Muinane language

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Muinane
Muìnánɨ
Native toColombia
RegionPuerto Santander, Amazonas; between Caquetá River and Yari River in Caquetá Department
Ethnicity2,100 (2018)[1]
Native speakers
150 (2007)[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3bmr
Glottologmuin1242
ELPMuinane
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Muinane is an indigenous American language spoken in Colombia.

Classification[edit]

Muinane belongs to the Boran language family, along with Bora.

Geographic distribution[edit]

Muinane is spoken by 150 people in Colombia along the Upper Cahuinarí river in the Department of Amazonas. There may be some speakers in Peru.

Phonology[edit]

Consonants[edit]

Muinane consonant phonemes
Bilabial Alveolar Postalveolar/
Palatal
Velar Glottal
Nasal m n ɲ
Plosive p b t d k ɡ ʔ
Affricate
Fricative ɸ β s ʃ j x
Trill r
  • Voiceless stops and affricates contrast with their geminate counterparts: tʃː tʲː .

Vowels[edit]

Muinane vowel phonemes
Front Central Back
High i ɨ u
Low ɛ a o

Tone[edit]

There are two tones in Muinane: high and low.

Grammar[edit]

Word order in Muinane is generally SOV. Case marking is nominative–accusative.

Writing System[edit]

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

Latin IPA Latin IPA Latin IPA Latin IPA Latin IPA Latin IPA
a /a/ b /b/ c /k/-/s/ ch /tʃ/ d /d/ e /e/
f /ɸ/ g(u) /ɡ/-/x/ h /ʔ/ i /i/ ɨ /ɨ/ j /x/
ll /dʒ/ m /m/ n /n/ ñ /ɲ/ o /o/ p /p/
qu /k/ r /r/ z /s/ s /ʃ/ t /t/ u /u/
v /β/ y /j/
  • Palatalized consonants are written using the unpalatalized forms plus y: ty /tʲ/, dy /dʲ/, ry /rʲ/. For the purposes of alphabetization, these are considered sequences of letters.
  • Tone is not generally indicated in writing. When it is shown, it is indicated by an acute accent over the vowel: á, é, í, ɨ́, ó, ú.
  • The Muinane writing system is based on Spanish orthography. For that reason, the sound /k/ is written as c before a, ɨ, o, and u and as qu before e and i. Likewise, the sound /ɡ/ is written as gu before e and i, and g elsewhere.

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b Muinane at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022) Closed access icon

Sources[edit]

  • Aschmann, Richard P. (1993), Proto-Witotoan, Arlington, TX: SIL International, ISBN 0-88312-189-1
  • Walton, James P.; Walton, Janice W.; Pakky de Buenaventure, Clementina (1997), Diccionario Bilingüe Muinane-Español/Español-Muinane, Santafé de Bogotá: Editorial Buena Semilla, OCLC 468683910