Wapishana language
{{Short description|Arawakan language spoken in Guyana and Brazil}}
{{Infobox language
| name = Wapixana
| nativename =
| region = border
| ethnicity = Wapishana, Taruma
| speakers = {{sigfig|12500|2}}
| date = 2000
| ref = e18
| familycolor = arawakan
| fam1 = Arawakan
| fam2 = Northern
| fam3 = Wapishanan (Rio Branco)
| iso3 = wap
| glotto = wapi1253
| glottorefname = Wapishana
}}
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.
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.{{Citation|last1=Machado|first1=Ananda|title=Biodiversity and Knowledge Associated with the Wapishana People's Language: An Ethnolinguistic-Territorial and Conservation Case Study in the Amazon|date=2020|url=https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-29153-2_15|work=Indigenous Amazonia, Regional Development and Territorial Dynamics: Contentious Issues|pages=357–373|editor-last=Leal Filho|editor-first=Walter|series=The Latin American Studies Book Series|place=Cham|publisher=Springer International Publishing|language=en|doi=10.1007/978-3-030-29153-2_15|isbn=978-3-030-29153-2|access-date=2021-03-15|last2=de Pinho|first2=Rachel Camargo|editor2-last=King|editor2-first=Victor T.|editor3-last=Borges de Lima|editor3-first=Ismar}}
External pressures have diminished the use of Wapishana among younger generations, and it was not 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. In Guyana, there are organizations for language preservation, such as Wapichan Wadauniinao Ati'o{{Cite web|date=2012-09-12|title=Wapishana Writers' Workshops and Literacy Tutor Training|url=https://www.sil.org/story/wapishana-writers-workshops-and-literacy-tutor-training|access-date=2021-03-15|website=SIL International|language=en}}
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.
Relation to other indigenous languages
Kaufman (1994) considered Wapishana, Atorada, and Mapidian to be dialects. {{harvcoltxt|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%. Ramirez (2020) considers Atorai to be a dialect of Wapishana.{{cite book |last=Ramirez |first=Henri |author-link=Henri Ramirez |date=2020 |title=Enciclopédia das línguas Arawak: acrescida de seis novas línguas e dois bancos de dados |volume=3 |edition=1 |url=https://publishercrv.com.br/produtos/detalhes/35676-enciclopedia-das-linguas-arawak-br-acrescida-de-seis-novas-linguas-e-dois-bancos-de-dados-br-volume-iii |location=Curitiba |publisher=Editora CRV |isbn=978-65-251-0234-4 |doi=10.24824/978652510234.4}}{{rp|33}}
Wapishana and Pemon, a Cariban language, have borrowed heavily from each other due to intensive mutual contact.
Phonology
= Consonants =
| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
! colspan="2" | |
| rowspan="2" |Plosive
!voiceless |{{IPAlink|p}} |{{IPAlink|t}} | | |{{IPAlink|k}} |{{IPAlink|ʔ}} |
|---|
| voiced
|{{IPAlink|b}} | |{{IPAlink|ɖ}} | |{{IPAlink|ɡ}} | |
| colspan="2" |Affricate
| | | |{{IPAlink|tʃ}} | | |
| colspan="2" |Nasal
|{{IPAlink|m}} |{{IPAlink|n}} | |{{IPAlink|ɲ}} | | |
| colspan="2" |Fricative
| |{{IPAlink|s}} |{{IPAlink|ʐ}} |{{IPAlink|ʃ}} | | |
| colspan="2" |Tap
| | |{{IPAlink|ɽ}} | | | |
| colspan="2" |Semivowel
|{{IPAlink|w}} | | |{{IPAlink|j}} | | |
- Consonants /b ɖ ʐ/ in final position are heard as voiceless [p ʈ ʂ].{{Cite book|last=Manoel|first=Gomes dos Santos|url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/697755100|title=Uma gramatica do Wapixana (Aruak) : aspectos da fonologia, da morfologia e da sintaxe|publisher=Universidade Estadual de Campinas|oclc=697755100}}
= Vowels =
Morphology
:
| class="wikitable"
! !! 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- |
:
| class="wikitable"
! thematic | -ta, -ɗa, -ɓa |
| present
| -e |
|---|
| reciprocal
| -(a)ka |
| adjectival
| -ɾe, -ke |
References
{{Reflist}}
Bibliography
- {{cite book | last= Aikhenvald | first= Alexandra Y. | year= 1999 | chapter= The Arawak language family | editor-first= Alexandra Y. | editor-last= Aikhenvald | editor2-first= R.M.W. | editor2-last= Dixon | title= The Amazonian languages | pages= 65–106 | location= Cambridge | publisher= Cambridge University Press }}
- {{cite journal| last= Tracy | first= Frances V. | year= 1974 | title= An Introduction to Wapishana Verb Morphology | journal= International Journal of American Linguistics | volume= 40 | issue= 2 | doi=10.1086/465294 | pages=120–125| s2cid= 143605341 }}
External links
- [https://ids.clld.org/contributions/266 Wapishana dictionary] The Intercontinental Dictionary Series
{{Languages of Brazil}}
{{Languages of Guyana}}
{{Arawakan languages}}