Itonama language

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Itonama is a moribund language isolate once spoken by the Itonama people in the Amazonian lowlands of north-eastern Bolivia. It was spoken on the Itonomas River and Lake[1] in Beni Department.

In Magdalena town on the western bank of the Itonama River (a tributary of the Iténez River), located in Iténez Province, only a few elderly people remember a few words and phrases.[2]Template:Rp

Language contact

Jolkesky (2016) notes that there are lexical similarities with the Nambikwaran languages due to contact.[3]

An automated computational analysis (ASJP 4) by Müller et al. (2013)[4] found lexical similarities between Itonama and Movima, likely due to contact.

Phonology

Vowels

Front Central Back
High Template:IPAlink Template:IPAlink
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Template:IPAlink
Mid Template:IPAlink ~ Template:IPAlink
Template:Angbr
Template:IPAlink
Low Template:IPAlink
Template:Angbr

Diphthongs: Script error: No such module "IPA". Template:Angbr.

Consonants

Bilabial Alveolar Post-
alveolar
Palatal Velar Glottal
Nasal Template:IPAlink Template:IPAlink
Plosive/
Affricate
plainScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". Template:IPAlink Template:IPAlink Template:IPAlink ~ Template:IPAlink
Template:Angbr
Template:IPAlink
Template:Angbr
Template:IPAlink
Template:Angbr
Template:IPAlink
Template:Angbr
ejectiveScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". Template:IPAlink Template:IPAlink ~ Template:IPAlink
Template:Angbr
Template:IPAlink
Template:Angbr
voicedScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". Template:IPAlink Template:IPAlink
Fricative Template:IPAlink Template:IPAlink
Liquid lateralScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". Template:IPAlink
rhoticScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". Template:IPAlink
Template:Angbr
Semivowel Template:IPAlink ~ Template:IPAlink
Template:Angbr
Template:IPAlink
Template:Angbr

The postalveolar affricates Script error: No such module "IPA". have alveolar allophones Script error: No such module "IPA".. Variation occurs between speakers, and even within the speech of a single person.

The semivowel Script error: No such module "IPA". is realized as a bilabial fricative Template:IPAblink when preceded and followed by identical vowels.[5]

Morphology

Itonama is a polysynthetic, head-marking, verb-initial language with an accusative alignment system along with an inverse subsystem in independent clauses, and straightforward accusative alignment in dependent clauses.

Nominal morphology lacks case declension and adpositions and so is simpler than verbal morphology (which has body-part and location incorporation, directionals, evidentials, verbal classifiers, among others).[6]

Vocabulary

Loukotka (1968) lists the following basic vocabulary items for Itonama.[1] They are shown here alongside the forms cited in the Intercontinental Dictionary Series (IDS).

gloss Itonama (Loukotka) Itonama (IDS)
one chash-káni ukʼa’ne
two chash-chupa -chupa
tooth huomóte ohwomotʼe
tongue páchosníla ohpochosnila
hand mapára uhmaʼpara
woman ubíka wabï’ka
water huanúhue wanu’we
fire ubári ubari
moon chakakáshka u’tyahka’ka’ka
maize udáme
jaguar ótgu
house úku uku

See also

Further reading

  • Camp, E. L.; Liccardi, M. R. (1967). Itonama, castellano e inglés. (Vocabularios Bolivianos, 6.) Riberalta: Summer Institute of Linguistics.

References

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External links

Template:Languages of Bolivia Template:Language families Template:South American languages Template:Jesuit Missions of Moxos

  1. a b Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  2. Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  3. Template:Cite thesis
  4. Müller, André, Viveka Velupillai, Søren Wichmann, Cecil H. Brown, Eric W. Holman, Sebastian Sauppe, Pamela Brown, Harald Hammarström, Oleg Belyaev, Johann-Mattis List, Dik Bakker, Dmitri Egorov, Matthias Urban, Robert Mailhammer, Matthew S. Dryer, Evgenia Korovina, David Beck, Helen Geyer, Pattie Epps, Anthony Grant, and Pilar Valenzuela. 2013. ASJP World Language Trees of Lexical Similarity: Version 4 (October 2013).
  5. Template:Cite Q
  6. Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".