# Pemon language
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> Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Pemon_language.md
> Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pemon_language
> Source revision: 1350913064
> License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)
{{Short description|Cariban language spoken in Venezuela}}
{{distinguish|Pémono language}}
{{Infobox language
| name = Pemon
| altname = Arecuna
| nativename = {{lang|aoc|Ingarikó}}, {{lang|aoc|Kapon}}
| states = [Venezuela](/source/Venezuela), [Brazil](/source/Brazil), [Guyana](/source/Guyana)
| ethnicity = [Pemon](/source/Pemon_people)
| speakers = 6,000
| date = 1990–2006
| ref = e18
| familycolor = cariban
| fam1 = [Cariban](/source/Cariban_languages)
| fam2 = Venezuelan Carib
| fam3 = Pemóng–Panare
| fam4 = Pemóng
| script = [Latin](/source/Latin_script)
| dia1 = Camaracoto
| iso3 = aoc
| glotto = pemo1248
| glottorefname = Pemon
| dia2 = Taurepang–Arekuna
| map = Pemon language map.svg
}}
thumb|Lino Figueroa, a Pemon, author of Makunaima, demonstrating the Pemon Language.
The '''Pemon language''' (or {{lang|es|Pemón}} in Spanish) is an [Indigenous language](/source/Indigenous_languages_of_the_Americas) of the Cariban family spoken by some 30,000 [Pemon](/source/Pemon) people, in [Venezuela](/source/Venezuela)'s Southeast, particularly in the [Canaima National Park](/source/Canaima_National_Park), in the [Roraima](/source/Roraima) State of Brazil and in [Guyana](/source/Guyana).
It covers several dialects, including '''''Arecuna''''' (or '''''Arekuna'''''), ''Camaracota'', ''Camaracoto'', ''Ingariko'' (or ''[Ingarikó](/source/Ingarik%C3%B3)''), and ''Taulipang'' or ''Taurepan'' (''Camaracoto'' may be a distinct language). The Pemon language may also be known and designated informally by one of the two dialects '''''Arecuna''''' (or '''''Arekuna''''') or ''Ingariko'' (or ''Ingarikó''), or incorrectly under the name ''Kapon'' which normally designates another closely related small group of languages.
Pemon is one of several other closely related Venezuelan Cariban languages which also include the [Macushi](/source/Macushi_language) and [Kapon](/source/Kapon) (or ''Kapong'', also sometimes used by natives to name the Pemon language itself, even if Kapon strictly covers only the two [Akawaio](/source/Akawaio_language) and [Patamona](/source/Patamona) languages). These four languages (including Macushi) form the group of Pemongan (or ''Pemóng'') languages. The broad ''Kapon'' (or ''Kapong'') and selective ''Ingariko'' (or ''Ingarikó'') terms are also used locally as a common ethnonym grouping Pemón, Akawaio, and Patamono peoples (and sometimes as well the Macushi people), and may be used as well to refer to the group of the four Pemongan (or ''Pemóng'') languages that they speak.
== Typology ==
The Pemon language's syntax type is [SOV](/source/subject%E2%80%93object%E2%80%93verb) with alternation to [OVS](/source/Object%E2%80%93verb%E2%80%93subject).[[http://ressources-cla.univ-fcomte.fr/gerflint/Venezuela1/luis.pdf La Transitividad en Japrería] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110721023145/http://ressources-cla.univ-fcomte.fr/gerflint/Venezuela1/luis.pdf |date=2011-07-21 }}.]
