| Piaroa | |
|---|---|
| De'aruwa | |
| Native to | Colombia and Venezuela |
| Ethnicity | Piaroa people |
Native speakers | (13,000–14,000 cited 2001)1 |
Piaroa–Saliban
| |
| Latin | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | pid |
| Glottolog | piar1243 |
| ELP | Piaroa |
 | |
Piaroa is an Indigenous language of Venezuela and Colombia, spoken by the Piaroa people.
The Wirö language (commonly called the pejorative term "Maco") is closely related, the two forming the Piaroan branch of the family.2
Alternate names
Piaroa is called by many names, including variations of Wotuja3, Wo’tiheh, and Huottüja.4
Phonology
| Bilabial | Dental | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| nor. | lab. | nor. | lab. | ||||||
| Stop | Plain | p | t | k | kʷ | ʔ | |||
| Aspirated | pʰ~ɸ | tʰ | kʰ | kʰʷ | |||||
| Ejective | pʼ | tʼ | kʼ | kʷʼ | |||||
| Glottal | ˀb | ˀd | |||||||
| Affricate | Plain | t͡ʃ~t͡s | |||||||
| Aspirated | t͡sʰ | ||||||||
| Ejective | t͡sʼ | ||||||||
| Fricative | s | hˣ | hˣʷ | ||||||
| Nasal | m | n | |||||||
| Flap/Lateral | ɾ | ʎ | |||||||
| Approximant | j~dʲ | w | |||||||
Palatalization of /k, kʰ, kʼ, hˣ/ may occur when before front vowels as [kʲ, kʲʰ, kʲʼ, hʲ].
/pʰ/ is in free variation with [ɸ].
Phonemes /j/ and /t͡ʃ/ may have allophones of [dʲ, t͡s].
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i | ɨ | u ɯ |
| Mid | e | ɤ~o | |
| Open | æ | ɑ~ɒ |
Vowels /ɤ, ɑ/ are rounded as [o, ɒ] when after labial consonants.5
References
References
- "Endangered Languages Project – Piaroa". Archived from the original on 20 April 2021. Retrieved 6 March 2021.
- Zamponi, R. 2017 'Betoi-Jirara, Sáliban, and Hodɨ: relationships among three linguistic lineages of the mid-Orinoco region'. Anthropological Linguistics 59: 263-321.
- Censo indígena de Venezuela, 1992 (Volume 1 ed.). Venezuela Oficina Central de Estadística e Informática. 1993. p. 516.
- Krisólogo B., Pedro J. (1976). Manual glotológico del idioma wo'tiheh. Lenguas indígenas de Venezuela. Vol. 16. Caracas: Centro de lenguas Indigenas, Instituto de Investigaciones Historicas, Universidad Católica "Andrés Bello".
- Mosonyi, Esteban Emílio (2002). "Elementos de Gramática Piaroa: Algunas Consideraciones sobre sus clases nominales" (PDF). Boletín de Lingüística. 18 (18): 71–103.