Muinane is an indigenous American language spoken in Colombia.

Classification

Muinane belongs to the

Boran Boran (also spelled Buran, Middle Persian: ; New Persian: پوران‌دخت, ''Pūrāndokht'') was Sasanian queen (or ''banbishn'') of Iran from 630 to 632, with an interruption of some months. She was the daughter of king (or '' shah'') ...

language family, along with Bora.

Geographic distribution

Muinane is spoken by 150 people in Colombia along the Upper Cahuinarí river in the Department of Amazonas. There may be some speakers in Peru.

Phonology

Consonants

* Voiceless stops and affricates contrast with their

geminate In phonetics and phonology, gemination (), or consonant lengthening (from Latin 'doubling', itself from '' gemini'' 'twins'), is an articulation of a consonant for a longer period of time than that of a singleton consonant. It is distinct from ...

counterparts: .

Vowels

Tone

There are two tones in Muinane: high and low.

Grammar

Word order in Muinane is generally SOV. Case marking is nominative–accusative.

Writing System

Muinane is written using a

Latin alphabet The Latin alphabet or Roman alphabet is the collection of letters originally used by the ancient Romans to write the Latin language. Largely unaltered with the exception of extensions (such as diacritics), it used to write English and the ...

. A chart of symbols with the sounds they represent is as follows: *Palatalized consonants are written using the unpalatalized forms plus y: ty , dy , ry . For the purposes of alphabetization, these are considered sequences of letters. *Tone is not generally indicated in writing. When it is shown, it is indicated by an acute accent over the vowel: á, é, í, ɨ́, ó, ú. *The Muinane writing system is based on

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: ** Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Ca ...

orthography. For that reason, the sound is written as c before a, ɨ, o, and u and as qu before e and i. Likewise, the sound is written as gu before e and i, and g elsewhere.

References

Sources

* * {{Languages of Colombia Boran languages Languages of Colombia