Muinane language

Muinane
Muìnánɨ
Native to Colombia
Ethnicity 550 Witoto people (2007)[1]
Native speakers
150 (2007)[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3 bmr
Glottolog muin1242[2]

Muinane is an indigenous American language spoken in western South America.

Classification

Muinane belongs to the Witotoan language family. Along with Bora, it comprises the Boran sub-grouping.

Geographic distribution

Muinane is spoken by 150 people in Colombia along the Upper Cahuinarí river in the Department of Amazonas. There may be some speakers in Peru.

Phonology

Consonants

Muinane consonant phonemes
  Bilabial Alveolar Postalveolar/
Palatal
Velar Glottal
Nasal m n ɲ
Plosive p b t d k ɡ ʔ
Affricate
Fricative ɸ β s ʃ j ɸ
Trill ɲ

Vowels

Muinane vowel phonemes
  Front Central Back
High i ɨ u
Low e ɡ o

Tone

There are two tones in Muinane: high and low.

Grammar

Word order in Muinane is generally SOV. Case marking is nominative–accusative.

Writing System

Muinane is written using a Latin alphabet. A chart of symbols with the sounds they represent as is follows:

LatinIPALatinIPALatinIPALatinIPALatinIPALatinIPA
a/a/b/b/c/k/ ch/tʃ/d/d/e/e/
f/ɸ/g/a/h/ʔ/ i/i/ɨ/ɨ/j/ɸ/
ll/dʒ/m/m/n/n/ ñ/ɲ/o/o/p/p/
q/k/r/ɲ/s/s/ sh/ʃ/t/t/u/u/
v/β/y/j/

References

  1. 1 2 Muinane at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
  2. Nordhoff, Sebastian; Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2013). "Muinane". Glottolog. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
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