Omagua is a Tupí-Guarani language closely related to Cocama, belonging to the Group III subgroup of the Tupí-Guaraní family, according to Aryon Rodrigues' classification of the family. Alternate names for Omagua include: Agua, Anapia, Ariana, Cambeba, Cambeeba, Cambela, Campeba, Canga-Peba, Compeva, Janbeba, Kambeba, Macanipa, Omagua-Yete, Pariana, Umaua, Yhuata.

Historical and modern distribution

When Europeans first arrived in the western Amazon Basin in significant number in the late 17th and early 18th century, Omagua was spoken by approximately 100,000 individuals in two major areas: along the Amazon River proper, between the mouths of the

Napo River The Napo River ( es, Río Napo) is a tributary to the Amazon River that rises in Ecuador on the flanks of the east Andean volcanoes of Antisana, Sincholagua and Cotopaxi. The total length is . The river drains an area of . The mean annual discha ...

and

Jutaí River The Jutaí River ( pt, Rio Jutaí) is a river in Amazonas state in north-western Brazil. Course The river flows through the Juruá-Purus moist forests ecoregion. The Jutaí river runs northeast before reaching its mouth on the southern bank of ...

, and in the vicinity of the

Aguarico River The Aguarico River ( es, Río Aguarico, meaning "rich water") is a river in northeastern Ecuador. It is the main river of the Sucumbíos province. In the last part of its course it is the Ecuadorian-Peruvian border. It empties into the Napo Riv ...

, a tributary of the upper Napo River. At this time, then, Omagua speakers lived in regions corresponding to modern eastern Peruvian Amazonia, western Brazilian Amazonia, and eastern Ecuadoran Amazonia. These Omagua populations were decimated by disease, Portuguese slave raids, and conflicts with Spanish colonial authorities during the early 18th century, leaving them drastically reduced. As of 2011, Omagua was spoken by "fewer than ten elderly individuals" in Peru, and by a number of semi-speakers near the town of

Tefé Tefé, known in early accounts as Teffé, is a municipality in the state of Amazonas, northern Brazil. Location Tefé is located about 525 km by air or 595 km by river to the west of Manaus on the south bank of the Rio Solimões (th ...

in Brazil, where the language is known as Cambeba (Grenand and Grenand 1997).

Genesis of Omagua

Comparative work by Cabral (1996) demonstrated that Omagua (and its sister language Cocama) exhibit significant grammatical restructuring effects due to intense language contact between a Tupí-Guaraní language and speakers of one or more non-Tupí-Guaraní languages. Rodrigues and Cabral (2003) further suggest that Cocama (and by extension, Omagua) could be considered the outcomes of rapid creolization. Cabral (1996) argued that this language contact transpired in the late 17th century in

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mission settlements, while Michael (2014)Michael, Lev . 2014. "On the Pre-Columbian Origin of Proto-Omagua-Kokama." ''Journal of Language Contact'' 7(2):309{344.
/ref> argues that the language contact situation responsible for the genesis of Omagua and Cocama transpired during the Pre-Columbian period.

Phonology

Consonants

{, class="wikitable" style="text-align:center" , + Consonants of Omagua ! ! Bilabial !

Alveolar Alveolus (; pl. alveoli, adj. alveolar) is a general anatomical term for a concave cavity or pit. Uses in anatomy and zoology * Pulmonary alveolus, an air sac in the lungs ** Alveolar cell or pneumocyte ** Alveolar duct ** Alveolar macrophage * ...

! Post-
alveolar ! Palatal ! Velar ! Labial-
velar ! Uvular , - !

Plosive In phonetics, a plosive, also known as an occlusive or simply a stop, is a pulmonic consonant in which the vocal tract is blocked so that all airflow ceases. The occlusion may be made with the tongue tip or blade (, ), tongue body (, ), lips ...

, , , , , , , , - !

Nasal Nasal is an adjective referring to the nose, part of human or animal anatomy. It may also be shorthand for the following uses in combination: * With reference to the human nose: ** Nasal administration, a method of pharmaceutical drug delivery ** ...

, , , , , , , , - !

Sibilant Sibilants are fricative consonants of higher amplitude and pitch, made by directing a stream of air with the tongue towards the teeth. Examples of sibilants are the consonants at the beginning of the English words ''sip'', ''zip'', ''ship'', and ...

affricate 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 pair. ...

, , () , () , , , , , - ! Sibilant fricative , , , , , , , , - !

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 produce a ...

, , , , , , , , - ! Tap/flap , , , , , , , Omagua has thirteen consonants across five places of articulation. /ts/ and /tʃ/ only occur in a small number of words: /tʃ/ may have entered the inventory through loanwords from Cocama or Quechua.

Vowels

{, class="wikitable" style="text-align:center" , + Vowels of Omagua ! !

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! Near-front !

Central Central is an adjective usually referring to being in the center of some place or (mathematical) object. Central may also refer to: Directions and generalised locations * Central Africa, a region in the centre of Africa continent, also known as ...

! Back , - ! Close , , , , , - ! Near-close , , , , , - ! Open , , , , Omagua has five vowels: /i, ɪ, ɨ, u, a/. This is somewhat unusual, as there are four high vowels but only one low vowel (/a/).

References

Bibliography

*Cabral, Ana Suelly. 1995. Contact-induced language change in the Western Amazon: The non-genetic origin of the Kokama language. University of Pittsburgh, PhD dissertation. * . *Grenand, F. and P. Grenand. 1997. Thesaurus de la langue omawa (famille tupi-guarani, Brésil): Analyse comparée des données disponibles entre 1782 et 1990. Chantiers Amerindia. Paris: Centre d’Etudes des Langues Indigènes d’Amérique (CELIA); Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS). *

External links

OLAC resources in and about the Omagua language
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Omagua Dialect Tupi–Guarani languages Languages of Peru Languages of Brazil Endangered Tupian languages