Wayampi language

Wayãpi or Wayampi (Waiãpi, Guayapi, Oiampí) is a Tupi–Guarani language spoken by the Wayãpi people. It is spoken in French Guiana and Brazil.

Wayãpi
Wayampi
Region	French Guiana, Brazil
Ethnicity	Wayãpi
Native speakers	(1,200 cited 2000)[1]
Language family	Tupian Tupi–Guaraní Northern Wayãpi
Language codes
ISO 639-3	oym
Glottolog	waya1270
ELP	Wayampí

Phonology

Consonants

Consonant phonemes^[2]

	Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar		Glottal
				plain	lab.
Nasal	m	n		ŋ
Plosive	p	t		k	kʷ	ʔ
Fricative		s				h
Lateral		l
Approximant	w		j

Vowels

Vowel phonemes^[3]

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i ĩ		ɯ ɯ̃	u ũ
Mid	e ẽ		o õ
Open		a ã

In closed syllables, /e, o/ are heard as [ɛ, ɔ].^[4]

Orthography

Wayãpi is spelt phonetically based on the International Phonetic Alphabet, and not according the French orthography.^[5] The spelling uses the letter ɨ for the close central unrounded vowel between i and u.^[6] E is always pronounced é, vowels with a tilde are always nasal (ã, ẽ, ĩ, õ, ũ), ö is like the German O umlaut, and b is pronounced mb. All letters are pronounced.^[6]