Browsing by Subject "Amazonian languages"

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    Djeoromitxí : notes on phonology and simple noun phrase structure
    (2012-05) De Castro, Thiago Pereira Vital 1983-; Epps, Patience, 1973-; England, Nora C
    This work presents a proposal for an analysis of phonology and simple noun phrase structure of Djeoromitxí language, an endangered Amazonian language spoken by about 50 people in Northwest Brazil, in the state of Rondônia at the Brazil-Bolivia border. This paper is based on data collected from speakers of two Djeoromitxí villages on the Guaporé region (the Ricardo Franco Indian Post and Baía das Onças villages). The phonological inventory of Djeoromitxí is composed of 14 consonants, 7 oral and 3 nasal vowels. In the simple noun phrase structure section, I define phonological and grammatical words in Djeoromitxí. In addition to this, I present an overview of noun phrase structures, notes on the morpheme i-, noun properties, nominalization, adjectives, adjectival derivation, descriptive morpheme –rü, possession, compounding, noun classifiers, diminutive/augmentatives, lexicalization of negation morpheme, number marker, demonstratives, personal markers, obligatory possession, and numerals. The work presented here is an attempt to provide a linguistic description of an endangered language of Amazonia
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    Kakua phonology : first approach
    (2010-12) Bolaños Quiñónez, Katherine Elizabeth; Epps, Patience, 1973-; Woodbury, Anthony
    This work presents a preliminary analysis of the phonology of Kakua, an endangered language of the Kakua-Nukak family (formerly classified as Makú). Kakua is spoken by approximately 300 people living in the Vaupés region of the Amazon rain forest, in northwest Amazonia, Eastern Colombia. This analysis is based on data collected with Kakua speakers from the village of Wacará, a settlement of approximately 120 people, living along the basin of Caño Wacará, located between the Querarí and the Vaupés Rivers, to the east of Mitú, close to the Colombia-Brazil borders. The phonological inventory of Kakua includes five vowels and seventeen consonants. Kakua also presents contrastive prosodic features of nasalization and an inventory of three contrastive tones. Kakua phonology presents various interesting typological features from both areal and cross-linguistic perspective. The work presented here is a first attempt to provide a better illustration of a little-known endangered language of Amazonia.