Itonama language
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Itonama | ||
|---|---|---|
| Spoken in: | Bolivia | |
| Total speakers: | 10 | |
| Language family: | Isolate. | |
| Writing system: | Latin alphabet | |
| Language codes | ||
| ISO 639-1: | none | |
| ISO 639-2: | sai | |
| ISO 639-3: | ito | |
| Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. See IPA chart for English for an English-based pronunciation key. | ||
Itonama is a moribund language isolate of Bolivia.
Contents |
[edit] Phonology
[edit] Vowels
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| High | i | ɨ | u |
| Mid | e | ɵ | |
| Low | a |
Diphthongs: /ai au/.
[edit] Consonants
| Bilabial | Alveolar | Postalveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stop | Plain | p | t | tʲ | k | ʔ | |
| Ejective | tʼ | kʼ | |||||
| Voiced | b | d | |||||
| Affricate | Plain | tʃ | |||||
| Ejective | tʃʼ | ||||||
| Fricative | s | h | |||||
| Nasal | m | n | |||||
| Lateral | l | ||||||
| Flap | ɾ | ||||||
| Semivowel | w | j | |||||
The postalveolar affricates /tʃ tʃʼ/ have alveolar allophones [ts tsʼ]. Variation occurs between speakers, and even within the speech of a single person.
The semivowel /w/ is realized as a bilabial fricative [β] when preceded and followed by identical vowels.
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[edit] References
- (Spanish) Crevels, Mily (2002). "Itonama o Sihnipadara, Lengua no clasificada de la Amazonía Boliviana". Estudios de Lingüística 16.
