Arawak language
| Arawak | |
|---|---|
| Lokono | |
| Native to | French Guiana, Guyana, Suriname, Venezuela |
| Region | Guianas |
| Ethnicity | Lokono (Arawak) |
Native speakers | unknown (2,500 cited 1980–2000)[1] |
|
Arawakan
| |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-2 |
arw |
| ISO 639-3 |
arw |
| Glottolog |
araw1276[2] |
Arawak (Arowak, Aruák) or Lokono (also called Lokono Dian "people’s talk" by its speakers) is an Arawakan language spoken by the Lokono (Arawak) people of South America in eastern Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana.[3] The term "Arawak" is often used to cover all members of the Arawakan language family.
Arawak has an active–stative syntax.[4]
Phonology
Consonants
| Bilabial | Alveolar | Retroflex | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aspirated stops | tʰ | kʰ | ||||
| Unvoiced stops | t | k | ||||
| Voiced stops | b | d | ||||
| Fricatives | ɸ | s | h | |||
| Nasal | m | n | ||||
| Approximant | w | l | j | |||
| Trills | r | ɽ |
William Pet observes that an additional /p/ does occur in loans.[5]
Vowels
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i | ɨ | |
| Mid | e | o | |
| Open | a |
Pet notes that phonetic realization of /o/ varies between [o] and [u].[5]
Grammar
The personal pronouns are shown below. The forms on the left are free forms, which can stand alone. The forms on the right are bound forms (prefixes), which must be attached to a the front of a verb, a noun, or a postposition.[6]
| singular | plural | |
|---|---|---|
| 1st person | de, da- | we, wa- |
| 2nd person | bi, by- | hi, hy- |
| 3rd person | li, ly- (he)
tho, thy- (she) |
ne, na- |
Notes
- ↑ Arawak at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- ↑ Nordhoff, Sebastian; Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2013). "Arawak". Glottolog. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
- ↑ Pet, Willem J. A. A Grammar Sketch and Lixicon of Arawak (Lokono Dian). SIL International. 2011. p 2. http://www-01.sil.org/silepubs/Pubs/928474543236/e-Books_30_Pet_Arawak_Suriname.pdf
- ↑ Aikhenvald, "Arawak", in Dixon & Aikhenvald, eds., The Amazonian Languages, 1999.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Pet, William (1988). Lokono dian: the Arawak language of Surinam: a sketch of its grammatical structure and lexicon. PhD dissertation, Cornell University.
- ↑ Pet, Willem J. A. A Grammar Sketch and Lixicon of Arawak (Lokono Dian). SIL International. 2011. p 12. http://www-01.sil.org/silepubs/Pubs/928474543236/e-Books_30_Pet_Arawak_Suriname.pdf
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