Puinave, Waipunavi (Guaipunabi) or Wanse ( ; ) is an indigenous language of

Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...

and

Venezuela Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...

. It is generally considered to be a

language isolate A language isolate is a language that has no demonstrable genetic relationship with any other languages. Basque in Europe, Ainu and Burushaski in Asia, Sandawe in Africa, Haida and Zuni in North America, Kanoê in South America, and Tiwi ...

Demographics

There are about 6,800 people in 32 communities along the banks of the Inírida River in Guainía Department, Colombia. Additionally, there are 470 people in 10 communities along the

Orinoco River The Orinoco () is one of the longest rivers in South America at . Its drainage basin, sometimes known as the Orinoquia, covers approximately 1 million km2, with 65% of it in Venezuela and 35% in Colombia. It is the List of rivers by discharge, f ...

, in the Colombia–Venezuela border region. Other names for the language include ''Camaku del Guaviare'' or ''Camaku del Inírida''.

Varieties

Varieties listed by Mason (1950): *Puinave **Puinave (Epined) ***Western: Bravos, Guaripa ***Eastern: Mansos **Macú ***Macú ***Tikié ***Kerarí ***Papurí ***Nadöbo Alternate names of Puinave are ''Puinabe, Puinavis, Uaipunabis, Guaipunavos, Uaipis''.

Classification

Puinave is sometimes linked to other poorly attested languages of the region in various Macro-Puinavean proposals, but no good evidence has ever been produced. The original motivation seems to simply be that all of these languages were called ''Maku'' ('babble') by

Arawakans The Arawak are a group of Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Indigenous peoples of northern South America and of the Caribbean. The term "Arawak" has been applied at various times to different Indigenous groups, from the Lokono of South Ameri ...

.Patience Epps, 2008. ''A Grammar of Hup''. Mouton de Gruyter. Ongoing work on Puinave by Girón Higuita at the University of Amsterdam will hopefully clarify the situation.

Phonology

Consonants

Vowels

Syllable structure is (C)V(C); nasal syllabic nuclei cause allophonic variation of consonantal segments in the same syllable. The phonemes have oral, non-sonorant allophones in the onsets of syllables with oral nuclei. The high vowel , when occurring in onset or coda position, is realized as a glide . When the high vowel is in coda position, it is also realized as a glide , but in onset position, it is realized as a palatal stop matching in nasality with the nucleus, either or , in the same way that match the following vowel's nasality. Any glides occurring before or occurring after a nasalized nucleus are also realized as nasal .

Tone

Puinave distinguishes four surface (phonetic) tones: two simple (H and L) and two contour (HL and LH); these are analyzed as being composed of two phonemic tone values, H and L. Girón Higuita and Wetzels (2007) note that speakers seem to associate H with prominence, rather than increased duration or intensity (the typical correlates of prominence in languages like English).

Morphology and syntax

Jesús Mario Girón's description of the morphology and the function of nominalized constructions in this language can be found in ''The Linguistics of Endangered Languages'' (edited by Leo Wetzels).

Bibliography

*Bautista Sánchez, E. (2008). ''Diccionario puinave-español y la oración gramatical''. CIRCUI, Centro de Investigaciones de rescate cultural Puinave Autóctonas. *Girón, J. M. (2008). ''Una gramática del Wã́nsöjöt (Puinave)''. Amsterdam: Vrije Universiteit. (Doctoral dissertation). *Girón Higuita, J.M. and W. Leo Wetzels (2007). Tone in Wãnsöhöt (Puinave). ''Language Endangerment and Endangered Languages: Linguistic and Anthropological Studies with Special Emphasis on the Languages and Cultures of the Andean-Amazonian Border Area,'' W. Leo Wetzels ed., CNWS Publications.

References

External links

Puinave dictionary online
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Puinave
( Intercontinental Dictionary Series) {{Languages of Colombia Indigenous languages of the South American Northeast Languages of Venezuela Language isolates of South America Macro-Puinavean languages Languages of Colombia