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Chipaya language


Chipaya is a native South American language of the Uru-Chipaya language family. The only other language in the grouping, Uru, is considered by some to be a divergent dialect of Chipaya. Some linguists have proposed connections to the Arawakan or even Mayan languages, but so far neither of these arguments has much acceptance in the linguistic community. Ethnologue lists the language vitality as "vigorous," with 1200 speakers out of an ethnic population of around 1800. Chipaya has been influenced considerably by Aymara, Quechua, and more recently, Spanish, to the extent that linguistists estimate only 67% of the Chipaya vocabulary is genuinely pure Chipayan.

The Chipayan language is spoken in the area south of Lake Titicaca along the Desaguadero River in the mountains of Bolivia and mainly in the town of Santa Ana de Chipaya located in the Atahuallpa Province of the Bolivian department of Oruro north of Coipasa Salt Flats. Native speakers generally refer to it as Puquina or Uchun Maa Taqu ("our mother language"). Uru-Chipaya is an agglutinating language, but has features uncommon to most language of this type, according to preliminary research by the organization DOBES.

Phonology

Consonants

Consonant Clusters

Multiple possibilities are separated by slashes, and optional elements are enclosed in parentheses.

Possible syllable onsets are:

(s/s) + p + (h)

(s/s/sh) + k/q + (h/h/x/x)

s/s + p/k/k/q/q/h/h/m/n

t + h/h/x/x

'/c/ch/l+ h

Possible syllable codas are:

h/x+ p/t/k/q/l/l/r+ (t) h/x+ k/q+ (t) Consonant+ t

Vowels

Vowels have continental values for a, , e, i, o, , and u. Each vowel can be short, e.g., a, or long, e.g., a' .

External links

Entry for Chipaya at Rosetta Project

DoBeS - Chipaya Language

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This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Chipaya language


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