| Siona | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spoken in | Colombia, Ecuador | |||
| Region | Putumayo River | |||
| Ethnicity | Siona people | |||
| Native speakers | 600 (date missing) | |||
| Language family |
Tucanoan
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| Language codes | ||||
| ISO 639-3 | snn | |||
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The Siona language (otherwise known as Sioni, Pioje, Pioche-Sioni, Ganteyabain, Ganteya, Ceona, Zeona, Koka, Kanú) is a Tukanoan language of Columbia and Ecuador.
There are 6 oral vowels and six nasal vowels. Only nasal vowels occur next to a nasal consonant /m/ or /n/.
| Back | Central | Front | |
|---|---|---|---|
| High | i ĩ | ɨ ɨ̃ | u ũ |
| Mid | ɛ æ̃ | o õ | |
| Low | a ã |
There are two series of obstruent consonant. Both often produce a noticeable delay before the onset of the following vowel: the 'fortis' series (written p t č k kw s h hw) tends to be aspirated, with a noisy transition to the vowel, while the 'lenis' series (written b d g gw ’ z), optionally voiced, is glottalized, with a silent transition to the vowel, which in turn tends to be laryngealized. The glottal stop is faint, and noticeable primarily in the laryngealizing effect it has on adjacent vowels.
| bilabial | alveolar | prepalatal | velar | labio-velar | glottal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| voiceless stops | pʰ | t̪ʰ | tʃʰ | kʰ | kʷʰ | |
| voiced stops | pˀ ~ bˀ | ʈˀ ~ ɖˀ ~ ɾ | kˀ ~ ɡˀ | kʷˀ ~ ɡʷˀ | ʔ | |
| Fricative | s ; sˀ ~ zˀ | h ; hʷ | ||||
| Nasal | m | n | ||||
| Semi-vowel | j ~ ɲ | w |
/ʈˀ/ is realized as [ɾ] between vowels. /j/ is realized as [ɲ] next to nasal vowels.
Stress is obligatory on all verb stems, root words, and some suffixes. It disappears when the syllable is not the nucleus of a phonological word. Some monosyllabic morphemes have both stressed and unstressed forms. Although the position of stress within a word is not contrastive, vocalic and consonantal allophony depends on whether a syllable is stressed. Initial stressed vowels followed by unstressed vowels are long and have a falling tone.