Mawayana language
Mawayana (Mahuayana), also known as Mapidian (Maopidyán), is a moribund Arawakan language of northern South America. It used to be spoken by Mawayana people living in ethnic Wai-wai and Tiriyó villages in Brazil, Guyana and Suriname.[5][2] As of 2015, the last two speakers of the language are living in Kwamalasamutu.[6][2]
| Mawayana | |
|---|---|
| Mapidian | |
| Native to | Brazil, Guyana and Suriname |
Native speakers | 2 (2015)[1][2] |
Arawakan
| |
| Dialects |
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | Either:mzx – Mawayanampw – Mapidian (duplicate code)[4] |
| Glottolog | mapi1252 Mapidian-Mawayanamawa1268 Mawakwa |
| ELP | Mawayana |
Classification
Aikhenvald (1999) lists Mawayana (and possibly Mawakwa as a dialect) together with Wapishana under a Rio Branco (North-Arawak) branch of the Arawakan family. Carl-in (2006:314) notes that Mawayana "is closely related to Wapishana" and according to Ramirez (2001:530) they share at least 47% of their lexicon.
Phonology
Mawayana has, among its consonants, two implosives, /ɓ/ and /ɗ/, and what has been described as a "retroflex fricativised rhotic", represented with ⟨rž⟩, that it shares with Wapishana. The vowel systems contains four vowels (/i-e, a, ɨ, u-o/), each of which has a nasalised counterpart.[7]
Morphology
Mawayana personal affixes:[5] singular plural 1 n-/m- -na wa- -wi 2 ɨ-/i- -i ɨ- -wiko 3 ɾ(ɨ/iʔ)- -sɨ na- -nu 3 refl. a-
Mawayana verbal affixes:[5] thematic -ta, -ɗa, -ɓa present -e reciprocal -(a)ka adjectival -ɾe, -ke
Morphosyntax
Mawayana has a polysynthetic morphology, mainly head-marking and with suffixes, although there are pronominal prefixes. The verbal arguments are indexed on the verb through subject suffixes on intransitive verbs, while agent prefixes and object suffixes on transitive verbs (Carlin 2006:319).
n-kataba-sï
1A-grab.PST-3O
'I grabbed him.'
tõwã-sï
sleep.PST-3S
'He fell asleep.'
nnu
1PN
a-na
when-1S
mauɗa
die
chika-dza
NEG-COMPL
Mawayana
mawayana
'When I die there will be no Mawayana left at all.'
Notes
- Carlin & Mans 2013:79
- Mans & Carlin 2015, p. 98.
- Aikhenvald 1999:69.
- Hammarström (2015) Ethnologue 16/17/18th editions: a comprehensive review: online appendices
- Meira, Sérgio. 2019. A Study of the Genetic Relation between Mawayana and Wapishana (Arawakan Family). Revista Brasileira de Línguas Indígenas (RBLI), vol. 2, no. 1 (Jan.-Jun. 2019), pp. 70-104.
- Carlin 2006, p. 317.
- Carlin (2006:320)
References
- Aikhenvald, Alexandra Y. (1999). "The Arawak language family". In Aikhenvald, Alexandra Y.; Dixon, R.M.W. (eds.). The Amazonian languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 65–106.
- Carlin, Eithne B (2006). "Feeling the need. The borrowing of Cariban functional categories into Mawayana (Arawak)". In Aikhenvald, Alexandra Y.; Dixon, R.M.W. (eds.). Grammars in contact: A cross-linguistic typology. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Carlin, Eithne B (2011). "Nested identities in the Southern Guyana-Surinam corner". In Hornborg, Alf; Hill, Jonathan D. (eds.). Ethnicity in ancient Amazonia: Reconstructing past identities from archaeology, linguistics, and ethnohistory. University Press of Colorado. pp. 225–236.
- Carlin, Eithne B; Boven, Karin (2002). "The native population: Migration and identities". In Carlin, Eithne B.; Arends, Jacques (eds.). Atlas of the languages of Suriname. KITLV Press. pp. 11–45.
- Carlin, Eithne B; Mans, Jimmy (2013). "Movement through time in the southern Guianas: deconstructing the Amerindian kaleidoscope". In Carlin, Eithne B.; Leglise, Isabelle; Migge, Bettina; et al. (eds.). In and out of Suriname: Language, mobility, and identity. Caribbean Series. Leiden: Brill.
- Mans, Jimmy; Carlin, Eithne B. (2015). Movement through Time in the Southern Guianas: Deconstructing the Amerindian Kaleidoscope. Leiden: Brill.
- Ramirez, Henri (2001). Línguas Arawak da Amazônia setentrional (in Portuguese). Manaus: Universidade Federal do Amazonas.
External links
- The Last of the Mawayana by Unravel magazine