Matsiguenga language

Last updated
Machiguenga
Matsigenka
Native to Perú
Ethnicity13,000 Machiguenga (2007) [1]
Native speakers
6,200 (2007) [1]
Arawakan
  • Southern
Language codes
ISO 639-3 Either:
mcb   Machiguenga
cox    Nanti (Pucapucari)
Glottolog mats1245
ELP Machiguenga

Machiguenga (Matsigenka) is a major Arawakan language in the Campa sub-branch of the family. It is spoken in the Urubamba River Basin and along the Manu River in the Cusco and Madre de Dios departments of Peru by around 6,200 people. According to Ethnologue, it is experiencing pressure from Spanish and Quechua in the Urubamba region, but is active and healthy in the Manu region (most speakers are monolingual in Matsigenka). It is close enough to Nomatsiguenga that the two are sometimes considered dialects of a single language; both are spoken by the Machiguenga people. Nanti is partially mutually intelligible but ethnically distinct.

Contents

There is extensive morphological inflection in Matsigenka; it is considered to be polysynthetic and features an agglutinative morphology, where both suffixes and prefixes are used to mark various inflectional categories.

Phonology

Consonants

Labial Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
Plosive p t k
Affricate t͡s t͡ʃ
Fricative β s ʃ ɣ ɣʲ h
Nasal m n ɲ
Rhotic r

Vowels

Front Back
Close i u
Mid e o
Open a

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References

  1. 1 2 Machiguenga at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
    Nanti (Pucapucari) at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. Snell, Betty (1978). Machiguenga: Fonología y Vocabulario Breve. Pucallpa: Instituto Lingüístico del Verano.