| Waiwai | |
|---|---|
| Wai Wai | |
| Native to | Brazil, Guyana, Suriname |
| Ethnicity | Wai-Wai |
Native speakers | (2,200 cited 1990–2006)1 |
Cariban
| |
| Dialects |
|
| Official status | |
Official language in |  Brazil ( Amazonas) |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | waw |
| Glottolog | waiw1244 |
| ELP | |
Waiwai /ˈwaɪwaɪ/2 (Uaiuai, Uaieue, Ouayeone) is a Cariban language of northern Brazil, with a couple hundred speakers across the border in southern Guyana and Suriname.
History
The Waiwai people are composed of an amalgamation of eight distinct peoples, these being the Mawayana, Hixkaryana, Katwena, Sherew, the uncontacted3 Karafawyana,45 Sikiana, Tunayana, and Parukoto. Two men of the Taruma people also lived among the Waiwai, but they died "several years" before 1998. A Waimiri-Atroari was also reported to live among them as of 1998, and a number of Tiriyó women had married into the Waiwai. The name "Waiwai" itself was originally applied to a now-extinct ninth group who spoke a language very similar to that of the Parukoto; the last original Waiwai died in the 1970s or earlier. All nine of these peoples had their own original languages or dialects. The Waiwai-Parukoto language subsequently became the lingua franca of these people, though some of the other languages were reported to still be used in the homes of the respective groups.6
Official status
Since 2023, Waiwai has been one of 17 official languages of Amazonas state in Brazil.7
Phonology
Equivalents in the Waiwai writing system are in ⟨angle brackets⟩.6
Consonants
| Labial | Alveolar | Alveopalatal | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stop | t | tʃ ⟨c⟩ | k | |||
| Nasal | m | n | ɲ ⟨n̂⟩ | |||
| Fricative | ɸ ⟨p⟩ | s | ʃ ⟨x⟩ | h | ||
| Tap | ɺ ⟨r⟩ | 𝼈 ⟨r̂⟩ | ||||
| Approximant | w | j ⟨y⟩ |
Consonants /t, s, ʃ, tʃ, n, ɲ, ɺ, 𝼈, j/ are part of the "tense" group, which are realized more tensely, and the "relaxed" group is composed of /k, m, ɸ, w/, which are pronounced more relaxedly.6
Vowels
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| High | i iː | ɨ ɨː ⟨î⟩ | u uː |
| Mid | e eː | o oː | |
| Low | a aː |
/o/ has an allophone of [ʌ] when following alveopalatal consonants /tʃ, ʃ/ (e.g. comota [tʃʌmota] 'forest', oyamoxoxon [ojamoʃʌʃʌn] 'my fingernail'). /a/ is realized as "less open and less low" [æ] when preceded by the consonants /j, tʃ/, and followed by /w, m, s/. Long vowels are written doubled.6
Writing system
As of 1998, 85% of Waiwai people, including "many" young people, were literate in their language.6
Morphology
Pronouns
Personal prefixes are more common than free pronouns in Waiwai; the latter are typically used when the person is considered "special or distinctive from others of a group".6
| Person | Animate | Inanimate | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Non-collective | Collective | ||
| 1 | owɨ | ||
| 1+2 | kɨɨwɨ | kɨwjam | |
| 1+3 | amna | ||
| 2 | amoro | amjamɺo | |
| Anaphoric | |||
| 3 | noro | ɲeʃamɺo | eɺo |
| Deictic | |||
| 3 remote | mɨkɨ, mɨkro | mɨkjam | mɨnɨ |
| 3 not far | moɺo | ||
| 3 near | moso | moʃam | on, tan |
Non-collective forms of a pronoun are used when "only the speaker and hearer are involved in an action", or as an indefinite pronoun; collective forms are used when there are multiple hearers.6
Kɨɨw
1+2P
mak
only
kajka.
let's.go
Kɨɨw mak kajka.
1+2P only let's.go
'Let's go, just you and I.'
Awom-ɺa
rise.up-NEG
t-∅-a-sɨ
1+2SBJ-be-SF-INP
kɨɨw
1+2PRO
ka-ji
high-from
ɺo
very
k-epɨɺka-tʃhe.
1+2-fall-after
Awom-ɺa t-∅-a-sɨ kɨɨw ka-ji ɺo k-epɨɺka-tʃhe.
rise.up-NEG 1+2SBJ-be-SF-INP 1+2PRO high-from very 1+2-fall-after
'A person does not rise again after falling from very high.'
Sample text
Taa,
all.right
on
this
wara
like
mak
just
ka
say
ʃe
DESI
w-∅-a-s
1SBJ-be-SF-INP
a-wja
2-to
oj-akno,
1POSR-brother
tan
here
aw-eʃi-taw
2-be-while
tʃuh-wa-ka-n
grass(forest)-LOC-to-NMLZR
komo
COLL
∅-tʃ-e-tkeɲe.
3SBJ-go-SF-UP+COLL
Taa, on wara mak ka ʃe w-∅-a-s a-wja oj-akno, tan aw-eʃi-taw tʃuh-wa-ka-n komo ∅-tʃ-e-tkeɲe.
all.right this like just say DESI 1SBJ-be-SF-INP 2-to 1POSR-brother here 2-be-while grass(forest)-LOC-to-NMLZR COLL 3SBJ-go-SF-UP+COLL
'All right, this is what I will say to you my brother, while you were here people went to the forest.'
References
References
- Waiwai at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
- Bauer, Laurie (2021). The linguistics student's handbook (2nd ed.). Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 978-1-4744-7410-8.
- "Isolados do Jatapu–Karapawyana – Indigenas do Brasil". 2015-12-03. Retrieved 2025-09-22.
- Hornborg, Alf; Hill, Jonathan David (2011). Ethnicity in ancient Amazonia: reconstructing past identities from archaeology, linguistics, and ethnohistory. Boulder, CO: University Press of Colorado. ISBN 978-1-60732-094-4.
- Ethnologue, Editor (June 4, 2015). "ISO 639-3 Registration Authority Request for Change to ISO 639-3 Language Code" (PDF). iso639-3.sil.org. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2025-01-23. Retrieved 2025-09-18.
- Hawkins, Robert (1998). Wai Wai. Desmond Derbyshire and Geoffrey Pullum (eds.), Handbook of Handbook of Amazonian Languages, Vol. 4: Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. pp. 25–224.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location (link) CS1 maint: publisher location (link) - "Amazonas passa a ter 16 línguas indígenas oficiais; saiba quais são". G1 (in Brazilian Portuguese). 2023-07-21. Retrieved 2026-05-14.
External links
External links
- Lev, Michael; Stark, Tammy; Chang, Will (2012). "Phonological inventory of Waiwai". The South American Phonological Inventory Database (version 1.1.3 ed.). Berkeley: University of California: Survey of California and Other Indian Languages Digital Resource.
- Waiwai Collection Archived 2023-12-18 at the Wayback Machine of Niels Fock from the Archive of the Indigenous Languages of Latin America, containing audio recordings of ceremonial chants and photographs made in the 1950s.
- Wai Wai (Intercontinental Dictionary Series)