Awa Pit language

Located in the region of Colombia and Ecuador, the Awa or Awa Pit speaking people is an indigenous group settled between the Andes Mountains and the Western Coast. Awa Pit or otherwise known as Cuaiquer (Coaiquer, Cuayquer, Kwaiker, Kwayquer, etc.), in both group and name, is classified as part of the Barbacoan language.[2] Another term that this group goes by is the "Inkal Awa" or "the mountain people", to distinguish themselves from other indigenous groups within that region[2].Awa pit is classified by UNESCO as a severely endangered language.[3] The Awa pit language has a subject–object–verb structure and has adopted the Latin script.[4] Grammatically, Awa pit uses a characteristic conjunct/disjunct system of verb suffixes for person-marking which displays similarities with some Tibeto-Burman languages, such as the Newari language of Kathmandu.[2][5][6]

Cuaiquer
Awa Pit
Native toColombia, Ecuador
Ethnicity15,000 Awa-Kwaiker (2007)[1]
Native speakers
13,000 (2008)[1]
Barbacoan
Language codes
ISO 639-3kwi
Glottologawac1239
ELPAwa Pit

Speakers and characteristics

The Awa pit language has around 21 thousand speakers, mostly residing on the Colombian Pacific slopes of the Andes, with about a thousand in an adjacent area of Ecuador.[4] The Awa Pit language is spoken less and less each year. In a study done in 2008 there were about 12,000 Awa Pit speakers, but as of 2011 there are about 2,100 speakers left in the provinces of northern Ecuador.[7] Most Awa women are monolingual to the Awa Pit language, while some men can speak both Spanish and Awa Pit and a very few of these Awa Pit speakers can both read and write the language.[2] Literacy among Awa speakers is less than 1% in their native language and under 5% in the secondary Spanish language.[4] The Awa people are mostly farmers. Their crops include plantains, corn, sugarcane, and beans.[2] Many of the Awa do not live near each other, they live in scattered settlements often 2-3 kilometers apart, and often move depending on the planting and harvesting seasons.[2]

Phonology

The Awa Pit inventory is as follows:[8][2]

Consonants

Consonant phonemes
Bilabial Dental/Alveolar Palatal Velar
plain lateral
Nasal m n (ɲ) ŋ
Plosive p t k
Fricative voiceless s ɬ ʃ
voiced z ʒ
Approximant l j w
  • Some dialects can also have phonemic retroflex sounds /ʂ/, //
  • Geminated consonants are noted as [pː, t̪ː, kː].
  • [ɲ] is the main sound of the consonant sequence /nj/
  • In word-final positions, there are two realizations for each stop consonant; unreleased [p̚, t̪̚, k̚], or post nasal [pᵐ, t̪ⁿ̪, kᵑ].
Phoneme Allophone Rules
/p/ [p] [b] C [v] __ [v]
[ɸ] C [fricative] [vl] __ V [v]
[β] V/G [v] __ V/G [v]
[] __ /ɨ/
/t/ [] [] C [v] __ [v]
[θ] C [fricative] [vl] __ V [v]
[ð] C [fricative] [v] __ V [v]
[ɾ̪] V/G [v] __ V/G [v]
/k/ [k] [ɡ] C [v] __ [v]
[x] C [fricative] [vl] __ V [v]
[ɣ] V/G [v] __ V/G [v]
/s/ [s] [ts] #__, C [vl] __, C [v] __ V [vl]
[dz] C [v] __ V [v]
/ʃ/ [ʃ] [] #__, C [vl] __, C [v] __ V [vl]
[] C [v] __ V [v]
/ɬ/ [ɬ] [h] __ /u, u̥/
[ɬ] ~ [h] /i̥, ɨ̥/ __, __ /ɨ̥, i̥/
/l/ [l] [ʎ] ~ [ᵈl] {i j}__
[l] ~ [ᵈl] ~ [d] __ C, __#
[l] ~ [ᵈl] elsewhere
/m/ [m] [] __ /ɨ/
/n/ [n] [ŋ] __ C [velar]
[n] ~ [ɲ] V [high] __ V [high]
/nj/ [ɲ] [ɲ] ~ [] V__ /a/
[ɲ] __ /a/
/j/ [j] [j] ~ [ɟ] V __ V

