Cofán language

Cofán
A'ingae
Native to Ecuador, Colombia
Region Oriente or Ecuadorian Amazon
Ethnicity Cofán people
Native speakers
 2,400 (2001–2008)[1]
Official status
Official language in
 Ecuador: indigenous languages official in own territories
Language codes
ISO 639-3 con
Glottolog cofa1242[2]

The Cofán language (also Kofan or Kofane; autonym: A'ingae) is the language of the Cofán people, an indigenous group native to Napo Province northeast Ecuador and southern Colombia, between the Guamués River (a tributary of the Putumayo River) and the Aguarico River (a tributary of the Napo River).

Approximately 60% of Cofán speakers in Ecuador are literate in their own language. There is extensive bilingualism with Spanish on both sides of the border. Intermarriage with Siona people and Secoya people also promotes bilingualism.

While Cofán is an endangered language, it is classified as a developing language and a language isolate with 1400 to 2400 speakers.[3] Speakers reside in the “eastern Andean foothills on both sides of the Ecuadorian and Columbian border”. There are two distinct types of Cofán, the Aguarico (Ecuador) and the San Miguel (primarily spoken in Colombia).[3]

The language is written in the Roman script and has ten vowels (five with and without nasalization) and twenty-eight consonants. Cofán alphabet has 33 singular or compound letters. Written Cofán has seven sentence types, five sentence margin tagmemes and specific paragraph types distinct to Cofán.[4]

Cofán had been classified as a Chibchan language, but this appears to be due to borrowed vocabulary.

Use of Cofán in Ecuador is connected to the language in land property rights documents and in the bilingual access to the language in schools. In Colombia, Cofán is more endangered because of war, displacement, and intermarriage.[3]

Classification

Cofán is a language isolate. Some scholars claim Cofán is not classified into a language family. However, the language exhibits some lexical similarities to Chibchan, a neighboring language. Evidence of the lexical influence Chibchan has on Cofán does not prove any genetic relationship between the two languages.[5]

History of Cofan

Cofán oral history tells the migration of the Cofane (Cofán speakers) from Sierra to the “Oriente,” more specifically the land between the Aguarico and Chamabi Rivers,  which the Cofane have inhabited since the seventeenth century.[5]

Cofanes were traditional hunters and farmers. The land the Cofane people occupied became a center for oil production led by the Tesco-Gulf Corporation and the Ecuadorian government. Quichuas from the lowlands of Ecuador, who had been pushed out of their land by white colonists and Mestizos, began migrating to take jobs with the oil company.[5]

The migration of Quichuas along with the opening of a bilingual school in Dureno, put pressure on Cofán linguistic patterns.[5]

Many Cofanes turned to different and less traditional forms of revenue production. The Cofane people began to make artifacts to sell to stores and tourists. The business exchange meant more and more Cofane people were speaking Spanish. However, the businesses saw the distinct culture of the Cofanes that they wanted to preserve to bring in more revenue. This helped preserve the Cofane culture and language.[5]

Anthropologist M. B. Borman compiled twenty-six Cofán oral legends that analyze the linguistic thought process. The legends are broken into five types: old legends involving creation, pre-conquest and pre-ayahuasca legends, middle Cofán legends, post conquest legends  and post conquest legends with biblical influence. The movement through these legends is said to show adoption of language and culture over time via missionaries and christian influence.[6]

Geographic distribution

Around 400 people speak Cofán on the border of Ecuador and Colombia. There is evidence linking Cofán to four locations in Ecuador:

Dialects/Varieties

There are two dialects of Cofán. The first exists in communities along the Aguarico River in Ecuador and the second dialect is among communities on the San Miguel, Guamuez and Putumayo Rivers in Colombia.[5]

Sounds/Phonology

In Cofán, there are two degrees of phonemic stress. Segmental phonemes are broken into two categories: Twenty-seven consonant phonemes and ten vowel phonemes. Within suprasegmental phonemes there are two stress phonemes and three phonemes of juncture. Additionally, there are five oral and five nasal vowels.[7]

Grammar

Paragraphs are a distinct and important structure in Cofán grammar. There are fifteen different paragraph types used in Cofán narrative discourse. The narrative paragraph and simultaneous paragraph “form the backbone of narrative discourse.” The coordinate descriptive paragraph and deictic paragraph are used to portray character or participant identity development and to outline situations. Reason, contrast, and antithetical paragraphs are used to foster relationships and tension between speakers and events. Amplification paragraphs, contraction paragraphs, negated antonym paragraphs and cyclic paragraphs are used in “paraphrasing” particular information. Lastly, comment paragraphs and quote and dialogue paragraphs are used to add detail to a narrative.[8]

Writing system

There are 33 letters in the Cofán Alphabet. Some are simple letters, while others are compound.

