Huambisa Language
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Huambisa, Huambiza, Wambiza, Jíbaro, Xívaro, Wampis, Maina, or Shuar-Huampis is an indigenous language of the Huambisa people of
Peru Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...
. Spanish colonizers first generated the name Xívaro in the late 16th century as a way of overgeneralizing several ethnicities of similar sociopolitical statuses within the region and referring to them as savages. It is an established language spoken in the extreme north of Peru. It is closely related to the Achuar-Shiwiar,
Shuar The Shuar, also known as Jivaro, are an indigenous ethnic group that inhabits the Ecuadorian and Peruvian Amazonia. They are famous for their hunting skills and their tradition of head shrinking, known as Tzantsa. The Shuar language belongs to ...
, and
Aguaruna Aguaruna may refer to: * Aguaruna people, an ethnic group of Peru * Aguaruna language Aguaruna (or as native speakers prefer to call it, ) is an indigenous American language of the Chicham family spoken by the Aguaruna people in Northern Peru ...
languages, all of which belong to the Jivaroan language family. It has official standing in the area it is spoken.


Classification

Huambisa belongs to the Jivaroan linguistic family, a small language family of northern Peru, specifically in Amazonas,
Cajamarca Cajamarca (), also known by the Quechua name, ''Kashamarka'', is the capital and largest city of the Cajamarca Region as well as an important cultural and commercial center in the northern Andes. It is located in the northern highlands of Per ...
, Loreto, and San Martin, and the Oriente region of Ecuador.


Geographic Distribution


Official Status

The Huambisa language is largely spoken between the Condorcanqui Province of the
Amazonas Region Amazonas may refer to: Places * Amazon River, known as ''Amazonas'' in Spanish and Portuguese *Amazonas (Brazilian state), Brazil *Amazonas (Colombian department), Colombia *Amazonas (Peruvian department), Peru *Amazonas (Venezuelan state), Venez ...
and the
Datem del Marañón Province DATEM (diacetyl tartaric acid ester of mono- and diglycerides, also E472e) is an emulsifier primarily used in baking to strengthen the gluten network in dough. It is added to crusty breads, such as rye, to impart a springy, chewy texture. It is a ...
in the
Loreto Region Loreto () is Peru's northernmost department and region. Covering almost one-third of Peru's territory, Loreto is by far the nation's largest department, slightly smaller than Japan; it is also one of the most sparsely populated regions due to ...
, precisely along the
Santiago Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile (), is the capital and largest city of Chile and one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is located in the country's central valley and is the center of the Santiago Metropolitan Regi ...
River, in which "Middle and Upper Santiago is considered Wampis territory." As of 2012, there were nearly 8,000 speakers of Huambisa worldwide, 5,000 of which live along the Morona and Santiago Rivers. It is currently present in most contexts and domains of communication, some things extending into medias in which Spanish is dominant. In the year 2010, it was declared official in the
Amazonas Department Amazonas Department may refer to: * Amazonas (Colombian department), the Colombian department of Amazonas * Amazonas (Peruvian department), the Peruvian department of Amazonas * Department of Amazonas (Peru–Bolivian Confederation), the department ...
together with
Aguaruna Aguaruna may refer to: * Aguaruna people, an ethnic group of Peru * Aguaruna language Aguaruna (or as native speakers prefer to call it, ) is an indigenous American language of the Chicham family spoken by the Aguaruna people in Northern Peru ...
and Chachapoyas Quechua. A new alphabet for the language was approved in 2012, which will allow for the integration of the indigenous language into the modern world.


