| Eperara | |
|---|---|
| Saija | |
| epérã pedée, sía pedée | |
| Native to | Colombia |
Native speakers | 3,600 in Colombia and Ecuador (2004–2012)1 plus an unknown number in Panama1 |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | sja |
| Glottolog | epen1239 |
| ELP | Epena |
 | |
Eperara a.k.a. Epena (Southern Embera, Epena: Epérã Pedée 'person words', sía pedée2) is an Embera language of Colombia, with about 250 speakers in Ecuador.
Geographic distribution
Epena is spoken on the Pacific coastal rivers of the departments of Nariño, Cauca, and Valle del Cauca in Colombia. A major grouping of the Epena is found in Cauca along the Saija River and three of its major tributaries: the Guangüí, Infí, and Cupí. Social contact and intermarriage with the neighboring Wounaan is commonplace.2
The Basurudó dialect is spoken on the Basurudó River in the Department of the Chocó, near the Docampadó River. It is the only Epena dialect that differs significantly from the others.2
In Ecuador, only 30 to 50 speakers of Epena remained as of 2014, where the language is spoken in Esmeraldas Province, making it critically endangered there.3
Phonology
Consonants
| Bilabial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stop | aspirated | pʰ | tʰ | t͡ʃ | kʰ | |
| plain | p | t | k | ʔ | ||
| voiced | b | d | ɡ | |||
| Fricative | s | h | ||||
| Nasal | m | n | ||||
| Liquid | trill | r | ||||
| tap | ɾ | |||||
| Glide | w | j | ||||
The voiced consonant phonemes /b, d, ɾ, s, h, w, j/ have nasal allophones of [m, n, ɾ̃, s̃, h̃, w̃, ɲ], respectively, which occur in nasal syllables. /l/ is exclusive to loanwords. In medial position, /pʰ, kʰ, g, w/ may be realized as fricatives [ü [sic], χ [sic], ɣ, β]; both variants have nasal allophones in nasal syllables, as in [w̃] ~ [β̃]. /w/ may be additionally realized as prevelarized [ᵍw] word-initially.4 /j/ also has an allophone of [dʒ] in a single loanword, yérre [jéere]~[dʒéere].2
Vowels
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| High | i ĩ iː | ɨ ɨ̃ ɨː | u ũ uː |
| Mid | e ẽ eː | ə ə̃ əː | o õ oː |
| Low | a ã aː |
Suprasegmentals
Nasalization is a suprasegmental feature in Epena. It typically spreads rightward in a word, though sometimes also to the left, and is "associated with the syllable".2
Phonotactics
Words in Epena may be composed of one to seven syllables, though most contain two to four. Consonant clusters are very rare, and may only be composed of two consonants.2
References
References
- Eperara at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
- Harms, Phillip Lee (1994). Epena Pedee syntax (PDF). Studies in the languages of Colombia. Dallas, Texas] : [Arlington: Summer Institute of Linguistics ; University of Texas at Arlington. ISBN 978-0-88312-276-1.
- Haboud Bumachar, Marleen; Toapanta, Jesús L., eds. (2014). Voces e imágenes: lenguas indígenas del Ecuador. Quito: Centro de Publicaciones, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador. ISBN 978-9978-77-211-9.
- Harms, Philip Lee (1984). Fonología del epena pedee (saija) (PDF).