Catio language

Not to be confused with Old Catio language.

Catío Emberá (Catío, Katío) is an indigenous American language spoken by the Embera people of Colombia and Panama.^[2]

Catío
Emberá-Catío
Native to	Colombia, Panama
Native speakers	(15,000 cited 1992)[1]
Language family	Chocoan Emberá Northern Catío
Language codes
ISO 639-3	cto
Glottolog	embe1260
ELP	Emberá-Catío

The language was spoken by 15,000 people in Colombia, and a few dozen in Panama, according to data published in 1992.^[2] 90 to 95% of the speakers are monolingual with a 1% literacy rate.^[2] The language is also known as Eyabida, and like most Embera languages goes by the name Embena 'human'.^[2]

Writing system

Catio is written with the Latin script.^[3]

Vowels

a

ã

e

ẽ

i

ĩ

o

õ

u

ũ

ʉ

ʉ̃

Consonants

m

k

b

p

t

ch

s

z

g

j

r

rr

d

n

y

w

ñ

Phonology

Consonants

Consonants^[4]

		Bilabial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Plosive/ Affricate	aspirated	pʰ	tʰ	t͡ʃʰ	kʰ
	ejective	pʼ	tʼ	t͡ʃʼ	kʼ
	voiced	b	d	d͡ʒ
Fricative	aspirated		sʰ			h
	ejective		sʼ
Nasal		m	n
Rhotic	trill		r
	tap		ɾ
Semivowel		w

Vowels

Vowels^[4]

	Front	Central	Back
			unrounded	rounded
High	i ĩ		ɯ ɯ̃	u ũ
Mid	e ẽ		o õ
Low		a ã