Dialects/Varieties

Because of how closely the languages of the Jivaroan family are related, they are often thought of as to make up a
dialectal continuum A dialect continuum or dialect chain is a series of Variety (linguistics), language varieties spoken across some geographical area such that neighboring varieties are Mutual intelligibility, mutually intelligible, but the differences accumulat ...
, in which
Achuar The Achuar are an indigenous people of the Americas belonging to the Jivaroan family, alongside the Shuar, Shiwiar, Awajun, and Wampis (Perú). They are settled along the banks of the Pastaza River, Huasaga River, and on the borders between Ec ...
and
Shiwiar Shiwiar, also known as ''Achuar'', ''Jivaro'' and ''Maina'', is a Chicham language spoken along the Pastaza and Bobonaza rivers in Ecuador. Shiwiar is one of the thirteen indigenous languages of Ecuador. All of these indigenous languages are en ...
are related closely enough to be classified under an umbrella term of Achuar-Shiwiar, while speakers of Huambisa are able to distinctly recognize the differences in dialect. Therefore, speakers of Huambisa consider it a distinct language. Some possible subgroups of the Huambisa language include varieties such as that of the Upper Santiago, Middle Santiago, Katirpisa, and Morona. David Beasley and Kenneth L. Pike (1957) claim that sometimes with linguistic variation there is slight aspiration and that allophones are voiced following nasal consonants. Their studies are specific to the Wachiycu dialect. In a more recent dissertation written by Jaime Germán Peña, who did field research in communities in Kanus along the Santiago River studying the Santiago regional dialect, he opposes the appearance of any voiced mergers in said dialectal region.


Phonology

Huambisa is phonetically related to
Aguaruna Aguaruna may refer to: * Aguaruna people, an ethnic group of Peru * Aguaruna language Aguaruna (or as native speakers prefer to call it, ) is an indigenous American language of the Chicham family spoken by the Aguaruna people in Northern Peru ...
. The Huambisa language has been studied as a subject of
sound symbolism In linguistics, sound symbolism is the perceptual similarity between speech sounds and concept meanings. It is a form of linguistic iconicity. For example, the English word ''ding'' may sound similar to the actual sound of a bell. Linguistic ...
, which connects words through their phonological form to their semantic meanings. It is found in the Huambisa language correspondence among connotations of sounds relative to the words they describe within
phoneme A phoneme () is any set of similar Phone (phonetics), speech sounds that are perceptually regarded by the speakers of a language as a single basic sound—a smallest possible Phonetics, phonetic unit—that helps distinguish one word fr ...
s, meaning the sounds of the language are not only significant literally, but also symbolically. Much of what is known of Huambisan phonetics is specific to the Wachiycu dialect spoken along the Wachiyacu River and the dialect of the Santiago River region.


Consonants

The Huambisa language has 14
consonant In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract, except for the h sound, which is pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract. Examples are and pronou ...
s, the majority of which are
voiceless In linguistics, voicelessness is the property of sounds being pronounced without the larynx vibrating. Phonologically, it is a type of phonation, which contrasts with other states of the larynx, but some object that the word phonation implies v ...
. The language has only one series of stops and
affricates An affricate is a consonant that begins as a stop and releases as a fricative, generally with the same place of articulation (most often coronal). It is often difficult to decide if a stop and fricative form a single phoneme or a consonant pai ...
, consisting of 4 stops, /p/, /ṯ/, /k/, /ʔ/, and 2 affricates, /t͡s/ and /t͡ʃ/, of which the principal
allophone In phonology, an allophone (; from the Greek , , 'other' and , , 'voice, sound') is one of multiple possible spoken soundsor '' phones''used to pronounce a single phoneme in a particular language. For example, in English, the voiceless plos ...
s are voiceless and
unaspirated In phonetics, aspiration is a strong burst of breath that accompanies either the release or, in the case of preaspiration, the closure of some obstruents. In English, aspirated consonants are allophones in complementary distribution with thei ...
. In fact, articulation, as opposed to whether phonemes are voiced or voiceless, is the primary means of distinguishing between phonological consonants. There are 3
fricatives A fricative is a consonant produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together. These may be the lower lip against the upper teeth, in the case of ; the back of the tongue against the soft palate in t ...
, /s/, /ʃ/, /h/, 3
nasal consonant In phonetics, a nasal, also called a nasal occlusive or nasal stop in contrast with an oral stop or nasalized consonant, is an occlusive consonant produced with a lowered velum, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. The vast majo ...
s, /m/, /n/, /ɲ/, one rhotic phoneme that alternates between the flapped and an
approximant Approximants are speech sounds that involve the articulators approaching each other but not narrowly enough nor with enough articulatory precision to create turbulent airflow. Therefore, approximants fall between fricatives, which do prod ...
, º in which variation is entirely individual but the flap is most common, and one approximant
semivowel In phonetics and phonology, a semivowel, glide or semiconsonant is a sound that is phonetically similar to a vowel sound but functions as the syllable boundary, rather than as the nucleus of a syllable. Examples of semivowels in English are ''y ...
/j/ that has a very limited use in the language except for as a part of the third-person past-tense suffix, ''-ji''. The most recent work published on the Huambisa language considers the other two semivowels to be allophones, being the positional allophonic realization of /u/, and /ɰ/ being that of /ɨ/.The following table gives the known consonant sounds of the Huambisa language, with pronunciation in
IPA IPA commonly refers to: * International Phonetic Alphabet, a system of phonetic notation ** International Phonetic Association, the organization behind the alphabet * India pale ale, a style of beer * Isopropyl alcohol, a chemical compound IPA ...
transcription.


