Andoque language
Andoque is a language spoken by a few hundred Andoque people in Colombia, and is in decline. There were 10,000 speakers in 1908, down to 370 a century later, of which at most 50 are monolingual. The remaining speakers live in four residential areas in the region of the Anduche River, downstream from Araracuara, Solano, Caquetá, Colombia;[2] the language is no longer spoken in Peru. Most speakers shifted to Spanish.[1]
| Andoque | |
|---|---|
| Andoké | |
| Native to | Colombia |
| Ethnicity | 820 Andoque people (2018 census)[1] |
Native speakers | 370 (2007)[1] 50 monolinguals (no date)[1] |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | ano |
| Glottolog | ando1256 |
| ELP | Andoque |
 | |
Classification
Andoque may be related to the extinct Urequena language (also Urekena or Arequena) which is known only from a single 19th century wordlist.[3]
Kaufman's (2007) Bora–Witótoan stock includes Andoque in the Witótoan family, but other linguists, such as Richard Aschmann, consider Andoque an isolate.
Phonology
Andoque has been analyzed to have the lowest consonant-to-vowel ratio of any language in the world, with ten consonants and nine vowel qualities.[4] However, other studies (see below) have reported other numbers of consonants and vowels.
Vowels
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i ĩ | ɯ | u |
| Mid | e ẽ | ɤ ɤ̃ | o õ |
| Open | a ã | ʌ | ɒ ɒ̃ |
Landaburu (2000) reports nine oral vowels and six nasal vowels.
Consonants
| Labial | Coronal | Dorsal | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stop | nasal | m | n | ɲ | |
| voiced | b | d | |||
| voiceless | p | t | k | ʔ | |
| Continuant | fricative | f | s | h | |
| approximant | j | ||||
The phoneme /ɲ/ is represented orthographically as ⟨ñ⟩ and the phoneme /j/ is written ⟨y⟩.
Tone
Andoque vowels have one of two phonological tones, low or high, with the low tone being far more frequent. Landaburu (2000) marks high tone vowels with a tilde and leaves low tone vowels unmarked. While some lexemes are distinct only in tone (such as -ka- 'mix' and -ká- 'distribute'), Landaburu notes that many grammatical distinctions are made solely through differences in tone, as in the examples below which differ in tense.
dã-bɤ̃ʌ
REAL.INGRESSIVE-cry
baʝa
3M
'he comes to cry'
dã́-bɤ̃ʌ
IRR-cry
baʝa
3M
'he will cry'
Grammar
Classifiers
The subject noun does not appear alone, but is accompanied by markers for gender or noun classifiers (which are determined by shape). These noun classifiers are as follows:
| Animate | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Masculine | Feminine | Collective | ||
| Animate | Present | -ya- | -î- | -ə- |
| Absent | -o- | -ô- | ||
| Inanimate | Flexible or hollow | -o- | ||
| Rigid or elongated | -ô- | |||
| Other | -ó- | |||
Person markers include o- ("I"), ha- ("you (singular)"), ka- ("we") and kə- ("you (plural)").
The adjectival or verbal predicate has a suffix which agrees with the subject: -ʌ for animate subjects and flexible or hollow ones; -ó for rigid or elongated ones; -i for others. Adjectival and verbal predicates are also marked with prefixes indicating mood, direction or aspect, and infixes for tense. The nominal predicate (What something is) does not have a suffix of agreement nor a dynamic prefix, but it can take infixes for tense and mood, like the verb. Other grammatical roles (benefactive, instrumental, locative) appear outside the verb in the form of markers for case. There are 11 case suffixes.
Evidentials
In addition, the sentence has markers for the source of knowledge, or evidentials indicating whether the speaker knows the information communicated firsthand, heard it from another person, has deduced it, etc.
There is also a focus marker -nokó, which draws attention to the participants or indicates the highlight of a story. In the language there are means of representing action from the point of view of the subject or other participants, or from the point of view of an external observer.
