Nomatsiguenga language

Nomatsiguenga (Matsigenka) is an Arawakan language of Peru. It is close enough to Machiguenga to sometimes be considered dialects of a single language, especially given that both are spoken by the Machiguenga people. Most speakers are monolingual.

Nomatsiguenga
inato
Native to	Peru
Ethnicity	Machiguenga
Native speakers	6,500 (2003)[1]
Language family	Arawakan Southern Campa Matsigenka Nomatsiguenga
Language codes
ISO 639-3	not
Glottolog	noma1263
ELP	Nomatsiguenga

Phonology

According to Lawrence, Nomatsiguenga has the following consonant and vowel phonemes.^[2]

Nomatsiguenga consonants

		Bilabial	Dental	Alveo- palatal	Velar	Glottal	Unspecified
Nasal		m ⟨m⟩	n ⟨n⟩		ŋ ⟨ng, n⟩		N ⟨n, m⟩
Stop	Voiceless	p ⟨p⟩	t ⟨t⟩		k ⟨k⟩
	Voiced	b ⟨b⟩			g ⟨g⟩
Fricative			s ⟨s⟩	ʃ ⟨sh⟩		h ⟨h⟩
Affricate			ts ⟨ts⟩	tʃ ⟨ch⟩
Liquid				ɾ ⟨r⟩
Semivowel				j ⟨y⟩

The archiphoneme ⟨N⟩ is the only consonant that can appear word-medially or in a syllable coda.^[3]

Nomatsiguenga vowels

	Front		Central		Back
High	i ⟨i⟩	iː ⟨ii⟩	ɨi ⟨ë⟩
Mid	e ⟨e⟩	eː ⟨ee⟩			o ⟨o⟩	oː ⟨oo⟩
Low			a ⟨a⟩	aː ⟨aa⟩

The diphthong /ɨi/ does not have a long counterpart, nor does it pattern with the other phonemic diphthongs.^[4]

Nomatsiguenga has three phonemic diphthongs: /ai/, /ei/, and /oi/.^[5]

Grammar

Nomatsiguenga is one of the few languages in the world that has two different causative mechanisms to denote whether the causer was involved in the activity with the causee or not. The prefix ogi- is used to express the idea that the causer was not involved in the activity, while the suffix -hag is used when the causer is involved.^[6]

y-ogi-monti-ë-ri

3MSG-CAUS1-cross.river-NFUT-3MSG

i-tomi

3MSG-son

y-ogi-monti-ë-ri i-tomi

3MSG-CAUS1-cross.river-NFUT-3MSG 3MSG-son

"He made his son cross the river (he told him to)."

y-monti-a-hag-ë-ri

3MSG-cross.river-E-CAUS2-NFUT-3MSG

i-tomi

3MSG-son

y-monti-a-hag-ë-ri i-tomi

3MSG-cross.river-E-CAUS2-NFUT-3MSG 3MSG-son

"He made his son cross the river (he helped him across)."