Tsafiki, also known as Tsachila or Colorado, is a
Barbacoan language
Barbacoan (also Barbakóan, Barbacoano, Barbacoana) is a language family spoken in Colombia and Ecuador.
Genealogical relations
The Barbacoan languages may be related to the Páez language. Barbacoan is often connected with the Paezan languages ...
spoken in
Ecuador
Ecuador, officially the Republic of Ecuador, is a country in northwestern South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. It also includes the Galápagos Province which contain ...
by c. 2000 ethnic
Tsáchila
The Tsachila, also called the Colorados (meaning “the red-colored ones”), are an indigenous people of the Ecuadorian province of Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas, partly named after them. Their native language is Tsafiki, a member of the Ba ...
people.
Phonology
Consonants
* /b, d/ are preglottalized
b, ˀdwhen occurring intervocalically.
* /k/ can become voiced when intervocally after nasal sounds.
* /ɹ/ is heard as when occurring word-initially, and when following a nasalized vowel, an allophone
occurs.
* /s/ is heard as when preceding high vowels /i, u/ and after unaccented high vowels.
* /t͡s/ is heard as when preceding high vowels, but many speakers pronounce it as
͡ʃin all environments.
Vowels
Tsafiki has five vowels Four vowels have nasalized forms.
* Unaccented vowels before voiceless stops are often devoiced
Morphology
Evidentiality
Tsafiki has a four-way
evidentiality
In linguistics, evidentiality is, broadly, the indication of the nature of evidence for a given statement; that is, whether evidence exists for the statement and if so, what kind. An evidential (also verificational or validational) is the particul ...
system. Unmarked verbs indicate "direct" witness.
is used when it is inferred from physical evidence.
References
External links
Colorado(
Intercontinental Dictionary Series
The Intercontinental Dictionary Series (commonly abbreviated as IDS) is a large database of topical vocabulary lists in various world languages. The general editor of the database is Bernard Comrie of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary An ...
)
Languages of Ecuador
Endangered Barbacoan languages
Barbacoan languages
{{indigenousAmerican-lang-stub