Wapishana language

Wapixana
Native toGuyana, Brazil
EthnicityWapishana
Native speakers
13,000 (2000)[1]
Arawakan
Language codes
ISO 639-3wap
Glottologwapi1253
ELPWapixana

Wapishana (Wapixana) is an Arawakan language of Guyana and Brazil. It is spoken by over 13,000 people on both sides of the Guyana-Brazil border.[2]

In Brazil the highest concentration of Wapishana speakers are in the municipalities of Cantá and Bonfim, the Serra da Lua region, where it has been recognized as an official language since 2014.[3]

External pressures have diminished the use of Wapishana among younger generations, and it wasn't until 1987 that Wapishana was used as the teaching language in Indigenous schools of the language community. In 2009, Roraima Federal University created an extension program for learning Wapishana.[3] In Guyana, there are organizations for language preservation, such as Wapichan Wadauniinao Ati'o[4]

Cultural importance

Many plants and animals endemic to the region are only known in Wapishana, and the language has a distinct system of taxonomy. An example is the three classes of plants, karam’makau, wapaurib bau and wapananinau, which are indicative of the "cultivation criteria" of the indigenous people. Karam’makau represents plants collected in the wild, whereas wapaurib bau is the plants that have been domesticated and often bear names based on the location or farmer of origin. Cassava, a foodstuff of major importance to indigenous people of the region, has a "bewildering variety of names" in Wapishana. Wapananinau are plants with magical properties, and have important functions for shamans of the traditional beliefs.[3]

Relation to other indigenous languages

Kaufman (1994) considered Wapishana, Atorada, and Mapidian to be dialects. Aikhenvald (1999) separates Mawayana/Mapidian/Mawakwa (considered as a single language) from Wapishana, and she includes them in a Rio Branco branch. Ethnologue notes that Atorada has 50% lexical similarity with Wapishana and 20% with Mapidian, and that Wapishana and Mapidian share 10%.[1] Ramirez (2020) considers Atorai to be a dialect of Wapishana.[5]: 33 

Wapishana and Pemon, a Cariban language, have borrowed heavily from each other due to intensive mutual contact.[5]

Phonology

Consonants

Labial Alveolar Retroflex Palatal Velar Glottal
Plosive voiceless p t k ʔ
voiced b ɖ ɡ
Affricate tʃ
Nasal m n ɲ
Fricative s ʐ ʃ
Tap ɽ
Semivowel w j
  • Consonants /b ɖ ʐ/ in final position are heard as voiceless [p ʈ ʂ].[6]

Vowels

Front Central Back
Close i iː ɨ ɨː u uː
Open a aː

Morphology

Wapishana personal affixes:[2]
singular plural
1st person n-/m- -na wa- -wi
2st person ɨ-/i- -i ɨ- -wiko
3st person ɾ(ɨ/iʔ)- -sɨ na- -nu
3rd person refl. a-
Wapishana verbal affixes:[2]
thematic -ta, -ɗa, -ɓa
present -e
reciprocal -(a)ka
adjectival -ɾe, -ke

References

  1. ^ a b Wapixana at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. ^ a b c Meira, Sérgio. 2019. A Study of the Genetic Relation between Mawayana and Wapishana (Arawakan Family). Revista Brasileira de Línguas Indígenas (RBLI), vol. 2, no. 1 (Jan.-Jun. 2019), pp. 70-104.
  3. ^ a b c Machado, Ananda; de Pinho, Rachel Camargo (2020), Leal Filho, Walter; King, Victor T.; Borges de Lima, Ismar (eds.), "Biodiversity and Knowledge Associated with the Wapishana People's Language: An Ethnolinguistic-Territorial and Conservation Case Study in the Amazon", Indigenous Amazonia, Regional Development and Territorial Dynamics: Contentious Issues, The Latin American Studies Book Series, Cham: Springer International Publishing, pp. 357–373, doi:10.1007/978-3-030-29153-2_15, ISBN 978-3-030-29153-2, retrieved 2021-03-15
  4. ^ "Wapishana Writers' Workshops and Literacy Tutor Training". SIL International. 2012-09-12. Retrieved 2021-03-15.
  5. ^ a b Ramirez, Henri (2020). Enciclopédia das línguas Arawak: acrescida de seis novas línguas e dois bancos de dados. Vol. 3 (1 ed.). Curitiba: Editora CRV. doi:10.24824/978652510234.4. ISBN 978-65-251-0234-4.
  6. ^ Manoel, Gomes dos Santos. Uma gramatica do Wapixana (Aruak) : aspectos da fonologia, da morfologia e da sintaxe. Universidade Estadual de Campinas. OCLC 697755100.

Bibliography

  • Aikhenvald, Alexandra Y. (1999). "The Arawak language family". In Aikhenvald, Alexandra Y.; Dixon, R.M.W. (eds.). The Amazonian languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 65–106.
  • Tracy, Frances V. (1974). "An Introduction to Wapishana Verb Morphology". International Journal of American Linguistics. 40 (2): 120–125. doi:10.1086/465294. S2CID 143605341.