Aikanã language

Aikanã
Tubarão, Huari
Native toBrazil
RegionRondônia
Native speakers
150 (2012)
Dialects
  • Masaká
Language codes
ISO 639-3tba
Glottologaika1237
ELPAikanã
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Aikanã (sometimes called Tubarão, Corumbiara/Kolumbiara, or Huari/Uari/Wari) is an endangered language isolate spoken by about 200 Aikanã people in Rondônia, Brazil. It is morphologically complex and has SOV word order. Aikanã uses the Latin script. The people live with speakers of Koaia (Kwaza).

Demographics

Aikanã is traditionally spoken in the Terra Indígena Tubarão-Latundê, where it is still the dominant language. It is also spoken in the Terra Indígena Kwazá do Rio São Pedro, where Kwazá is traditionally spoken. A few Aikanã families in also reside in the Terra Indígena Rio Guaporé, but they do not speak the language there. There are nearly 100 ethnic Aikanã (locally known as Kassupá) people, in the Comunidade Indígena Cassupá e Salamãi, although the final Aikanã speaker there died in 2018.

Classification

Van der Voort (2005) observes similarities among Aikanã, Kanoê, and Kwaza, and believes that it is strong enough to definitively link the three languages together as part of a single language family. An automated computational analysis (ASJP 4) by Müller et al. (2013) also found lexical similarities between Aikanã and Kwaza. However, since the analysis was automatically generated, the grouping could be either due to mutual lexical borrowing or genetic inheritance.

Jolkesky (2016) also notes that there are lexical similarities with Kanoe, Kwaza, and Nambikwara due to contact.

Varieties

Varieties listed by Loukotka (1968):

  • Huari (Corumbiara) - spoken between the Corumbiara River and Guarajú River, Rondônia
  • Masaca (Aicana) - spoken on the left bank of the Corumbiara River
  • Aboba - extinct language once spoken on the Guarajú River
  • Maba - extinct language once spoken on the Guajejú River (unattested)
  • Puxacaze - once spoken on the Guajejú River, Brazil (unattested)
  • Guajejú - once spoken at the sources of the Jamarí River and Candeia River (unattested)

Phonology

Vowels

Oral vowels
Front Central Back
Close i y
~ ø
(ɨ) u
Mid ɛ
Open a
Nasal vowels
Front Central Back
Close ĩ
~ ø̃
(ɨ̃) ũ
Mid ɛ̃
Open ɐ̃
  • /y, ỹ/ can also be heard as close-mid [ø, ø̃].
  • /a, ã/ are heard as [ɨ, ɨ̃] before /i, ĩ/.

Consonants

Consonants
Labial Dental Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
Stop/
Affricate
voiceless p t̪͡s t t͡ʃ k (ʔ)
voiced b d̪͡ð d d͡ʒ
Fricative (s)
Nasal [m] [ⁿ̪ð] [n] [ɲ]
Sonorant w ɾ (j) h
  • Within the position of nasal vowels, sounds /b, d, d͡ð/ become [m, n, ⁿ̪ð] and /w, ɾ, h/ become [w̃, ɾ̃, h̃].
  • /t̪͡s, d͡ð/ are only heard as affricates [t̪͡s, d͡ð] in word-initial position. Elsewhere, they are heard as a fricatives [s] and [ð].
  • /w/ can be heard as a fricative [β] when before /i/.
  • /ɾ/ can also be heard as [l] between vowels.
  • /d͡ʒ/ is heard as [d͡ʒ] before a front-vowel, [j] before a non-front vowel, and as [ɲ] or [j̃] before a nasal vowel.

Grammar

In Aikanã, the verb phrase or predicate morphological template is:: 19 

verb subject classifier
directional
aspect
modality
valency object tense object subject negation mood

Vocabulary

Loukotka (1968) lists the following basic vocabulary items for Huari and Masaca, as well as Capixana.

gloss Huari Masaca Capixana
one amemeeː amäme pátairä
two arukai atuka kãerá
three ümaitü piakaúkä
head chimé tinupá i-kutá
ear ka-niyú ka-nĩgó i-tẽyõ
tooth múi mõiː i-pé
hand iné iné i-so
woman chikichíki dätiá míaʔä
water hané hánä kuni
fire íne íné iní
stone huahuá urorä akí
maize atití ákí atití
tapir arimé alümä itsá

Aikanã plant and animal names from Silva (2012) are listed in the corresponding Portuguese article.

Further reading

  • Vasconcelos, I. P. (2004). Aspectos da fonologia e morfologia da língua Aikanã. Maceió: Universidade Federal de Alagoas. (Masters dissertation).

This page was last updated at 2024-03-12 00:12 UTC. Update now. View original page.

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