Wapishana (Wapixana) is an Arawakan language of Guyana and Brazil. It is spoken by over 13,000 people on both sides of the Guyana-Brazil border.[2]
| Wapixana | |
|---|---|
| Native to | Guyana, Brazil |
| Ethnicity | Wapishana |
Native speakers | 13,000 (2000)[1] |
Arawakan
| |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | wap |
| Glottolog | wapi1253 |
| ELP | Wapixana |
In Brazil the highest concentration of Wapishana speakers are in the municipalities of Cantá and Bonfim, the Serra da Lua region, where it has been recognized as an official language since 2014.[3]
External pressures have diminished the use of Wapishana among younger generations, and it wasn't until 1987 that Wapishana was used as the teaching language in Indigenous schools of the language community. In 2009, Roraima Federal University created an extension program for learning Wapishana.[3] In Guyana, there are organizations for language preservation, such as Wapichan Wadauniinao Ati'o[4]
Cultural importance
editMany plants and animals endemic to the region are only known in Wapishana, and the language has a distinct system of taxonomy. An example is the three classes of plants, karam’makau, wapaurib bau and wapananinau, which are indicative of the "cultivation criteria" of the indigenous people. Karam’makau represents plants collected in the wild, whereas wapaurib bau is the plants that have been domesticated and often bear names based on the location or farmer of origin. Cassava, a foodstuff of major importance to indigenous people of the region, has a "bewildering variety of names" in Wapishana. Wapananinau are plants with magical properties, and have important functions for shamans of the traditional beliefs.[3]
Relation to other indigenous languages
editKaufman (1994) considered Wapishana, Atorada, and Mapidian to be dialects. Aikhenvald (1999) separates Mawayana/Mapidian/Mawakwa (considered as a single language) from Wapishana, and she includes them in a Rio Branco branch. Ethnologue notes that Atorada has 50% lexical similarity with Wapishana and 20% with Mapidian, and that Wapishana and Mapidian share 10%.[1] Ramirez (2020) considers Atorai to be a dialect of Wapishana.[5]: 33
Wapishana and Pemon, a Cariban language, have borrowed heavily from each other due to intensive mutual contact.[5]
Phonology
editConsonants
edit| Labial | Alveolar | Retroflex | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | voiceless | p | t | k | ʔ | ||
| voiced | b | ɖ | ɡ | ||||
| Affricate | tʃ | ||||||
| Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ||||
| Fricative | s | ʐ | ʃ | ||||
| Tap | ɽ | ||||||
| Semivowel | w | j | |||||
- Consonants /b ɖ ʐ/ in final position are heard as voiceless [p ʈ ʂ].[6]
Vowels
edit| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i iː | ɨ ɨː | u uː |
| Open | a aː |
Morphology
editWapishana personal affixes:[2] singular plural 1st person n-/m- -na wa- -wi 2st person ɨ-/i- -i ɨ- -wiko 3st person ɾ(ɨ/iʔ)- -sɨ na- -nu 3rd person refl. a-
Wapishana verbal affixes:[2] thematic -ta, -ɗa, -ɓa present -e reciprocal -(a)ka adjectival -ɾe, -ke
References
edit- ^ a b Wapixana at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
- ^ a b c Meira, Sérgio. 2019. A Study of the Genetic Relation between Mawayana and Wapishana (Arawakan Family). Revista Brasileira de Línguas Indígenas (RBLI), vol. 2, no. 1 (Jan.-Jun. 2019), pp. 70-104.
- ^ a b c Machado, Ananda; de Pinho, Rachel Camargo (2020), Leal Filho, Walter; King, Victor T.; Borges de Lima, Ismar (eds.), "Biodiversity and Knowledge Associated with the Wapishana People's Language: An Ethnolinguistic-Territorial and Conservation Case Study in the Amazon", Indigenous Amazonia, Regional Development and Territorial Dynamics: Contentious Issues, The Latin American Studies Book Series, Cham: Springer International Publishing, pp. 357–373, doi:10.1007/978-3-030-29153-2_15, ISBN 978-3-030-29153-2, retrieved 2021-03-15
- ^ "Wapishana Writers' Workshops and Literacy Tutor Training". SIL International. 2012-09-12. Retrieved 2021-03-15.
- ^ a b Ramirez, Henri (2020). Enciclopédia das línguas Arawak: acrescida de seis novas línguas e dois bancos de dados. Vol. 3 (1 ed.). Curitiba: Editora CRV. doi:10.24824/978652510234.4. ISBN 978-65-251-0234-4.
- ^ Manoel, Gomes dos Santos. Uma gramatica do Wapixana (Aruak) : aspectos da fonologia, da morfologia e da sintaxe. Universidade Estadual de Campinas. OCLC 697755100.
Bibliography
edit- Aikhenvald, Alexandra Y. (1999). "The Arawak language family". In Aikhenvald, Alexandra Y.; Dixon, R.M.W. (eds.). The Amazonian languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 65–106.
- Tracy, Frances V. (1974). "An Introduction to Wapishana Verb Morphology". International Journal of American Linguistics. 40 (2): 120–125. doi:10.1086/465294. S2CID 143605341.
External links
edit- Wapishana dictionary The Intercontinental Dictionary Series