Tucano language

Tucano, also Tukano or Tucana, endonym ye’pâ-masa yee uúku͂sehé,^[3] is a Tucanoan language spoken in Amazonas, Brazil and Colombia.

Tucano
ye’pâ-masa yee uúku͂sehé
Native to	Brazil, Colombia
Ethnicity	Tucano people
Native speakers	4,600 in Brazil (2006)[1] 7,020 in Colombia (2012), including Pisamira[1]
Language family	Tucanoan Eastern North Tucano
Official status
Official language in	Brazil (São Gabriel da Cachoeira)
Language codes
ISO 639-3	Either: tuo – Tucano arj – Arapaso
Glottolog	tuca1252  Tucano arap1275  Arapaso
ELP	Tukano
	Arapaso[2]

Many Tariana people, speakers of the endangered Tariana language are switching to Tucano.

Phonology

Consonants

		Bilabial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Plosive	plain	p	t		k	ʔ
	voiced	b	d		ɡ
Nasal		(m)	(n)		(ŋ)
Fricative			s			h
Trill			r
Approximant		w		j

Nasal sounds [m n ŋ] are variants of voiced stops /b d ɡ/ between nasal vowels. Stops may also be heard as prenasalized [ᵐb ⁿd ᵑɡ] after nasal vowels. /w/ can be heard as a nasal bilabial semivowel [β̞̃] in the environment of nasal vowels. Allophones of /ɾ/ can be heard as [ɾ̃], [ɺ].^[4][5]

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
High	i ĩ	ɨ ɨ̃	u ũ
Mid	e ẽ		o õ
Low		a ã

See also

• Tucano people