| Achagua | |
|---|---|
| Achawa | |
| Native to | Colombia |
| Ethnicity | Achagua people |
| Native speakers | 250 (2000) |
| Language family | Arawakan
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | aca Achagua |
| Glottolog | acha1250 Achaguapona1251 Ponares |
| ELP | Achagua |
 | |
Achagua, or Achawa (Achagua: Achawa), is an Arawakan language spoken in the Meta Department of Colombia, similar to Piapoco. It is estimated that 250 individuals speak the language, many of whom also speak Piapoco or Spanish.
"Achagua is a language of the Maipurean Arawakan group traditionally spoken by the Achagua people of Venezuela and east-central Colombia."
A "Ponares" language is inferred from surnames, and may have been Achawa or Piapoco.
There is 1 to 5% literacy in Achagua.
Phonology
Consonants
| Labial | Dental/ Alveolar |
Retroflex | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive/ Affricate |
voiceless | p | t | tʃ | k | ||
| voiced | b | d | |||||
| Nasal | m | n | |||||
| Fricative | s̪ | ʝ | h | ||||
| Trill | r | ||||||
| Approximant | w | ɭ | |||||
- /n/ is realized as [ɲ] when preceding palatal consonants.
- /k/ is palatalized [kʲ] when preceding /i/.
- Sounds /b, d/ are preglottalized [ˀb, ˀd] within accented syllables or after accented syllables.
- /b/ is realized as [β] when occurring intervocalically.
- /w/ is realized as [β] when preceding /i/.
- /s̪/ is realized as [ʃ] when preceding /i/.
- /ʝ/ is heard as an affricate [dʒ] in word-initial positions. It can also be realized as a glide [j] freely in intervocalic positions.
- /ɭ/ can be heard as a flap [ɾ] in free variation before /i/.
Vowels
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| High | i | u | |
| Mid | e | o | |
| Low | a |
Notes
- ^ Achagua at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
- Neira, Alonso de. "The Art and Vocabulary of the Achagua Language". World Digital Library. Archived from the original on 2013-06-05. Retrieved 2013-05-23.
- Lozano, Miguel Ángel Meléndez (2000). Esbozo grammatical de la lengua achagua. Lenguas indígenas de Colombia: una visión descriptiva: Santafé de Bogotá: Instituto Caro y Cuervo. pp. 625–640.
External links
- Neira, Alonso de. "Arte y bocabulario de la lengua achagua: Doctrina christiana, confessionario de uno y otro sexo e instrucción de cathecumenos". World Digital Library. Retrieved 2013-05-23.
- Dryer, Matthew S.; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2013). "Achawa language". World Atlas of Language Structures Online. Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
- OLAC resources in and about the Achagua language
- Achagua on Native Languages of the Americas
- Listen to a sample of Achagua from Global Recordings Network
- The Archive of Indigenous Languages of Latin America https://www.ailla.utexas.org/islandora/search/Achagua?type=dismax
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| Arawakan (Maipurean) languages | |||||||||||||||||
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