Panará language

The consonantal inventory of Panará is as follows.[10]

The underlying nasals /m n ɲ ŋ/ are post-oralized to [mp nt ns ŋk] preceding an oral vowel or one of /w ɾ j/,[11]^:18 as in intwêê /nweː/ [iˈntɥej] ‘new’.

The geminates occur both in underived roots (such as ippẽ /ppẽ/ [ipˈpẽ] ‘foreigner’) and at morpheme junctions, as in tepi /tɛp/ ‘fish’ + ty /tɯ/ ‘dead’ → [tɛtˈtɯ] ‘dead fish’.[11]^:19 The geminate /ss/ is realized as [ts] by many speakers.[11]^:21

The vowel phonemes of Panará are as follows.[11]^:21

The default realization of /oː ɔː õː eː ẽː/ is [ow ɔw õw̃ ej ẽj̃], as in pôô /poː/ [pow] ‘to arrive’, sõsêê /sõseː/ [sõsej] ‘fishing line’. The vowel /a/ may suffer reduction to [ɐ] or [ə] when unstressed.[11]^:23

It has been argued that many word-initial and word-final instances of [i] are epenthetic in Panará.[10] [i] is inserted in the following environments:

• word-initially before a geminate (obligatory in monosyllabic words, such as ikkjyti /kkjɯt/ [ikˈkjɯːti] ‘tapir’, issê /sse/ [isˈse ~ itˈse] ‘bow’; optional in polysyllabic words, such as pẽkâ ~ ippẽkâ /ppẽkɤ/ [pẽˈkɤ ~ ippẽˈkɤ] ‘clothes’, sêsê ~ issêsê /ssese/ [seˈse ~ isseˈse ~ itseˈse] ‘bow string’);
• word-initially before a postoralized allophone of an underlying nasal stop (obligatory in monosyllabic words, such as into /nɔ/ [inˈtɔ] ‘eye’, inkô /ŋo/ [iŋˈko] ‘water’; optional in polysyllabic words, such as pojĩ ~ inpojĩ /mɔɲĩ/ [pɔˈɲĩ ~ impɔˈɲĩ] ‘beef’, topãã ~ intopãã /nɔpə̃ː/ [tɔˈpə̃ː ~ intɔˈpə̃ː] ‘small hole’);
• word-initially before a singleton consonant in monosyllabic words (optional, as in tu ~ itu /tu/ [tu ~ iˈtu] ‘belly’, pẽẽ ~ ipẽẽ /pẽː/ [ˈpẽj̃ ~ iˈpẽj̃] ‘language’);
• word-finally after obstruent codas, as in tepi /tɛp/ [ˈtɛːpi] ‘fish’, pâritoti /pəɾtɔt/ [pəɾiˈtɔːti] ‘chair’, soti /sɔt/ [ˈsɔːti] ‘stuff’.

Stress falls on the last underlying vowel of a phonological word (the epenthetic [i] is never stressed).[10] If after the application of the epenthesis the stress falls of the penultimate vowel, the stressed vowel is lengthened: aprẽpi /apɾẽp/ [aˈpɾẽːpi] ‘picture, spirit’, tepakriti /tɛpakɾit/ [tɛpaˈkɾiːti] ‘an aquatic monster’, joopy /jɔp/ [ˈjɔwpɯ] ‘dog, jaguar’.

Nominals inflect for number in Panará. Singular is unmarked, dual is marked with the suffix -ra, and plural is marked with the suffix -mẽra. These suffixes may be attached to nouns and pronouns alike: ka ‘you (singular)’, kara ‘you two’, ka ‘you guys (plural)’.[11]^:27–9 The expression of number via suffixes is optional (this contrasts with the indexation of the argument number on verbs via clitics, which is obligatory).

Verbs in Panará may receive inflectional suffixes that have been analyzed as encoding mood (the available values being realis and irrealis, as in realis rõwa / irrealis rõwari ‘to kill’, realis too / irrealis tooj ‘to fly, to dance’) and clause type (paratactic vs. hypotactic, as in paratactic pĩri / hypotactic pĩra ‘to kill’).[11]^:34–9

The case marking in Panará follows an ergative-absolutive pattern. Transitive agents (A) are marked by the ergative posposition hẽ, whereas transitive patients (P) and the sole arguments of intransitive verbs (S) are unmarked.

Proclitics encode a wide array of features in Panará, including the role and the person/number features of the arguments (person indexes), mood, voice, and direction. The person indexes are organized ergatively in the realis mood and accusatively in the irrealis mood.

The table below shows the slots found in realis or conditional clauses.[12]^:281[11]^:111

Irrealis clauses receive the mood marker ka.[11]^:110