Vocabulary
Landaburu (2000)
Landaburu (2000) gives the following Swadesh list table for Andoque:[5]
no. Spanish gloss English gloss Andoque 1. yo I o-ʔɤ 2. tú you ha-ʔɤ 3. nosotros we kẽ-ʔɤ̃ 4. ésto this ʌɲẽ́ 5. hoja leaf -sedɤ̃ 6. aquel that ʌdí 7. ¿quién? who? kó-i 8. ¿qué? what? hi-ʌ g. no not hʌ́ʌ-bã́ 10. todos all sí-õ-kɤ̃ 11. muchos many hʌ́ʌ-pãã́, ɯ́ɯ-kɤ̃ 12. largo one bɤ̃kɤ̃- 13. uno two ʌisidé 14. dos big ʌ-ʌ́hʌbã́ 15. grande long ĩʔõ-kɤ̃ 16. perro dog ĩɲõ 17. chico small uʔ-pãã́-ɲé-ʌ 18. mujer woman tiʔi 19. hombre person ʝóʔhʌ 20. pescado fish bei 21. pájaro bird hiʌɸo 22. piojo louse táʔsi 23. cola tail -dɤ̃ta 24. árbol tree kɤ̃́ʔɤ̃dɤ 25. semilla seed -tapi 26. raíz root -ɲeko 27. corteza bark -tasi 28. piel skin -tasi 29. carne flesh -ɤ̃ta 30. sangre blood -duʔs 31. hueso bone -tadɤ̃ 32. grasa grease kẽɤ̃i 33. huevo egg -hádɤ 34. cuerno horn -si 35. pluma feather -ɲeɸʌ 36. parado standing taɲe- 37. cabello hair ka-tai ʌka-be 38. cabeza head -tai 39. oreja ear -bei 40. ojo eye -ʔákʌ 41. nariz nose -pɤta 42. boca mouth -ɸi 43. diente tooth -kódi 44. lengua tongue -sodɤ̃ 45. rodilla knee -kodoi 46. garra, uña claw, nail -sikopɤ 47. pie foot -dʌka 48. mano hand -dobi 49. barriga belly -tura 50. cuello neck -ɲekɤ̃́i 51. senos breasts -ɲeé 52. corazón heart -pĩ́tú 53. hígado liver -tú 54. beber drink -kóʔ- 55. comer eat -baʔi- 56. morder bite -ʝu- 57. ver see -do- 58. oir hear -tó- 59. saber know -do- 60. dormir sleep -pʌ- 61. morir die ĩ-hʌ́ʌ- 62. matar kill -buʔ- 63. nadar swim -ɲṍẽi- 64. volar fly -bu- 65. andar, caminar walk -tá- 66. venir come da-ɤ̃- 67. acostado lying down se-aɲe- 68. dar give -ĩ- 69. sentado seated ʝi-ɸɤʌ́-aɲe- 70. decir say -kɤ̃-/-ẽʔ- 71. sol sun ĩɒ̃ 72. luna moon pódɤɤ̃ 73 estrella star ɸʌʔko 74. agua water dúʔu 75 lluvia rain dɤ-i 76. piedra stone ɸisi 77. arena sand poʔsɒ̃ɤ̃ 78. tierra earth ɲṍʔĩ 79. nube cloud bóasiakʌi dɤ̃kɤ̃ 80. humo smoke bóasiakʌi 81. fuego fire ʌʔpa 82. ceniza ashes pʌtakoi 83. arder burn -du- 84. camino path dubɤ, õbɤ 85. cerro mountain toʌ́i 86. rojo red peo- 87. verde green paʝo- 88. amarillo yellow dóɒ- 89. blanco white poʔté 90. negro black uo- 91. noche night hʌʔpʌ́ʌ 92. caliente hot pã- 93. frio cold dõsi-ko- 94. lleno full ɸiʔ 95. nuevo new pá- 96. bueno good ɸɤɲe- 97. redondo round -tude 'bola' ("ball") 98. seco dry ʝɒʔɒ- 99. nombre name -ti
Notes
- Andoque at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
- Epps, Patience; Michael, Lev, eds. (2023). Amazonian Languages: Language Isolates. Volume I: Aikanã to Kandozi-Chapra. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. ISBN 978-3-11-041940-5.
- Johann Natterer's Linguistic Heritage.
- "WALS Online - Chapter Consonant-Vowel Ratio". wals.info. Retrieved 2023-03-09.
- Landaburu, Jon. 2000. La Lengua Andoque. In González de Pérez, María Stella and Rodríguez de Montes, María Luisa (eds.), Lenguas indígenas de Colombia: una visión descriptiva, 275-288. Santafé de Bogotá: Instituto Caro y Cuervo.
- Loukotka, Čestmír (1968). Classification of South American Indian languages. Los Angeles: UCLA Latin American Center.
Bibliography
- Aschmann, Richard P. (1993). Proto Witotoan. Publications in linguistics (No. 114). Arlington, TX: SIL & the University of Texas at Arlington.
- Campbell, Lyle. (1997). American Indian languages: The historical linguistics of Native America. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-509427-1.
- Greenberg, Joseph H. (1987). Language in the Americas. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
- Kaufman, Terrence. (1994). The native languages of South America. In C. Mosley & R. E. Asher (Eds.), Atlas of the world's languages (pp. 46–76). London: Routledge.
- Landaburu, J. (1979). La Langue des Andoke (Grammaire Colombienne). (Langues et Civilisations a Tradition Orale, 36). Paris: SELAF.
External links
- Alain Fabre, 2005, Diccionario etnolingüístico y guía bibliográfica de los pueblos indígenas sudamericanos: ANDOKE
- Andoke Collection of Jon Landaburu at the Archive of the Indigenous Languages of Latin America