Vowels

The Huambisa language contains 8 vowels: the 4 oral vowels /a, i, ɨ, u/, and their nasal counterparts, /ã, ĩ, ɨ̃, ũ/, respectively. Huabisan vowels are characterized solely by "height, frontness/backness, and oral/nasal prosody." The following table shows the Huambisa vowel system of oral vowels and their nasal counterparts with pronunciation in IPA transcription.


Phonotactics

Consonants are usually found in onset of the syllable, with the exception of /r/, /ɲ/ and /ʔ/. The only consonants to ever occupy the coda are the nasals /n/ and /m/.


Grammar


Morphology

There is marked difference of significance between words with even the slightest morphological variation, and these specific words are paired with specific contexts.


Syntax

The language contains a complete set of grammar rules, including three unclear forms of verbs characterized by distinct suffixes which are added to root verbs like a form of conjugations. The suffix ''-tasa'' is intentionally added to a root word to form a verb, while the suffices ''-mu'' and ''-t'' indicate the verb is being nominalized or adjectified. The latter suffix, ''-t'', is not commonly found in informal exchanges. The reason the verb forms have been deemed unclear by some scholars is because of inconsistency between root and suffix relationships. In some cases a single root verb can have various distinct meanings when the three different forms of suffices are added to the end. For example: ''takastasa'' (to work), ''takamu'' (completion/completed), and ''takat'' (cultivation/cultivated). In other cases a root word, no matter the suffix, retains a distinct meaning and instead follows the pattern described that is similar to conjugation. For example, ''atsaktsa, atsakamu, atsakat'' are verbal and nominal/adjective forms, respectively, of the root word "affiliate." The Huambisa language also contains two forms of nouns that also are not bound to strict syntactical rules. The only distinctly recognized suffix pattern for nouns is the suffix ''-n'' which represents nominalization or the
accusative case In grammar, the accusative case ( abbreviated ) of a noun is the grammatical case used to receive the direct object of a transitive verb. In the English language, the only words that occur in the accusative case are pronouns: "me", "him", "he ...
of a noun. However, even with nominalization and in the accusative case, there are irregular suffices other than ''-n''.


Vocabulary

The Huambisa language has a wide vocabulary that has been extensively documented in the last century. The Huambisan lexicon is said to be similar to that of the Aguaruna language as well. The breadth of the Huambisa vocabulary can be mainly attributed to speakers' specification of context in their word choice. For example, the English verb "to open" applies to a wide range of objects which it can be acting upon, while the Huambisa lexicon contains at least 5 different words which mean "to open," all of which then have at least 3 conjugative forms. The word used is dependent on very specific contextual features. ''Uritsa/uraimu/urat'' refers to opening things like a bag, book, door, etc. Ijakratsa/ijakeamu/jakat and nakaktasa/nakamu/nakat refer to opening fruits like peanuts, cacao, sapota, etc. "To open" when referring to opening the eyes is iimtasa/iimiamu/iimat and the word "open" used to talk about opening the mouth is ''wagkatsa/wagkamu/waat,'' while to say "to make open the mouth" has a different word set entirely: ''iwagtasa/iwagmu/iwat''.


Notes


External links


A Grammar of Wampis
University of Oregon The University of Oregon (UO, U of O or Oregon) is a Public university, public research university in Eugene, Oregon, United States. Founded in 1876, the university is organized into nine colleges and schools and offers 420 undergraduate and gra ...
dissertation {{Languages of Peru Languages of Peru Indigenous languages of the South American Northern Foothills Chicham languages