Muinane language

Muinane is an indigenous American language spoken in Colombia.

Muinane
Muìnánɨ
Native toColombia
RegionPuerto Santander, Amazonas; between Caquetá River and Yari River in Caquetá Department
Ethnicity2,100 (2018)[1]
Native speakers
150 (2007)[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3bmr
Glottologmuin1242
ELPMuinane

Classification

Muinane belongs to the Boran language family, along with Bora.

Geographic distribution

Muinane is spoken by 150 people in Colombia along the Upper Cahuinarí river in the Department of Amazonas. There may be some speakers in Peru.

Phonology

Consonants

Muinane consonant phonemes
Bilabial Alveolar Postalveolar/
Palatal
Velar Glottal
Nasal m n ɲ
Plosive p b t d k ɡ ʔ
Affricate
Fricative ɸ β s ʃ j x
Trill r
  • Voiceless stops and affricates contrast with their geminate counterparts: tʃː tʲː .

Vowels

Muinane vowel phonemes
Front Central Back
High i ɨ u
Low ɛ a o

Tone

There are two tones in Muinane: high and low.

Grammar

Word order in Muinane is generally SOV. Case marking is nominative–accusative.

Writing System

Muinane is written using a Latin alphabet. A chart of symbols with the sounds they represent is as follows:

LatinIPALatinIPALatinIPALatinIPALatinIPALatinIPA
a/a/b/b/c/k/-/s/ ch/tʃ/d/d/e/e/
f/ɸ/g(u)/ɡ/-/x/h/ʔ/ i/i/ɨ/ɨ/j/x/
ll/dʒ/m/m/n/n/ ñ/ɲ/o/o/p/p/
qu/k/r/r/z/s/ s/ʃ/t/t/u/u/
v/β/y/j/
  • Palatalized consonants are written using the unpalatalized forms plus y: ty /tʲ/, dy /dʲ/, ry /rʲ/. For the purposes of alphabetization, these are considered sequences of letters.
  • Tone is not generally indicated in writing. When it is shown, it is indicated by an acute accent over the vowel: á, é, í, ɨ́, ó, ú.
  • The Muinane writing system is based on Spanish orthography. For that reason, the sound /k/ is written as c before a, ɨ, o, and u and as qu before e and i. Likewise, the sound /ɡ/ is written as gu before e and i, and g elsewhere.

References

  1. Muinane at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022) closed access

Sources

  • Aschmann, Richard P. (1993), Proto-Witotoan, Arlington, TX: SIL International, ISBN 0-88312-189-1
  • Walton, James P.; Walton, Janice W.; Pakky de Buenaventure, Clementina (1997), Diccionario Bilingüe Muinane-Español/Español-Muinane, Santafé de Bogotá: Editorial Buena Semilla, OCLC 468683910
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