Saliba language

Saliba (Spanish: Sáliba, Sáliva) is an indigenous language of Eastern Colombia and Venezuela.[2] Saliba was used by Jesuit missionaries in the 17th century to communicate with indigenous peoples of the Meta, Orinoco, and Vichada valleys. An 1856 watercolor by Manuel María Paz is an early depiction of the Saliva people in Casanare Province.[3]

Not to be confused with Saliba language (Papua New Guinea).
Saliba
Native toColombia and Venezuela
Native speakers
(1,600 cited 1991–2008)[1]
Latin
Language codes
ISO 639-3slc
Glottologsali1298
ELPSáliva

Use

"Saliba was spoken by an ethnic group that lived along the central reaches of the Orinoco River."[4]

"This language group was so isolated that the language was reported extinct in 1965."[5] It is not being passed on to many children, but that practice is being reconsidered. As of 2007, "Sáliva speakers now are almost all bilingual in Spanish, and Sáliva children are only learning Spanish instead of their ancestral language."[5]

As of 2007, "In the Orocué area the language is only conserved to a high degree among elderly women; others understand Sáliba but no longer express themselves in the language."[1] Native speakers have a literacy rate of 1-5%, and second-language speakers have a Sáliba literacy rate of 15-25%.

Grammar

"Sáliba is an SOV language with noun classes and nominal classifiers. The language has a rich morphological system. In some cases, the realization of a verbal morpheme depends upon the form of the stem."[2]

Phonology

"Sáliba has a limited voicing distinction, and boasts six places of articulation for plosives. There are also two rhotics, and nasal counterparts for each of the five places of articulation for vowels."[2][6]

Consonants
Bilabial Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
nor. lab.
Stop Plain p t k kʷ ʔ
Voiced b d ɡ ɡʷ
Affricate d͡ʒ
Fricative Plain ɸ s x h
Voiced β
Nasal m n
Rhotic Flap ɾ
Trill r
Approximant w l j
Vowels
Front Central Back
Close i u
Mid e o
Open a

Writing system

Saliba is written with the Latin alphabet.

The Saliba-Spanish dictionary by Benaissa uses the following orthography:[7]

  • Nasal vowels are indicated with a tilde <ã, ẽ, ĩ, õ, ũ>;
  • Long vowels are indicated with a double letter <aa, ee, ii, oo, uu>;
  • The consonants <c, ch, p, t> are pronounced as doubled sonorants when between two vowels;
  • <f> is pronounced as a bilabial fricative;
  • <j> represents a glottal fricative and <x> represents a velar fricative;
  • <h> represents a glottal stop
Benaissa's alphabet (1991) [8]
aãbcch defgh iĩjlll mnñoõ pqrst uũw

The Salibas of Orocué, Caño Mochuelo, and Santa Rosalía have used a different orthography since April 12 2002. This orthography is based in part on the phonetic realisation by María Claudia González Rátiva and Hortensia Estrada Ramírez, and can be considered as a phonological orthography that takes dialectal variation into account.[9]

Saliba alphabet (2002)[10] · [11]
aãaaa’b chdeẽee e’ffwggw iĩiii’j jwx
xwkkw lmnño õooo’pr rrstuũ uuu’y

References
  1. Saliba at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. "E-MELD School of Best Practice: About Sáliba". E-MELD. 2005. Retrieved 2013-05-23.
  3. Paz, Manuel María. "Saliva Indian Women Making Cassava Bread, Province of Casanare". World Digital Library. Retrieved 2014-05-21.
  4. "A Study of the Saliba Language". World Digital Library. Retrieved 2013-05-23.
  5. Anderson, Gregory; K. David Harrison (2007). "Language Hotspots - Northern South and Central America". Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages. Retrieved 2013-05-23.
  6. Alexandra Y. Aikhenvlad & R. M. Dixon (1999).
  7. Benaissa et al. 1991, p. vii-viii.
  8. Benaissa et al. 1991.
  9. Rosés Labrada & Estrada Ramírez 2020, p. 223-224.
  10. Rosés Labrada & Estrada Ramírez 2020, p. 224.
  11. Heríquez Guarín 2018.

Works cited
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Saliba language.

Dictionaries and vocabulary

General works
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