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Zuruahá language

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Zuruahá
Suruahá
Native toPerú, Brazil
Ethnicity140 Zuruahã people (2006)[1]
Native speakers
140 (2006)[1]
monolingual[1]
Arawan
  • Zuruahá
Language codes
ISO 639-3swx
Glottologsuru1263
ELPZuruahã

Zuruahá (also called Suruaha, Suruwaha, Suruwahá, Zuruwahã, Zuruaha, Índios do Coxodoá [2]) is an Arawan language spoken in Brazil by about 130 people.

Zuruahá is mentioned in Kaufman (1994) from personal communication from Dan Everett. He made first contact with the community (a 3-day hike from Dení territory in Amazonas state) in 1980. The language had not been studied as of 1994, but seems most similar to Deni.

Phonology

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Phoneme inventory

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Vowels

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Front Central Back
Close i ɨ u1
Open-mid ɛ
Open a
  1. The vowel /u/ is ambiguous regarding its classification in the system. As in Deni and other languages of the family, it works as if it had an intermediate height between /a/ and /e/. In other words, /u/ is not specified in the terms of the close feature. The asymmetry of the vowel system is also due to the insertion of /i/ in the system. This vowel appears to have been introduced into the system more recently. According to Dixon and Everett, the central vowel was not part of the Proto-Arawá vowel system. In Suruwahá, it has a different behaviour than the other vowels: it is rare in the language of old people; never appears in diphthongs and is the phonetic realization of the neutralisation of the contrast between the other vowels in certain positions.[3]

Consonants

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Labial Alveolar Alveopalatal Velar Glottal
Plosive b t d 1 k g
Nasal m n
Tap ɾ ɾʲ2
Affricate
Fricative s z ʃ h
Approximant w
  1. Suruwahá's alveolar plosive consonants are slightly backed, resembling retroflex consonants.
  2. The alveolar tap occurs in colloquial speech, but, in careful pronunciation, it is actually pronounced as an alveolar lateral flap.[3]

References

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  1. ^ a b c Zuruahá at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. ^ Zuruahã
  3. ^ a b Esboço preliminar da fonologia Suruwahá
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