Arawakan language spoken in Brazil
Waurá (Wauja) is an Arawakan language spoken in the Xingu Indigenous Park of Brazil by the Waujá people.[2] It is "partially intelligible" with Mehináku. The entire population speaks the language.[1]
Phonology
Consonants
- A glottal stop [ʔ] occurs phonetically before vowels in word-initial position, or after vowels in word-final position.
- /p/ can be heard as aspirated [pʰ] or voiced [b] in free variation.
- Stop sounds /t, k/ can be heard as aspirated [tʰ, kʰ] in free variation.
- /w/ can also be heard as [β] in free variation, except when before /u/.
- /s/ can be heard as voiced [z] when between vowels, or after initial vowels.
- /ʐ/ can be heard as voiceless [ʂ] when between vowels, or after initial vowels.
- /j/ can be heard as a palatal nasal [ɲ] when occurring before nasal vowels /ã, ẽ, ũ/.
Vowels
- Sounds /i, u, ɨ, a/ can also be heard in lax form as [ɪ, ʊ, ə, ɐ].
- Sounds /e, eː, ẽ/ can be heard as close-mid [e, eː, ẽ] or open-mid [ɛ, ɛː, ɛ̃] in free variation.[3]
References
- ^ a b Waurá at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
- ^ Seki, Lucy. 2011. Alto Xingu: uma área linguística? In: Franchetto, Bruna (ed.), Alto Xingu: uma sociedade multilíngue, p. 57-85. Rio de Janeiro: Museu do Índio/FUNAI. (in Portuguese)
- ^ Postigo, Adriana Viana (2014). Língua Wauja (Arawak): uma descrição fonológica e morfossintática.
