Omagua is a Tupi-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 () 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 ca 103,000 km2. The mean annual dis ...

and

Jutaí River The Jutaí River () 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 the Amazon Ri ...

, and in the vicinity of the

Aguarico River The Aguarico River (, 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 marks the Ecuadorian-Peruvian border. It empties into the Napo River. It has a le ...

, 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 towns of

Coari Coari (''Choary'') is a municipality located in the Brazilian state of Amazonas. Geography The municipal seat of Coari is one of the largest cities of the Amazonas state. It is the seat of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Coari. The area has r ...

and

Tefé Tefé, known in early accounts as Teffé, is a Municipalities of Brazil, municipality in the state of Amazonas (Brazilian state), Amazonas, northern Brazil. History As early as 1620 the Portuguese Carmelites could already boast of converts amo ...

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

Jesuit The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

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 In phonetics, a bilabial consonant is a labial consonant articulated with both lips. Frequency Bilabial consonants are very common across languages. Only around 0.7% of the world's languages lack bilabial consonants altogether, including Tling ...

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 * M ...

! Post-
alveolar !

Palatal The palate () is the roof of the mouth in humans and other mammals. It separates the oral cavity from the nasal cavity. A similar structure is found in crocodilians, but in most other tetrapods, the oral and nasal cavities are not truly sepa ...

Velar Velar may refer to: * Velar consonant Velar consonants are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue (the dorsum) against the soft palate, the back part of the roof of the mouth (also known as the "velum"). Since the velar region ...

! Labial-
velar !

Uvular Uvulars are consonants articulated with the back of the tongue against or near the uvula, that is, further back in the mouth than velar consonants. Uvulars may be stops, fricatives, nasals, trills, or approximants, though the IPA does not prov ...

, - !

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 (, ), lip ...

, , , , , , , , - !

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 (from 'hissing') are fricative and affricate 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 w ...

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 pai ...

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

fricative 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 ...

, , , , , , , , - !

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 ...

, , , , , , , , - ! 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 Quechua may refer to: *Quechua people, several Indigenous ethnic groups in South America, especially in Peru *Quechuan languages, an Indigenous South American language family spoken primarily in the Andes, derived from a common ancestral language ...

Vowels

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

Front Front may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''The Front'' (1943 film), a 1943 Soviet drama film * '' The Front'', 1976 film Music * The Front (band), an American rock band signed to Columbia Records and active in the 1980s and ...

! Near-front ! Central !

Back The human back, also called the dorsum (: dorsa), is the large posterior area of the human body, rising from the top of the buttocks to the back of the neck. It is the surface of the body opposite from the chest and the abdomen. The vertebral c ...

, - !

Close Close may refer to: Music * ''Close'' (Kim Wilde album), 1988 * ''Close'' (Marvin Sapp album), 2017 * ''Close'' (Sean Bonniwell album), 1969 * "Close" (Sub Focus song), 2014 * "Close" (Nick Jonas song), 2016 * "Close" (Rae Sremmurd song), 201 ...

, , , , , - ! Near-close , , , , , - !

Open Open or OPEN may refer to: Music * Open (band), Australian pop/rock band * The Open (band), English indie rock band * ''Open'' (Blues Image album), 1969 * ''Open'' (Gerd Dudek, Buschi Niebergall, and Edward Vesala album), 1979 * ''Open'' (Go ...

, , , , 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

Historical and modern distribution

Genesis of Omagua

Phonology

Consonants

Vowels

See also

References

Bibliography

Further reading

External links