Ocaina language

Ocaina is an indigenous American language spoken in western South America.

Ocaina
Xáfahxajoh
Black and white photograph of a man in a loincloth and feathers with a pole in one hand and four long sticks in the other.
An Ocaina chief in 1924.
Native toPeru, Colombia
Native speakers
55 (2000–2012)[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3oca
Glottologocai1244
ELPOcaina

Classification

Ocaina belongs to the Witotoan language family. It is its own group within the Huitoto-Ocaina sub-family.

Geographic distribution

Ocaina is spoken by 54 people in northeastern Peru and by 12 more in the Amazonas region of Colombia. Few children speak the language.

Dialects/Varieties

There are two dialects of Ocaina: Dukaiya and Ibo'tsa.

Phonology

Consonants
Ocaina consonant phonemes
Bilabial Alveolar Postalveolar/
Palatal		 Velar Glottal
Nasal lenis m n ɲ
fortis mː nː ɲː
Plosive p b t r tʲ dʲ k ɡ ʔ
Affricate ts dz tʃ dʒ
Fricative ɸ β s ʃ ʒ x h

Vowels
Ocaina vowel phonemes
Front Central Back
High i, ĩ ɨ, ɨ̃
Low e a, ã o, õ

Tone

Syllables in Ocaina may be marked with one of two tones: high or low.

Syllables

Syllables in Ocaina consist of a vowel; single consonants may appear on either side of the vowel: (C)V(C).

Writing system

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

LatinIPALatinIPALatinIPALatinIPALatinIPALatinIPALatinIPALatinIPALatinIPALatinIPALatinIPA
a/a/b/b/c/k/ - /ts/ch/tʃ/ds/dz/dy/dʲ/ e/e/f/ɸ/g(u)/ɡ/ - /h/h/ʔ/i/i/
j/h/k/k/ll/dʒ/m/m/m̈/mː/n/n/ n̈/nː/ñ/ɲ/ñ̈/ɲː/o/o/p/p/
qu/k/r/r/s/s/sh/ʃ/t/t/z/ts/ ty/tʲ/u/ɨ/v/β/x/x/y/ʒ/
  • Because the Ocaina alphabet is based on Spanish, c is used to indicate /k/ before a, o, and u, qu is used before e and i, and k is used in loan words, such as kerosene "kerosene".
  • Nasalization is indicated by inserting n after a vowel. Compare: tya tyója [tʲa tʲóha] "hang it" vs. tya tyonjan [tʲa tʲṍhã] "clean it".
  • High tone is indicated with the acute accent: á, é, í, ó, ú.

References
  1. Ocaina at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022) closed access
  • Agnew, Arlene; Evelyn G. Pike (January 1957). "Phonemes of Ocaina (Huitoto)". International Journal of American Linguistics. 23 (1): 24–27. doi:10.1086/464385.
  • Leach, Ilo M. (2008). Mary Ruth Wise (ed.). Vocabulario Ocaina (PDF). Serie Lingüística Peruana (in Spanish). Vol. 4 (2nd ed.). Yarinacocha, Peru: Instituto Lingüístico de Verano.
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