| Fontcolor |
|
|---|---|
| States | Peru, Bolivia, Brazil |
| Ethnicity | Yaminawá and related peoples |
| Speakers | 2,729 |
| Date | 2006–2011 |
| Ref | e19 |
| Speakers 2 | c. 400 uncontacted speakers of Yora (2007) |
| Familycolor | pano-tacanan |
| Fam 1 | Panoan |
| Fam 2 | Mainline Panoan |
| Fam 3 | Nawa |
| Fam 4 | Headwaters |
| Nation | Bolivia |
| Ld 1 | Yaminawa |
| Glotto | yami1255 |
| Glottorefname | Yaminawa Complex |
| Altname | Yaminahua |
| Dia 1 | Brazilian Yaminawa dialects |
| Dia 2 | Peruvian Yaminawa |
| Dia 3 | Chaninawa |
| Dia 4 | Chitonawa |
| Dia 5 | Mastanawa (Nastanawa) |
| Dia 6 | Parkenawa (Yora, "Nawa") |
| Dia 7 | Shanenawa (Xaninaua, Katukina de Feijó) |
| Dia 13 | Xinane Yura |
| Dia 12 | Nehanáwa † |
| Dia 11 | Yaminawa-arara |
| Dia 10 | Yawanawá |
| Dia 9 | Shawannawa (Arara) |
| Dia 8 | Sharanawa (Marinawa subdialect), |
| Glottoname | Yaminawa Complex |
| Iso 3 | yaa |
Yaminawa (Yaminahua) is a Panoan language of western Amazonia. It is spoken by the Yaminawá and some related peoples.
Yaminawa constitutes an extensive dialect cluster. Attested dialects are two or more Brazilian Yaminawa dialects, Peruvian Yaminawa, Chaninawa, Chitonawa, Mastanawa (=Nastanawa), Parkenawa (= Yora or "Nawa"), Shanenawa (Xaninaua, = Katukina de Feijó), Sharanawa (= Marinawa), Shawannawa (= Arara), Yawanawá, Yaminawa-arara (obsolescent; very similar to Shawannawa/Arara), Nehanáwa†).[1] Xinane Yura, a recently discovered variety, is spoken by a group contacted in Kampa and Envira River Isolated Peoples Indigenous Territory, Acre, Brazil during the 2010s.[2]
Very few Yaminawá speak Spanish or Portuguese, though the Shanenawa have mostly shifted to Portuguese.[3] Other sources report that the Yamináwa have switched entirely to Portuguese and no longer use their original language.[4]
Phonology
The vowels of Yaminawa are /a, i, ɯ, u/. /i, ɯ, u/ can also be heard as [ɪ, ɨ, o].[5] Sharanawa, Yaminawa, and Yora have nasalized counterparts for each of the vowels, and demonstrate contrastive nasalization.[6]
| Bilabial | Alveolar | Retroflex | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | p | t | k | |||
| Affricate | t͡s | t͡ʃ | ||||
| Fricative | ɸ | s | ʂ | ʃ | h | |
| Nasal | m | n | ||||
| Approximant | (l) | j | w | |||
| Flap | ɾ |
l is heard as an allophone of /ɾ/. /j/ can also be heard as a nasal ɲ.
Yawanawá has a similar phonemic inventory to Yaminawa, but uses a voiced bilabial fricative β in place of the voiceless bilabial fricative ɸ.[7] Yawanawá and Sharanahua have an additional phoneme, the voiced labio-velar approximant w.[7][8] Shanewana has a labiodental fricative f instead of ɸ.[9]
Yaminawa has contrastive tone, with two surface tones, high (H) and low (L).[5]
Grammar
Yaminawa is a polysynthetic, primarily suffixing language that also uses compounding, nasalization, and tone alternations in word-formation. Yaminawa exhibits split ergativity; nouns and third person pronouns pattern along ergative-absolutive lines, while first and second person pronouns pattern along nominative-accusative lines. Yaminawa verbal morphology is extensive, encoding affective (emotional) meanings and categories like associated motion. Yaminawa also has a set of switch reference enclitics that encode same or different subject relationships as well as aspectual relationships between the dependent (marked) clause and the main clause.[5]
Notes
- ^ David Fleck, 2013, Panoan Languages and Linguistics, Anthropological Papers of the American Museum of Natural History #99
- ^ Camargo Souza, Livia & Franchetto, Bruna (2021-12-29). "Aislados y «des-aislados» (in)voluntarios a través de sus lenguas: dos casos aparentemente opuestos". Anthropologica. 39 (47): 317–337. Sistema de Bibliotecas PUCP. doi:10.18800/anthropologica.202102.013. ISSN 2224-6428
- ^ "Yaminahua." Ethnologue. (retrieved 25 June 2011)
- ^ Aguiar, Maria S. de (2007), "The Brazilian Panoan Languages", Language Endangerment and Endangered Languages: Linguistic and Anhropological Studies with Special Emphasis on the Languages and Cultures of the Andean-Amazonian Border Area. Vol. 5, Lenguas Indígenas de América Latina (ILLA), Leiden: Research School of Asian, African and Amerindian Studies (CNWS), Universiteit Leiden, pp. 39–50, retrieved 2025-09-25
- ^ Faust, Norma and Eugene Loos. (2002). Gramática de la lengua yaminahua. Serie lingüística peruana, no. 51. Instituto Lingüístico de Verano.
- ^ "SAPhon – South American Phonological Inventories". linguistics.berkeley.edu. Retrieved 2018-07-23.
- ^ "SAPhon – South American Phonological Inventories - Yawanawa". linguistics.berkeley.edu. Retrieved 2019-02-01.
- ^ "SAPhon – South American Phonological Inventories - Sharanahua". linguistics.berkeley.edu. Retrieved 2019-02-01.
- ^ "SAPhon – South American Phonological Inventories - Shanenawa". linguistics.berkeley.edu. Retrieved 2019-02-01.
Further reading
- Couto, Cláudio (2015). A FONOLOGIA DO SAYNÁWA (PANO) (in Portuguese). LOT Publications. ISBN 978-94-6093-196-3.
External links
- Yaminahua language dictionary online from IDS
- Sharanahua Language Collection of Pierre Déléage Archived 2021-07-24 at the Wayback Machine (includes myths, shamanistic songs, and ceremonial songs) at the Archive of the Indigenous Languages of Latin America (AILLA).
- Yaminahua (Intercontinental Dictionary Series)
- Portal Japiim (online dictionary of Xinane Yura)