Ninam language

Yanam
Yanam
Ninam
Native to	Brazil, Venezuela
Native speakers	470 in Brazil (2012); 560 in Venezuela (2010) (excluding Yaroamë)
Language family	Yanomam Yanam;
Language codes
ISO 639-3	shb
Glottolog	nina1238
ELP	Ninam
	Yanomaman languages location Yanomamö Ninam Yanomám Sanumá Ỹaroamë

Yanam, or Ninam, is a Yanomaman language spoken in Roraima, Brazil (800 speakers) and southern Venezuela near the Mucajai, upper Uraricaá, and Paragua rivers.

Synonymy

Yanam is also known by the following names: Ninam, Yanam–Ninam, Xirianá, Shiriana Casapare, Kasrapai, Jawaperi, Crichana, Jawari, Shiriana, Eastern Yanomaman.

Regional variation

Gordon (2009) reports 2 main varieties (Northern, Southern). Kaufman (1994) reports 3:

Yanam (a.k.a. Northern Yanam/Ninam (Xiliana, Shiriana, Uraricaa-Paragua))
Ninam (a.k.a. Southern Yanam/Ninam (Xilixana, Shirishana, Mukajai))
Jawarib

The name Jawari is shared with Ỹaroamë.

There are three dialects spoken in Roraima, Brazil according to Ferreira, et al. (2019):^[2]

Northern (Xiriana): Ericó and Saúba
Southern: Mucajaí
Central: Uraricoera

The remaining speakers of Arutani and Sapé also speak Ninam (Shirián), since they now mostly live in Ninam villages.^[3]^[4]

Phonology

Yanam has seven base vowels. Yanam has both vowel length and nasalization, and both features can occur simultaneously, for all vowels except for /ɨ/.^[5]

Vowels
	Front	Central	Back
Close	i	ɨ	u
Mid	e	ə	o
Open		a

Consonants
	Bilabial	Alveolar		Palatal	Velar	Glottal
	Bilabial	plain	aspirated	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Stop	p	t	tʰ		k
Affricate				t͡ʃ
Fricative		s		ʃ		h
Nasal	m	n
Approximant				j
Flap		ɾ

References

^ ^a ^b Yanam at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
^ Ferreira, Helder Perri; Machado, Ana Maria Antunes; Senra, Estevão Benfica. 2019. As línguas Yanomami no Brasil: diversidade e vitalidade. São Paulo: Instituto Socioambiental (ISA) and Instituto do Patrimônio Histórico e Artístico Nacional (IPHAN). 216pp. ISBN 978-85-8226-076-0
^ Rosés Labrada, Jorge Emilio, Thiago Chacon & Francia Medina. 2020. Arutani (Venezuela and Brazil) – Language Snapshot. In Peter K. Austin (ed.) Language Documentation and Description 17, 170-177. London: EL Publishing.
^ Jorge Emilio Rosés Labrada & Francia Medina (2019). Sapé (Venezuela) — Language Snapshot. In Peter K. Austin (ed.) Language Documentation and Description, vol 16. London: EL Publishing. pp. 169-175.
^ "SAPhon – South American Phonological Inventories". linguistics.berkeley.edu. Retrieved 2018-08-14.

Campbell, Lyle. (1997). American Indian languages: The historical linguistics of Native America. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-509427-1.
Kaufman, Terrence. (1994). The native languages of South America. In C. Mosley & R. E. Asher (Eds.), Atlas of the world's languages (pp. 46–76). London: Routledge.
Migliazza, Ernest; & Grimes, J. E. (1961). Shiriana phonology. Anthropological Linguistics. (June).