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Muinane language
Muinane is an indigenous American language spoken in western South America.
Classification
Muinane belongs to the Witotoan language family. Along with Bora, it comprises the Boran sub-grouping.
Geographic distribution
Muinane is spoken by 150 people in Colombia along the Upper Cahuinari river in the Department of Amazonas. There may be some speakers in Peru.
Phonology
Consonants
Voiceless stops and affricates contrast with their geminate counterparts: .
Vowels
Tone
There are two tones in Muinane: high and low.
Grammar
Word order in Muinane is generally SOV. Case marking is nominative-accusative.
Writing System
Muinane is written using a modified version of the Latin alphabet. A chart of symbols with the sounds they represent as is follows:
Palatalized consonants are written using the unpalatalized forms plus y: ty , dy , ry . For the purposes of alphabetization, these are considered sequences of letters.
Tone is not generally indicated in writing. When it is shown, it is indicated by an acute accent over the vowel: a, e, i, , o, u.
The Muinane writing system is based on that of Spanish. For that reason, the sound is written as c before a, , o, and u and as qu before e and i. Likewise, the sound is written as gu before e and i, and g elsewhere.
External links
Entry for Muinane at Rosetta Project
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This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Muinane language
