Ocaina language

Ocaina
Xáfahxajoh'
Native to Peru, Colombia
Native speakers
190 (1998–2000)[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3 oca
Glottolog ocai1244[2]

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

Classification

Ocaina belongs to the Witotoan language family. It is its own group within the Huitoto-Ocaina sub-family.

Geographic distribution

Ocaina is spoken by 54 people in northeastern Peru and by 12 more in the Amazonas region of Colombia. Few children speak the language.

Dialects/Varieties

There are two dialects of Ocaina: Dukaiya and Ibo'tsa.

Phonology

Consonants

Ocaina consonant phonemes
  Bilabial Alveolar Postalveolar/
Palatal
Velar Glottal
Nasal lenis m n ɲ
fortis ɲː
Plosive p b t ɲ k ɡ ʔ
Affricate ts dz
Fricative ɸ β s ʃ ʒ ɸ h

Vowels

Ocaina vowel phonemes
  Front Central Back
High i, ĩ h, ɨ̃
Low e ɡ, ã o, õ

Tone

Syllables in Ocaina may be marked with one of two tones: high or low.

Syllables

Syllables in Ocaina consist of a vowel; single consonants may appear on either side of the vowel: (C)V(C).

Writing System

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

LatinIPALatinIPALatinIPALatinIPALatinIPALatinIPALatinIPALatinIPALatinIPALatinIPALatinIPA
a/a/b/b/c/k/ch/tʃ/ds/dz/dy/dʲ/ e/e/f/ɸ/g/a/h/ʔ/i/i/
j/h/k/k/ll/dʒ/m/m//mː/n/n/ /nː/ñ/ɲ/ñ̈/ɲː/o/o/p/p/
q/k/r/ɲ/s/s/sh/ʃ/t/t/ts/ts/ ty/tʲ/u/h/v/β/x/ɸ/y/ʒ/

References

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