Pemon language
Pemon | |
---|---|
Arecuna | |
Ingarikó, Kapon | |
Native to | Venezuela, Brazil, Guyana |
Ethnicity | Pemon |
Native speakers | 6,200 (1990–2006)[1] |
Cariban
| |
Dialects |
Camaracoto
|
Latin | |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | aoc |
The Pemon language, or Arekuna, is a Native American language of the Cariban family spoken by some 30,000 Pemon people, in Venezuela's Southeast, particularly in the Canaima National Park, in the Roraima State of Brazil and in Guyana.
It is one of several closely related languages called Ingarikó and Kapong.
Camaracoto may be a distinct language.
Typology
The Pemon language's syntax type is SOV with alternation to OVS.[2]
Writing
Pemon was an oral language until the 20th century. Then efforts were made to produce dictionaries and grammars, primarily by Catholic missionaries, specially Armellada and Gutiérrez Salazar. The Latin alphabet has been used, adding diacritic signs to represent some phonemes not existing in Spanish.[3]
Phonology
Vowels
Pemon has the following vowels:
Front | Central | Back | |
---|---|---|---|
Close | i | ɨ | u |
Open-mid | e | ɵ | o |
Open | a |
There are still texts only using Spanish characters, without distinctive characters for /o/ or /ɵ/.
Consonants
b, ch, d, k, m, n, ñ, p, r, s, t, v, w, y
Grammar
Pronouns in Pemon are:
Pemon | English |
---|---|
yuré | I, me |
amäre | you (singular) |
muere, mesere | he, she |
urekon | we |
ina | we (exclusive) |
amärenokon | you (plural) |
ichamonan | they, them |
References
- ↑ Pemon reference at Ethnologue (17th ed., 2013)
- ↑ La Transitividad en Japrería.
- ↑ http://ricardo.delgado.com/GUIA%20DE%20PEMON.pdf Guide for Pemon (Spanish)
External links
Literature
- Gutiérrez Salazar, Msr Mariano: Gramática Didáctica de la Lengua Pemón. Caracas 2001. ISBN 980-244-282-8.
- De Armellada, Fray Cesáreo y Olza, Jesús,s.j.: Gramática de la lengua pemón (morfosintaxis) (1999) Caracas, Publicaciones Ucab, Vicariato Apostólico del Caroní y Universidad Católica del Táchira. 289 pages.