Cofán language

The 27 consonant phonemes are listed below in the table with their IPA representations. In Aʼingae, there is a three-way, contrastive distinction between voiceless, aspirated, and prenasalized plosives and affricates. There are no such distinctions for fricatives. All consonants can be word-initial, except for /ʔ/ and /ɰ/. Note that glottal stop, although phonologically contrastive, can be realized as creakiness.[8]

The 5 oral vowels and their nasal counterparts are listed in the table below with their IPA representation. The 6 diphthongs and their nasal counterparts in IPA representation are the following: [ai]/[ãĩ], [oe]/[õẽ], [oa]/[õã], [oi]/[õĩ], [ɨi]/[ɨ̃ĩ], and [ao]/[ãõ].

When vowels appear adjacent to one another, they either become a diphthong (for the pairs listed above) or a glide is inserted if a diphthong does not exist for that pair. For example:

Note that the vowel pair /ae/ is realized as [ai].

Triphthongs do not exist in Aʼingae, and glottal stops are inserted phonemically when a sequence of three vowels would occur as in example (1) below.[5]

Nasalization is a major feature of the Aʼingae sound system. As already seen, there are contrastive prenasalized consonants as well as contrastive nasal counterparts to all monophthongs and diphthongs. Example (4) below demonstrates their contrasting nature:

(4a) /hi/ ${\displaystyle \rightarrow }$ [hi] 'to come'

(4b) /hĩ/ ${\displaystyle \rightarrow }$ [hĩ] 'to exist'

Along with being contrastive, nasalization also plays a key phonological role in the surface realization of morphemes, working both backwards and forwards. The consonants /p/, /t/, /ʋ/, and /j/ all become nasalized when following a nasal vowel, becoming /ᵐb/, /ⁿd/, /m/, and /ɲ/, respectively, as in examples (5) and (6).

(5a) /ha-pa/ ${\displaystyle \rightarrow }$ [ha.pa] (go-SS) 'to go'

(5b) /hẽ-pa/ ${\displaystyle \rightarrow }$ [hẽ.ᵐba] (sound-SS) 'to sound'

(6a) /hi-ʔja/ ${\displaystyle \rightarrow }$ [hiʔ.ja] (come-VER) 'does come'

(6b) /hĩ-ʔja/ ${\displaystyle \rightarrow }$ [hĩʔ.ɲã] (exist-VER) 'does exist'

Note that nasalization of vowels can cross consonant boundaries when the vowels are separated by a glottal fricative /h/ or glottal stop /ʔ/ (even when a glide is present) as in example (*) above and example (7) below:[5]

(7a) /tsɨi-ʔhe/ ${\displaystyle \rightarrow }$ [tsɨiʔ.he] (walk-IPFV) 'walking'}

(7b) /tsõ-ʔhe/ ${\displaystyle \rightarrow }$ [tsõʔ.hẽ] (do-IPFV) 'doing'

Additionally, oral vowels become nasalized when preceding prenasalized consonants and when following nasal consonants, as in examples (8) and (9). They also become nasalized when either preceded or followed by a nasal vowel, as in examples (10) and (11).

(8) /dɨ.ʃo-ⁿde.kʰɨ/ ${\displaystyle \rightarrow }$ [dɨ.ʃõ.ⁿde.kʰɨ] (child-PLH) 'children'

(9) /ɲoɲa-pa/ ${\displaystyle \rightarrow }$ [ɲõɲã.ᵐba] (make-SS) 'makeʼ

(10) /ho.ʋaʔ-kã-o/ ${\displaystyle \rightarrow }$ [ho.ʋaʔ.kãõ] (DIST-CMP-AUG) 'exactly like that'

(11) /bɨtʰo-ĩ/ ${\displaystyle \rightarrow }$ [bɨtʰõĩ] (run-MVM) 'run'

Aʼingae syllable structure is (C)V(ʔ),[8] with many variations thereof. At minimum a syllable can be a singular vowel and at maximum can be consonant onset with a diphthong nucleus and glottal stop coda.[5] Note that vowel length is not a relevant feature in syllable structure. A complete list of the structures allowed is given in the table below with examples for each.[5]

Generally speaking, in the absence of a glottal stop, stress in Aʼingae is found on the penultimate syllable as in examples (12a) and (12b). When a glottal stop is present however, stress is found on the syllable with the second mora before the glottal stop (Dąbkowski, 2020), compare examples (13a) and (13b). This is a stress pattern that is currently cross-linguistically unattested.

(12a) [ˈfe.tʰa] 'open'

(12b) [fe.ˈtʰa.hi] 'open-PRCM'

(13a) [ˈfe.tʰa.ʔhe] 'open-IPFV'

(13b) [fɨn.ˈdɨi.ʔhe] 'sweep-IPFV'

Stress can in some cases be contrastive, compare (14a) and (14b). (R-L)

(14a) [ˈnẽ.pi] 'disappear'

(14b) [nẽ.ˈpi] 'arrive'

Inflectional template of the A'ingae verb

Clitics and suffixes in the language have a relatively fixed order of how they will attach to a verb or predicate phrase.[11]

Case markers are constituent-level clitics.[5]

The full list of case markers is shown below.

