Warekena language
Arawakan language spoken in Brazil and Venezuela From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Warekena (Guarequena), or more precisely Warekena of Xié, is an Arawakan language of Brazil and of Maroa Municipality in Venezuela, spoken near the Guainia River. It is one of several languages which go by the generic name Baré and Baniwa/Baniva – in this case, distinguished as Baniva de Maroa or Baniva de Guainía.
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There may be 10 speakers in Brazil and 200 in Venezuela, per Aikhenvald (1999).
Kaufman (1994) classified it in a Warekena group of Western Nawiki Upper Amazonian, Aikhenvald (1999) in Eastern Nawiki.
Personal pronouns in Warekena are formed by adding an emphatic suffix -ya to the cross-referencing personal prefixes.[3]
Phonology
Consonants
Vowels
Grammar
Unmarked constituent order is AVO, VSo, SaV, or SioV.[3]
AVO:
wa-hã
then-PAUS
waʃi
jaguar
yutʃia-hã
kill-PAUS
ema
tapir
"Then the jaguar killed the tapir"
VSo:
ʃupe-hẽ
many-PAUS
ʃiani-pe
child-PL
"Children are many"
SaV:
peya
one
nu-yaɺitua
1sg-brother
wiyua
die
"One of my brothers dies"
SioV:
nu-yue
1sg-for
mawali
hungry
"I am hungry"
Indirect objects tend to be placed immediately after the predicate.
References
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