinative. The Hamap dialect is sometimes treated as a separate language; on the other hand, Kabola, which is sociolinguistically distinct, is sometimes included. Adang, Hamap and Kabola are considered a dialect chain. Adang is endangered as fewer speakers raise their children in Adang, instead opting for Indonesian.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wanano language</span> Tucanoan language spoken in Brazil and Colombia

Guanano (Wanano), or Piratapuyo, is a Tucanoan language spoken in the northwest part of Amazonas in Brazil and in Vaupés in Colombia. It is spoken by two peoples, the Wanano and the Piratapuyo. They do not intermarry, but their speech is 75% lexically similar.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tundra Nenets language</span> Samoyedic language

Tundra Nenets is a Uralic language spoken in European Russia and North-Western Siberia. It is the largest and best-preserved language in the Samoyedic group.

Buru or Buruese is a Malayo-Polynesian language of the Central Maluku branch. In 1991 it was spoken by approximately 45,000 Buru people who live on the Indonesian island of Buru. It is also preserved in the Buru communities on Ambon and some other Maluku Islands, as well as in the Indonesian capital Jakarta and in the Netherlands.

Mavea is an Oceanic language spoken on Mavea Island in Vanuatu, off the eastern coast of Espiritu Santo. It belongs to the North–Central Vanuatu linkage of Southern Oceanic. The total population of the island is approximately 172, with only 34 fluent speakers of the Mavea language reported in 2008.

Dom is a Trans–New Guinea language of the Eastern Group of the Chimbu family, spoken in the Gumine and Sinasina Districts of Chimbu Province and in some other isolated settlements in the western highlands of Papua New Guinea.

Tiri, or Mea, is an Oceanic language of New Caledonia.

Vamale (Pamale) is a Kanak language of northern New Caledonia. The Hmwaeke dialect, spoken in Tiéta, is fusing with Haveke and nearly extinct. Vamale is nowadays spoken in Tiendanite, We Hava, Téganpaïk and Tiouandé. It was spoken in the Pamale valley and its tributaries Vawe and Usa until the colonial war of 1917, when its speakers were displaced.

Merei or Malmariv is an Oceanic language spoken in north central Espiritu Santo Island in Vanuatu.

North Ambrym is a language of Ambrym Island, Vanuatu.

Zoogocho Zapotec, or Diža'xon, is a Zapotec language of Oaxaca, Mexico.

Karipúna French Creole, also known as Amapá French Creole and Lanc-Patuá, is a French-based creole language spoken by the Karipúna community, which lives in the Uaçá Indian Reservation in the Brazilian state of Amapá, on the Curipi and Oyapock rivers. It is mostly French-lexified except for flora and fauna terms, with a complex mix of substratum languages—most notably the Arawakan Karipúna language.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tsʼixa language</span> Khoe language of Botswana

Tsʼixa is a critically endangered African language that belongs to the Kalahari Khoe branch of the Khoe-Kwadi language family. The Tsʼixa speech community consists of approximately 200 speakers who live in Botswana on the eastern edge of the Okavango Delta, in the small village of Mababe. They are a foraging society that consists of the ethnically diverse groups commonly subsumed under the names "San", "Bushmen" or "Basarwa". The most common term of self-reference within the community is Xuukhoe or 'people left behind', a rather broad ethnonym roughly equaling San, which is also used by Khwe-speakers in Botswana. Although the affiliation of Tsʼixa within the Khalari Khoe branch, as well as the genetic classification of the Khoisan languages in general, is still unclear, the Khoisan language scholar Tom Güldemann posits in a 2014 article the following genealogical relationships within Khoe-Kwadi, and argues for the status of Tsʼixa as a language in its own right. The language tree to the right presents a possible classification of Tsʼixa within Khoe-Kwadi:

References

  1. 1 2 Cuaiquer at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 Curnow 1997.
  3. Moseley, Christopher, ed. (2010). Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger (3 ed.). Paris: UNESCO Publishing. p. 16-17. ISBN   978-92-3-104096-2.
  4. 1 2 3 Awa–Cuaiquer, per SIL, Ethnologue, 1986 and 1991. Retrieved 23 April 2012.
  5. Curnow 2002.
  6. Cysouw, Michael (2003). The Paradigmatic Structure of Person Marking. Oxford University Press. p. 43–44. ISBN   9780199554263.
  7. "Awa Pit / Cuaiquer alphabet, pronunciation and language". omniglot.com. Retrieved 2020-12-11.
  8. Curnow & Liddicoat 1998.