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Kamëntšá language

Indigenous language of the Kamëntšá people of Colombia From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Kamëntšá language
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Kamëntšá, commonly rendered Camsá or Sibundoy in old sources,[3] is a language isolate and native language of the Kamëntšá people who primarily inhabit the Sibundoy Valley of the Putumayo Department in the south of Colombia.

Quick Facts Pronunciation, Native to ...
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Classification

Kamëntšá appears to be a language isolate. Researchers have tried connecting it to the Chibchan languages without success. Fabre reports that the Kamëntšá are descended, at least in part, from the Quillasinga [es], whose language is unattested.[4]

Language contact

Jolkesky notes that there are lexical similarities with the Choco languages due to contact.[5]

Varieties

Mason lists the following names as Coche (Mocoa) varieties.[6]

  • Sebondoy
  • Quillacinga
  • Patoco

Phonology

Consonants

More information Bilabial, Alveolar ...
  1. Only in loanwords

Howard and O'Brien call the retroflex phonemes in the above table retroflex, while Huber & Reed use the alveolo-palatal symbols. More specifically, Howard uses ⟨tṣ⟩ and ⟨ṣ⟩,[7] O'Brien uses ⟨tʂ⟩ and ⟨ʂ⟩,[8] and Huber & Reed use ⟨tɕ⟩ and ⟨ɕ⟩.[9]

Vowels

Huber & Reed, Howard, and O'Brien all analyze six vowel phonemes in Kamëntšá: /a/, /e/, /i/, /o/, /u/, and /ɨ/.[9][10][11] O'Brien notes that /ɨ/ has a limited distribution and is rarely found at the beginnings of words,[12] and that [i] in many cases may be an allophone of /e/ before palatal consonants.[13] Howard found that /i/ and /e/ fluctuate in some morphemes, as do /u/ and /o/.[14]

More information Front, Central ...
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Grammar

Kamëntšá is a polysynthetic language with prefixes and suffixes.[15] It also has dual number, which is unusual for languages around it.[16][15]

Vocabulary

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Huber & Reed's book provides a comparison between 68 indigenous languages of Colombia.[17] The following table provides the order of words in the book, along with glosses in English and Spanish. The Kamëntšá words follow their orthography, i.e., using ⟨tɕ⟩ and ⟨ɕ⟩ instead of ⟨ʈʂ⟩ and ⟨ʂ⟩.

More information no., English gloss ...
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Notes

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Bibliography

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