Vowels

Vowel phonemes
Front Central Back
Close i ɨ ɨː u
Open a
Voiceless vowels
Front Central Back
Close ɨ̥
Phoneme Allophone Rules
/i/ [i] [i] ~ [e] __ #
[ɪ] in closed syllables, short or lax
/ɨ/ [ɨ] [ɨ] ~ [e] __ # (words of more than one syllable)
[ɨ̞] in closed syllables, short or lax
/u/ [u] [u] ~ [o] __ #
[ʊ] in closed syllables, short or lax
/a/ [ä] [ɔ] /w/__ C [velar]
[æ] ~ [ɛ] ~ [ə] C [palatal] __, in a closed syllable
[äj] ~ [ä] __ C [fricative, palato-alveolar]
[ɐ] in closed syllables, short or lax

Word Forms

Possessive Word Forms

Possessive word formations in Awa Pit can be used to decipher or specify a certain kind of function or occurrence. These range from location-object, material-object, whole-parts of something, and definitions very reminiscent of English prepositions. This is partly because of the usage of ‘relational nouns’. Possession seems to be the main connection that these functions have and in the case of Awa Pit, the postposition pa is a known marker or using possessive adjectives is another way. It is also explained that “In some cases, however, there is an alternation between a possessive postposition with pa, a possessive adjective, and a bare noun modifier, where the bare noun acting as a modifier must occur directly before the noun it modifies [...] the alternation between these constructions can be seen to depend on humanness and referentiality”.[2] This means that if a modifying noun is labelled human and referential then a postpositional word form is utilized. A possessive adjective is used instead if the non-head part is considered pronominal.

Examples[2]

ex)

Santos

Santos

=

=

pa

POSS

pimpul

leg

Santos = pa pimpul

Santos = POSS leg

‘Santos's leg’

ex)

ap

my

pimpul

leg

ap pimpul

my leg

‘my leg’

ex)

kwizha

dog

pimpul

leg

kwizha pimpul

dog leg

‘the leg of (a/the) dog’

ex)

awa

Person

=

=

wa

POSS

pit

language/tongue

awa = wa pit

Person = POSS language/tongue

‘(the) person's tongue [most likely]; (the) person's way of speaking [unlikely]’

ex)

awa

person

pit

language/tongue

awa pit

person language/tongue

‘the language of the people (Awa Pit) [most likely]; human tongues [unlikely]’

“Ideas of alienable possession and kinship relations necessarily involve the use of the postpositional or possessive adjective constructions (with the exception of “plural possessive adjectives”), rather than a bare noun modifier”[2]

Alienable possession and kinship are basically referencing humans but there are a few cases where possession are fluid enough to contain higher animals therefore treating it like as if it was human (Awa Pit ‘personifies it in question’).

ex)

kwizha

dog

=

=

wa

POSS

pelota

ball

kwizha = wa pelota

dog = POSS ball

‘the dog's ball’

Plural Possessive Adjectives

Singular possessive adjectives happen in the assumed slot and descriptive adjectives happen between the possessive adjective and the main head noun itself:

ex)

ap

my

katsa

big

til

black

kuzhu

pig

ap katsa til kuzhu

my big black pig

‘my big black pig’

There are no specific plural possessive adjective constructions because “In order to translate a phrase such as our house, speakers of Awa Pit have two options: the more common option is to simply use the singular possessive adjective:”[2]

ex)

ap

my

yal

house

ap yal

my house

‘my house, our house’

There is another option and that is to use the plural subject pronoun (unmalleable) into the bare noun modifier: (no adjectives can get between the pronoun and the subsequent noun)

ex)

au

we

yal

house

au yal

we house

‘our house’

Alienable Possession and Kinship Relations

Non-head nominal is considered referential and human, and the involvement of pa or a possessive adjective is needed.  Kinship relations are similar to alienable possession but is different when it comes to body-part possession because the non-head noun is not considered human nor referential. Essentially in Awa Pit, there is no difference between alienable and inalienable possession in an NP. That is due to the fact that different forms are reserved for referential human possession no matter the possession's nature.[2]

1)

Santos

Santos

=

=

pa

POSS

kuzhu

pig

Santos = pa kuzhu

Santos = POSS pig

‘Santos's pig’

2)

Carmen

Carmen

=

=

pa

POSS

ayshpihsh

sister

Carmen = pa ayshpihsh

Carmen = POSS sister

‘Carmen's sister’

