Bribri language

Bribri, also known as Bri-bri, Bribriwak, and Bribri-wak, is a Chibchan language, from a language family indigenous to the Isthmo-Colombian Area, which extends from eastern Honduras to northern Colombia and includes populations of those countries as well as Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama. As of 2002, there were about 11,000 speakers left.^[2] An estimate by the National Census of Costa Rica in 2011 found that Bribri is currently spoken by 54.7% of the 12,785 Bribri people, about 7,000 individuals.^[3] It is a tonal language whose word order is subject–object–verb.

Bribri
Talamanca
Su Uhtuk
Native to	Costa Rica
Region	Limón province: Talamanca cantón, along Lari, Telire, and Uren rivers Puntarenas province: Buenas Aires cantón
Ethnicity	12,200 Bribri (2000)[1]
Native speakers	7,000 (2011)[1]
Language family	Chibchan Talamanca Bribri
Dialects	Coroma Amubre Salitre
Official status
Recognised minority language in	Costa Rica
Language codes
ISO 639-3	bzd
Glottolog	brib1243
ELP	Bribri
[image reference needed]

Map showing dialects of Bribri

There are three traditional dialects of Bribri: Coroma (in the western region of the Talamanca mountain range), Amubre (in the eastern region of the Talamanca mountain range) and Salitre (in the South Pacific area). Bribri is a tribal name, deriving from a word for 'mountainous' in their own language. The Bribri language is also referred to as Su Uhtuk, which means 'our language'.^[4] Bribri is reportedly most similar to sister language Cabécar as both languages have nasal harmony, but they are mutually unintelligible.^[5]

Phonology

Consonants

	Bilabial	Dental	Alveolar	Postalveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	m		n		ɲ
Plosive	p   b		t   d			k	ʔ
Affricate		t͡k	t͡s	t͡ʃ	ɟ͡ʝ
Fricative			s	ʃ			h
Flap			ɾ
Glide	w				j

• /b/ can have allophones of [β, m].
• /d/ can have an allophone of [ɽ], as well as nasal allophones of [ɽ̃, n].
• /ɟ͡ʝ/ can have an allophone of [ɲ].
• /ɾ/ can have an allophone of [r].
• /w, j/ can have nasalised allophones of [w̃, j̃].^[6]

Vowels

I, u and a are pronounced in the same manner as they would be in Spanish. E and o are more open than in Spanish. The sound of ë is between i and e, in the same manner as ö is between u and o. The nasal vowels are pronounced similarly to the corresponding orals, with the addition of some air exiting through the nose.

Vowels

		Front	Central	Back
High	oral	i		u
	nasal	ĩ		ũ
Near-high		ɪ		ʊ
Mid-low	oral	ɛ		ɔ
	nasal	ɛ̃		ɔ̃
Low	oral		a
	nasal		ã

Spanish examples of oral vowels:

yì ¿quién?		ù casa
yë padre, papá		tö sí
ye' yo		só cucaracha
	awá médico

Spanish examples of nasal vowels:

mĩ madre, mamá		ũ olla
sẽ eso, ese		mõ nube
	ã en; para

Alphabet

The Linguistics Department at the University of Costa Rica has conceived a standardized spelling system that is based on several earlier attempts.^[7]

Bribri sign in a restaurant in Bribrí in Talamanca, Costa Rica. Translation: "I'm hungry, I'm going to eat."

Majuscule forms (also called uppercase or capital letters)

A

B

D

CH

E

Ë

I

J

K

L

M

N

Ñ

O

Ö

P

PP

R

RR

S

SH

T

TT

TCH

TS

U

Y

ʼ

Minuscule forms (also called lowercase or small letters)

a

b

d

ch

e

ë

i

j

k

l

m

n

ñ

o

ö

p

pp

r

rr

s

sh

t

tt

tch

ts

u

y

ʼ

Nasal vowels are indicated by a tilde: ⟨ã, ẽ, ĩ, õ, ũ⟩ (Previously indicated with a macron below: a̱, e̱, i̱, o̱, u̱), except after a nasal consonant (already indicating nasalisation of the vowel).

Tones are indicated by the grave accent for the high tone and the acute accent for the low tone; these can also be placed on the nasal vowels.

See also

• Bribri Sign Language