== Writing ==
Pemon was an oral language until the 20th century. Then efforts were made to produce dictionaries and grammars, primarily by Catholic missionaries, specially Armellada and Gutiérrez Salazar. The Latin alphabet has been used, adding diacritic signs to represent some phonemes not existing in Spanish.[{{cite web |url=http://ricardo.delgado.com/GUIA%20DE%20PEMON.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=2009-01-17 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090117130753/http://ricardo.delgado.com/GUIA%20DE%20PEMON.pdf |archive-date=2009-01-17 }} Guide for Pemon (Spanish)]
== Phonology ==
=== Vowels ===
Arekuna Pemon has the following vowels:
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"
|-
! !! [Front](/source/Front_vowel) !! [Central](/source/Central_vowel) !! [Back](/source/Back_vowel)
|-
! [Close](/source/close_vowel)
| {{IPA link|i}} || {{IPA link|ɨ}} || {{IPA link|u}}
|-
! [Open-mid](/source/open-mid_vowel)
| {{IPA link|e}} || {{IPA link|ɤ}}{{efn|{{Harvsp|Edwards|1978}} p. 224 uses the symbol ɵ for a [mid back unrounded vowel](/source/mid_back_unrounded_vowel).}}
| {{IPA link|o}}
|-
! [Open](/source/open_vowel)
| || {{IPA link|a}} ||
|}
There are still texts only using Spanish characters, without distinguishing between pairs such as {{ipa|/o/}} and {{ipa|/ɤ/}}. Diphthong sounds are {{IPA|[aɪ, au, ɔɪ, eɪ]}}.
=== Consonants ===
{| class="wikitable" style=text-align:center
!
|-
| {{IPA link|p}}
| {{IPA link|t}}
|
|
| {{IPA link|k}}
|-
|
|
| {{IPA link|s}}
|
|
|-
| {{IPA link|m}}
| {{IPA link|n}}
|
|
|
|-
|
|
| {{IPA link|ɾ}}
|
|
|-
|
|
|
| {{IPA link|j}}
| {{IPA link|w}}
|}
Allophones of {{ipa|/s n k j/}} are {{ipa|[tʃ ŋ ʔ ʎ]}}.[{{Harvsp|Edwards|1978}}]
== Grammar ==
Pronouns in Pemon are:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Pemon
! English
|-
| {{lang|aoc|yuré}}
| {{gloss|I, me}}
|-
| {{lang|aoc|amäre}}
| {{gloss|you}} (singular)
|-
| {{lang|aoc|muere, mesere}}
| {{gloss|he, she}}
|-
| {{lang|aoc|urekon}}
| {{gloss|we}}
|-
| {{lang|aoc|ina}}
| {{gloss|we}} (exclusive)
|-
| {{lang|aoc|amärenokon}}
| {{gloss|you}} (plural)
|-
| {{lang|aoc|ichamonan}}
| {{gloss|they, them}}
|}
== Notes ==
{{Reflist|group=lower-alpha}}
==References==
{{Reflist}}
== Literature ==
* {{Cite journal |last=Edwards |first=Walter F. |year=1978 |title=A Preliminary Sketch of Arekuna (Carib) Phonology |journal=International Journal of American Linguistics |volume=44 |issue=3 |pages=223–227 |jstor=1264946}}
* {{cite book |last=Gutiérrez Salazar |first=Mariano |date=2001 |title=Gramática didáctica de la lengua pemón |location=Caracas |publisher=Universidad Católica Andrés Bello |isbn=980-244-282-8 |lang=es}}
* {{cite book |first1=Cesáreo |last1=de Armellada |first2=Jesús |last2=Olza |date=1999 |title=Gramática de la lengua pemón (morfosintaxis) |location=Caracas |publisher=Universidad Católica Andrés Bello |isbn= |lang=es}}
== External links ==
{{incubator|aoc}}
* [http://sites.google.com/site/idiomapemon Introducción al pemón (Spanish)]
* [https://www.venezuelanindian.blogspot.com/2010/12/speak-like-native-pemon-and-warao.html Pemon for travellers]
* [http://www.native-languages.org/pemon.htm General information about the Pemon language]
* [https://japiim.linguasyanomami.com/ Portal Japiim] (online dictionary)
{{Languages of Guyana}}
{{Languages of Venezuela}}
{{Cariban languages}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pemon Language}}
Category:Languages of Venezuela
Category:Indigenous topics of the Guianas
Category:Indigenous languages of the South American Northwest
Category:Pemon
[br:Pemoneg](/source/br%3APemoneg)
[qu:Pemon simi](/source/qu%3APemon_simi)
---
Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Pemon language](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pemon_language) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pemon_language?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.