3)

paynya

his

cuchillo

knife

paynya cuchillo

his knife

‘his knife’

4)

ap

my

akkwa

mother

ap akkwa

my mother

‘my mother’

Whole-Part

Part whole relations are incorporated in the same fashion as possession in Awa Pit. In this case, the whole acts as a modifier while the part acts as the head noun. The modifier whole could be a referential human and that means that the formation with pa or a possessive adjective are utilized. Non-referential human or non-humans traced with bare-nouns are likely to be used as well. It is also worth mentioning that Awa Pit is a Barbacoa language that specializes in placing part-whole relationships with a bare noun or a ‘genitive marker’.[2]

1)

Santos

Santos

=

=

pa

POSS

sayl

arm

Santos = pa sayl

Santos = POSS arm

‘Santos's arm’

2)

ap

my

pimpul

leg

ap pimpul

my leg

‘Santos's arm’

3)

awa

person

kizpu

head

awa kizpu

person head

‘a human's head’

4)

ti

tree

aya

skin

ti aya

tree skin

‘(tree) bark’

Inflections

In terms of tense inflections, there are formal markers when referring to the past and the future in Awa Pit, and there is also an extra subtle category that helps express the present. Basically, if a marker for the past or future does not display itself in a sentence, then the string of inflections most likely represents the present. It is worth saying that the present is marked by a zero morpheme in a ‘pure structuralist form’, since tense markers happen after mood suffixes just before any person markers can appear.[2]

1)

ku-mtu-ata-w

eat-IMP-PAST

ku-mtu-ata-w

eat-IMP-PAST

‘I was eating’

2)

ku-mtu-ani-s

eat-IMP-FUT

ku-mtu-ani-s

eat-IMP-FUT

‘I will be eating’

3)

ku-mtu-s

eat-IMP-PRES

ku-mtu-s

eat-IMP-PRES

‘I am eating’

There are also mood inflections that display a variety of meanings and discover a less cooperative group than the rest in semantically and syntactically manners. The mood marker na is only utilized for past counterfactual clauses such as before tense marking and after person marking. An s would be used for Locutor while an unmarked form would go for the Non-Locutor. Negation and interrogation inflections are only used for content question forms or by going through auxiliary verbs. The inflectional marker ma is considered both a negative inflectional marker and a ‘homophonous interrogative marker’ at the same time.[2]

Sentence Structure

Parts of Speech: noun, pronoun, adjective, verbs, post-positions, adverbs, interjections, discourse particles

AOV/SV organization

A=transitive subject, O=transitive object, V=verb, SV=serial verb marker, ACC=accusative

Constituent order

Subject Temporal Adjuncts Locational Adjuncts Circumstantial Adjuncts Non-subject Complements Manner Adverbials Verb

Temporal adjuncts-when, how long, or how frequent the action happened

Locational adjuncts-where the action happened

Circumstantial adjuncts-adds information about the action

Non-subject complements-

Manner adverbials- tell how something happens (happily, tragically, simply, gently, etc.)

[2]

Noun Phrase Construction

Either:

-Possessive adjective

-Demonstrative adjective

-PostPositional phrase

Quantifier Descriptive Adjective Noun

[2]

Word Classes

=na ‘Topic marker’
=miŋ ‘Restrictive marker’
=kas ‘Additive marker’
=ma ‘Interrogative marker’
=ma ‘Temporal marker’
=ka ‘Emphasis marker’

[2]

Noun Phrase

an

this

DemAdj

kɨh

leaf

N

an kɨh

this leaf

DemAdj N

“This leaf.” P.118 [2]

Noun Phrase

katsa

big

adj

yal

house

noun

katsa yal

big house

adj noun

“A large house” P.91 [2]

Noun Phrase (past)

wakata

cattle

ii-tɨ-zi

die-PAST-NONLOCUT

wakata ii-tɨ-zi

cattle die-PAST-NONLOCUT

“The cow died” P.120 [2] Unknown glossing abbreviation(s) (help);

Plural Possessive adjectives

au

we

yal

house

au yal

we house

“Our house.” P.124

ap

mine/my

adj

yal

house

noun

ap yal

mine/my house

adj noun

“My house, our house.” p.124

-a speaker can use singular form or the plural subject pronoun [2]

