Bribri language

Bribri, also known as Bri-bri, Bribriwak, and Bribri-wak, is a Chibchan language, from a language family indigenous to the Isthmo-Colombian Area, which extends from eastern Honduras to northern Colombia and includes populations of those countries as well as Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama. As of 2002, there were about 11,000 speakers left.[2] An estimate by the National Census of Costa Rica in 2011 found that Bribri is currently spoken by 54.7% of the 12,785 Bribri people, about 7,000 individuals.[3] It is a tonal language whose word order is subject–object–verb.

Bribri
Talamanca
Native toCosta Rica.
RegionLimón province: Talamanca cantón, along Lari, Telire, and Uren rivers; Puntarenas province: Buenos Aires cantón
Ethnicity12,200 Bribri people (2000)[1]
Native speakers
7,000 (2011)[1]
11,000 (2000)
Official status
Recognised minority
language in
Costa Rica
Language codes
ISO 639-3bzd
Glottologbrib1243
ELPBribri
Map showing dialects of Bribri

There are three traditional dialects of Bribri: Coroma (in the western region of the Talamanca mountain range), Amubre (in the eastern region of the Talamanca mountain range) and Salitre (in the South Pacific area). Bribri is a tribal name, deriving from a word for "mountainous" in their own language. The Bribri language is also referred to as Su Uhtuk, which means "our language."[4] Bribri is reportedly most similar to sister language Cabécar as both languages have nasal harmony, but they are mutually unintelligible.[5]

Phonology

Consonants
Bilabial Dental Alveolar Postalveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
Nasal m n ɲ
Plosive p   b t   d k ʔ
Affricate t͡k t͡s t͡ʃ ɟ͡ʝ
Fricative s ʃ h
Flap ɾ
Glide w j
  • /b/ can have allophones of [β, m].
  • /d/ can have an allophone of [ɽ], as well as nasal allophones of [ɽ̃, n].
  • /ɟ͡ʝ/ can have an allophone of [ɲ].
  • /ɾ/ can have an allophone of [r].
  • /w, j/ can have nasalised allophones of [w̃, j̃].[6]

Vowels

I, u and a are pronounced in the same manner as they would be in Spanish. E and o are more open than in Spanish. The sound of ë is between i and e, in the same manner as ö is between u and o. The nasal vowels are pronounced similarly to the corresponding orals, with the addition of some air exiting through the nose.

Vowels
Front Central Back
High oral i u
nasal ĩ ũ
Near-high ɪ ʊ
Mid-low oral ɛ ɔ
nasal ɛ̃ ɔ̃
Low oral a
nasal ã
Spanish examples of oral vowels:
yì

¿quién?

ù

casa

yë

padre, papá

tö

sí

ye'

yo

só

cucaracha

awá

médico
Spanish examples of nasal vowels:
mĩ

madre, mamá

ũ

olla

sẽ

eso, ese

 mõ

nube

ã

en; para


Alphabet

The Linguistics Department at the University of Costa Rica has conceived a standardized spelling system that is based on several earlier attempts.[7]

Bribri sign in a restaurant in Bribrí in Talamanca, Costa Rica. Translation: "I'm hungry, I'm going to eat."
Majuscule forms (also called uppercase or capital letters)
ABDCHEËIJKLMNÑOÖPPPRRRSSHTTTTCHTSUYʼ
Minuscule forms (also called lowercase or small letters)
abdcheëijklmnñoöppprrrsshttttchts uyʼ

Nasal vowels are indicated by a tilde: ⟨ã, ẽ, ĩ, õ, ũ⟩ (Previously indicated with a macron below: a̱, e̱, i̱, o̱, u̱), except after a nasal consonant (already indicating nasalisation of the vowel).

Tones are indicated by the grave accent for the high tone and the acute accent for the low tone; these can also be placed on the nasal vowels.

See also

References
  1. Bribri at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. "Ethnologue". Archived from the original on 28 June 2011. Retrieved 22 February 2011.
  3. "Vista de Morfología verbal de la lengua bribri". revistas.ucr.ac.cr. Retrieved 2020-01-29.
  4. "Bribri Language and the Bribri Indian Tribe (Bri-Bri, Talamanca, Coroma)". www.native-languages.org. Retrieved 2020-01-29.
  5. "Bribri". Ethnologue. Retrieved 2020-01-29.
  6. Chevrier, Natacha (2017). Analyse de la phonologie du bribri (chibcha) dans une perspective typologique: Nasalité et géminée modulée.
  7. Jara & García 2013.

Bibliography
Bribri language test of Wikipedia at Wikimedia Incubator
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