Note that there are two accusative case markers. Accusative 2 typically is used in negative sentences or when the P-argument is not yet present or does not exist, in contexts of expressing desire, causation, or creation.

Sentences follow a nominative-accusative pattern. A'ingae displays optional agreement—optional agreement in person using second position clitics, and optional agreement in number using the clitic ='fa--both of which agree with the subject argument. Within the noun phrase, there is no agreement.

A'ingae distinguishes between several different sentence types.[5] These distinctions are indicated using different morphosyntactic strategies. Declarative sentences can contain the optional veridical clitic ='ya. There are several imperative types, depending on what speech act is being performed, using either the imperative clitics =ja or ='se or the diminutive suffix ='kha. There is a distinction between yes/no interrogative and content interrogative sentences, with the former using the interrogative clitic =ti and the latter using the indeterminate/interrogative wh-word in the initial position (jungaesû ("what"), maki ("when"), mani ("where"), majan ("which"), mikun ("why"), mingae ("how")). Exhortative sentences use the hortative particle jinge. Prohibitive sentences use the clitic =jama. Below are some examples of these sentence types.

"Umbaʼkhûniʼsû Fingian tuyakaen kueʼjete afaʼkhuʼjeʼfa majan de tiʼtshe kiʼanʼkhe, tsunʼjeninde jakanʼsû tuʼmbia saʼvutshia upûiʼjenga findiyeʼchu ji

Tansiʼfate tsa majan uʼtie tise jakansû findiyeʼchu upûiʼjema ushiʼchhachhu tiʼtshe kiʼañe

Tsumbate, umbaniʼsû fingian ûʼfa kiaʼme tise ushaʼfanga, tsama tise tiʼtshe ûfaʼni jakanʼsû tise upûiʼjema findi; usefaʼpanga umbakhûniʼsû fingian ushambipa anthe

Tsunsite kueʼje savutshi chanʼjun, tsuinʼkhûte favatsheyi jacanʼsu tise upûiʼjema ushicha

Tsumbate umbaniʼsû fingian tansiʼñaʼchovedaʼya tsa kueʼje khuaʼnginga inʼjani tiʼtshe kianʼkhe."[8]

"[õˈmba.kʰɨ.ni.sɨ ˈfĩ.ŋgiã ˈto.ja.kãe koḛ. ˈhe.te a.ˈfã̰.kʰo.he.fa ˈmã.jã.nde ˈti.t͡sʰɨi ˈkĩ.jã.kʰẽ ˈt͡sõ̰.hẽ.nĩ.nde ˈha.kã̰.sɨ ˈto.mbia̰ ˈsa̰.ʋɨ.t͡sʰia.o ˈpuḭ.hẽ.ŋga fĩ. ˈdi.je.t͡ʃo ˈhi]

[tã.ˈsḭ̃.fa.te.t͡sa ˈmã.hã ˈo̰.tiḛ ˈti.se ˈha.kã.sɨ fi.ˈndi.jḛ.t͡ʃo o.ˈpuḭ.hẽ.mã u.ˈʃiʔ.t͡ʃʰa.t͡ʃʰo kĩ.jã.nẽ]

[ˈt͡sõ.mba.teˈõ.mba.ni.sɨ fĩ.ŋgiãˈɨ.fakiã̰.mẽˈti.seˈu.ʃa̰.fã̰.ŋgaˈt͡sa.maˈti.seˈti.t͡sʰeˈɨ.fa̰.niˈha.kã.sɨ ˈti.se o.ˈpuḭ.hẽ.mã ˈfĩ.ndi o. ˈse.faʔ.pã.ŋga õ. ˈmba.kʰɨ.nḭ.su ˈfĩ.ŋgiã u. ˈʃã.mbi.pa ã.tʰḛ]

[ˈt͡sõ.si.te ˈkoe.he ˈsaʔ.ʋɨ.t͡si ˈt͡ʃã.hɨ t͡sɨ̃ḭ̃.kɨ.tḛ fa. ˈʋa.t͡sɨi ˈha.kã̰.sɨ ˈti.se o. ˈpuḭ.he.mã u. ˈʃi.t͡ʃʰa]

[ˈt͡so.mbaʔ.tḛ ˈõ.mba.ni.su ˈfĩ.ŋgia tã.ˈsi.jã̰.t͡ʃo.ʋe.ˈda̰.ja t͡sa ˈkoḛ.he ˈkʰua̰.ŋgi.ŋga ˈĩʔ.ha.ni ˈti.t͡sʰe ˈkĩ.jã.kʰḛ̃]"[8]

"The North Wind and the Sun were disputing which was the stronger, when a traveler came along wrapped in a warm cloak.

They agreed that the one who first succeeded in making the traveler take his cloak off should be considered stronger than the other.

Then the North Wind blew as hard as he could, but the more he blew the more closely did the traveler fold his cloak around him; and at last the North Wind gave up the attempt.

Then the Sun shone out warmly, and immediately the traveler took off his cloak.

And so the North Wind was obliged to confess that the Sun was the stronger of the two."[8]