Noun Phrase

[2]

(next two examples) shows Unmarked nature of S and A, and the division of O between referential human (accusatory) and other (unmarked)

Demetrio

Demetrio

A

na-wa

1SG-ACC

O

pyan-tɨ-tɨ-s

hit-TERM-PAST-LOCUS:UNDER

V

Demetrio na-wa pyan-tɨ-tɨ-s

Demetrio 1SG-ACC hit-TERM-PAST-LOCUS:UNDER

A O V

“Demetrio hit me.” Unknown glossing abbreviation(s) (help);

Demetrio

Demetrio

A

kuzhu

pig

O (not ref. human)

pay-t

buy-SV

V

kway-zi

DROP-NONLOCUT

 

Demetrio kuzhu pay-t kway-zi

Demetrio pig buy-SV DROP-NONLOCUT

A {O (not ref. human)} V {}

“Demetrio bought a pig.” p.65 Unknown glossing abbreviation(s) (help);

Transitive Verbs

na=na

1SG.(NOM)=TOP

Subj

Santos=ta

Santos=ACC

Obj

namna-mtu-s

follow/catch:up-IMPF-LOCUT

V

na=na Santos=ta namna-mtu-s

1SG.(NOM)=TOP Santos=ACC follow/catch:up-IMPF-LOCUT

Subj Obj V

“I am following Santos.” P.100 [2] Unknown glossing abbreviation(s) (help);

Ditransitive Verbs

Camilo=na

Camilo=TOP

Subj

na-wa

1SG-ACC

Obj(1)

pala

plantain

Obj(2)

kwin-tɨ-s

give-PAST-LOCUT:UNDER

V

Camilo=na na-wa pala kwin-tɨ-s

Camilo=TOP 1SG-ACC plantain give-PAST-LOCUT:UNDER

Subj Obj(1) Obj(2) V

“Camilo gave me a plantain.” P.101 [2] Unknown glossing abbreviation(s) (help);

Postpositional Phrase

[mesa=ta

[table=in

locPP

libro]

book]

noun

kwin-zha

give-IMP.1OBJ

 

[mesa=ta libro] kwin-zha

[table=in book] give-IMP.1OBJ

locPP noun {}

“Give me the book on the table.” p.118 [2] Unknown glossing abbreviation(s) (help);

Causative

tɨnta

strong

awa

person

uk

stone

man

move(1)

ki-nin-tu

move(2)-CAUS-IMPFPART

tɨnta awa uk man ki-nin-tu

strong person stone move(1) move(2)-CAUS-IMPFPART

“The strong man moved the stone (caused the stone to move).” P.165 [2] Unknown glossing abbreviation(s) (help);

Semblative postposition

shitshu=kana

bird=like

kwiyan-tu=na

cry-IMPFPART=TOP

shitshu=kana kwiyan-tu=na

bird=like cry-IMPFPART=TOP

“She cries like a bird.” p.144 [2] Unknown glossing abbreviation(s) (help);

References

  1. Cuaiquer at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. Curnow, Timothy Jowan (1997). A Grammar of Awa Pit (Cuaiquer): An indigenous language of south-western Colombia Archived 2011-11-14 at the Wayback Machine. PhD Thesis, Australian National University, Canberra. Retrieved 23 April 2012.
  3. Haboud, Marleen; Adelaarurl, Willem (2008). "Awapit" . In: Moseley, Christopher, ed (2010). Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger, 3rd edn, Paris. UNESCO Publishing (online version). Retrieved 23 April 2012.
  4. Awa–Cuaiquer, per SIL, Ethnologue, 1986 and 1991. Retrieved 23 April 2012.
  5. Curnow, Timothy Jowan (2 May 2002). "Conjunct/disjunct marking in Awa Pit". Linguistics  An Interdisciplinary Journal of the Language Sciences 40(3):611-627.(subscription required)
  6. Cysouw, Michael (2003). "The Paradigmatic Structure of Person Marking", p 43–44. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199554263
  7. "Awa Pit / Cuaiquer alphabet, pronunciation and language". omniglot.com. Retrieved 2020-12-11.
  8. Curnow, Timothy Jowan; Liddicoat, Anthony J (1998). "The Barbacoan languages of Colombia and Ecuador". Anthropological Linguistics 40(3):384-408.(subscription required)
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