Ocaina language

Ocaina
Xáfahxajoh'
Native to	Peru, Colombia
Native speakers	190 (1998–2000)[1]
Language family	Bora–Huitoto Huitoto–Ocaina Ocaina
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	mː	nː	ɲː
Plosive		p b	t ɲ	tʲ dʲ	k ɡ	ʔ
Affricate			ts dz	tʃ dʒ
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:

Latin	IPA	Latin	IPA	Latin	IPA	Latin	IPA	Latin	IPA	Latin	IPA	Latin	IPA	Latin	IPA	Latin	IPA	Latin	IPA	Latin	IPA
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/	m̈	/mː/	n	/n/	n̈	/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/

• Because the Ocaina alphabet is based on Spanish, c is used to indicate /k/ before a, o, and u, qu is used before e and i, and k is used in loan words, such as kerosene kerosene.
• Nasalization is indicated by inserting n after a vowel. Compare: tya tyója [tʲa tʲóha] hang it vs. tya tyonjan [tʲa tʲṍhã] clean it.
• High tone is indicated with the acute accent: á, é, í, ó, ú.

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.

• Agnew, Arlene; Evelyn G. Pike (January 1957). "Phonemes of Ocaina (Huitoto)". International Journal of American Linguistics 23 (1): 24–27. doi:10.1086/464385.
• Leach, Ilo M. (2008). Mary Ruth Wise, ed. Vocabulario Ocaina (PDF). Serie Lingüística Peruana (in Spanish) 4 (2nd ed.). Yarinacocha, Peru: Instituto Lingüístico de Verano.