Arhuaco language
Arhuaco, commonly known as Ikʉ, (Arhuaco: Ikʉ) is an Indigenous American language of the Chibchan language family, spoken in South America by the Arhuaco people.[4]
| Arhuaco | |
|---|---|
| Ikʉ | |
| Native to | Colombia |
| Ethnicity | 14,800 Arhuacos (2001)[1] |
Native speakers | 8,000 (2009)[2] |
Chibchan
| |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | arh |
| Glottolog | arhu1242 |
| ELP | Ica[3] |
There are 8000 speakers, all in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta region of Colombia, 90% of whom are monolingual.[4] Literacy is 1 to 5% in their native language. Some speak Spanish, and 15 to 25% are literate in that auxiliary language.[4] The users have a very strong traditional culture and have vibrant use of their tongue.[4]
It is also known as: Aruaco, Bintuk, Bíntukua, Bintucua, Ica, Ijca, Ijka, Ika, and Ike.[4]
The language uses a subject–object–verb (SOV) sentence structure.[4]
Phonology
- Vowels
| Back vowels | Central vowels | Front vowels | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open vowels | i i | ɨ ʉ | u u |
| Mid vowels | e e | ə y | o o |
| Close vowels | a a |
/ə/ is raised to and merged with /ɨ/ word finally.
- Consonants
This language registers 17 consonant phonemes:
| Labial | Alveolar | Alveolo-palatal | Velar | Glottal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| occlusive (voiceless) | p p | t t | tʃ ch | k k | ʔ (ꞌ (saltillo)) |
| occlusive (voiced) | b b | d d | dʒ ɉ | ɡ g | |
| nasal | m m | n~ŋ n | |||
| fricative (voiceless) | s s | h j | |||
| fricative (voiced) | β w | z z | ʒ zh | ||
| flap | ɾ r |
Syllable Structure
With some exceptions, Arhuaco syllables may begin with up to two consonants (the second of which must be a glide /w j/) and may be closed by one of the following consonants: /ʔ n r w j/.
Prosody
Arhuaco stress normally falls on penultimate syllables, with secondary stresses occurring on every other preceding syllable, in the case of longer words (e.g. /ˌunkəˈsia/ 'protective bracelet').[5] There are some affixes and enclitics that are extrametrical and do not count as syllables for stress assignment.
References
Frank, Paul. 1985. A grammar of Ika. PhD thesis. University of Pennsylvania.
Frank, Paul. 2000. Ika syntax. Dallas, TX: Summer Institute of Linguistics.
Landaburu, Jon. 2000. La lengua Ika. in Lenguas indigenas de Colombia: Una visión descriptiva. Bogota: Instituto Caro y Cuervo.
Notes
- Arhuaco language at Ethnologue (16th ed., 2009)
- Arhuaco at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- Endangered Languages Project data for Ica.
- Arhuaco, by Arango and Sánchez, Ethnologue, 1998, access date 04-16-08
- Landaburu, Jon (2000). La lengua Ika. Bogotá: Instituto Caro y Cuervo.