Wayampi language

Wayãpi or Wayampi (Waiãpi, Guayapi, Oiampí, Wayampi: Wajãpi²) is a Tupi–Guarani language spoken by the Wayãpi people. It is spoken in French Guiana and Brazil.

Wayampi is a member of the Tupian language family. According to Brazilian linguist Aryon Rodrigues, it forms a subgroup with neighbouring Emerillon, as well as the Zoʼé, Kaʼapor (Urubú), Anambé, Guajá, Aurê–Aurá, and Takunyapé languages, termed Northern Tupi–Guarani.³⁴ Wayampi and Emerillon are the only Tupian languages spoken in the region of the Guianas.⁵

Two dialects of Wayampi are distinguished in the literature, Amapari Wayampi and Guianese Wayampi.²

The Wayampi migrated to their current area in the 18th century, similarly to the Zoʼé and Emerillon.²

The first documentation of Wayampi comes in a wordlist collected by Adam de Bauve and published in 1833 to 1834,⁶⁷ followed by M. Leprieur in the same year.⁶ Both these wordlists were compiled in Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius's (1867) book Glossaria linguarum brasiliensium. These were followed by Jules Crevaux's 93-word list recorded in 1875 and published in 1882.⁵

Wayampi has 13 consonant phonemes.⁸

/p/ cannot occur word-finally.⁸

In closed, or consonant-final, syllables, /e, o/ are realized as [ɛ, ɔ]. /i/ is attested in only one open, or vowel-final, syllable, in awasi 'corn'. Nasal vowels are more common in stressed syllables.¹⁰

Wayãpi is spelt phonetically based on the International Phonetic Alphabet, and not according the French orthography.¹¹ The spelling uses the letter ɨ for the close central unrounded vowel between i and u.¹² E is always pronounced é, vowels with a tilde are always nasal (ã, ẽ, ĩ, õ, ũ), ö is like the German O umlaut, and b is pronounced mb. All letters are pronounced.¹²