Letters include: a, b, c, cc, ch, chh, d, dy, e, f, g, i, j, m, n, ñ, o, p, pp, q, qq, r, s, sh, t, tt, ts, tss, u, v, y, z.[4]

Counting System

Cofán’s number system is a base-five system. Cofán speakers use Spanish numerals to count.[9]

 

Further reading

  1. Baldauf, R. B., Kaplan, R. B., King, K. A., & Haboud, M. (2007). Language planning and policy in Latin America: Language Planning and Policy in Ecuador (Vol. 1). Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
  2. Borman, M. B. (1962). Cofan phonemes. SIL International Publications in Linguistics, 7th ser., 45-59. Retrieved March 10, 2017, from https://www.sil.org/resources/archives/8877.
  3. Borman, M. B. (1977). Cofan paragraph structure and function. SIL International Publications in Linguistics, 289-338. Retrieved March 10, 2017, from https://www.sil.org/resources/archives/8678.[10]
  4. Borman, M. B. (1990). Cofan cosmology and history as revealed in their legends: The Cofan Alphabet. Quito, Ecuador: Instituto Linguistico de Verano.[4]
  5. Cofán. (n.d.). Retrieved March 10, 2017, from https://www.ethnologue.com/language/con[11]
  6. Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin; Bank, Sebastian, eds. (2016). "Cofán". Glottolog 2.7. Jena: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
  7. Gijn, E. V., Haude, K., & Muysken, P. (2011). Subordination in native South-American languages. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Pub. Co.[3]
  8. Klein, H. E., & Stark, L. R. (2011). South American Indian languages: retrospect and prospect. Austin: University of Texas Press.
  9. Lewis, M., Simons, G. F., & Fennig, C. D. (2015). Ethnologue: Languages of Ecuador. 18, 11-21. Retrieved March 10, 2017, from http://www.linguisticsnetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/Ethnologue-18-Ecuador.pdf[12]

References

  1. ↑ Cofán at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
  2. ↑ Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin; Bank, Sebastian, eds. (2016). "Cofán". Glottolog 2.7. Jena: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Gijn, Rik van; Haude, Katharina; Muysken, Pieter (2011-04-29). Subordination in Native South American Languages. John Benjamins Publishing. ISBN 9789027287090.
  4. 1 2 3 Borman, M. B. (1990-01-01). Cofan cosmology and history as revealed in their legends. Instituto Linguistico de Verano.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Klein, Harriet E. Manelis; Stark, Louisa R. (2011-07-20). South American Indian Languages: Retrospect and Prospect. University of Texas Press. ISBN 9780292737327.
  6. ↑ Borman, M.B. (1991). ""The old people told us...": twenty-six Cofan legends as related by Enrique Criollo". Cuadernos Ethnolinguistos.
  7. ↑ Norman, M.B. (Summer 1962). "Studies in Ecuadorian Indian Languages". Summer Institute of Linguistics of the University of Oklahoma. 7: 45–59.
  8. ↑ Norman, M.B. (1977). "Discourse Grammar: Studies in Indigenous Languages of Colombia, Panama, and Ecuador". Summer Institute of Linguistics. 52:3: 290–338.
  9. ↑ "Cofan". mpi-lingweb.shh.mpg.de. Retrieved 2017-05-01.
  10. ↑ "Cofan paragraph structure and function". SIL International. 2013-01-24. Retrieved 2017-03-10.
  11. ↑ "Cofán". Ethnologue. Retrieved 2017-03-10.
  12. ↑ "Ethnologue 18 Ecuador" (PDF).
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