Kogi language

Kogi (Cogui), or Kagaba (Cágaba) (Cogui: Kággaba), is a Chibchan language of Colombia. The Kogi people are almost entirely monolingual, and maintain the only unconquered Andean civilization.

Kogi
Kággaba
Native to	Colombia
Region	Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta
Ethnicity	Kogi
Native speakers	9,900 (2004)[1] nearly all monolingual
Language family	Chibchan Arwako–Chimila Arwako Kogi
Language codes
ISO 639-3	kog
Glottolog	cogu1240
ELP	Cogui

Phonology

Vowels^[2]

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i ĩ	ɨ ɨ̃	u ũ
Mid	e ẽ	ʌ	o
Open		a ã

• /e, ẽ/ can also be heard as [ɛ, ɛ̃] when in unstressed syllables.

Consonants

		Bilabial		Dental/Alveolar		Palatal	Velar		Glottal
		plain	geminated	plain	geminated		plain	geminated
Plosive	voiceless	p		t	tː		k	kː	ʔ
	voiced	b	bː	d	dː		g	gː
Fricative	voiceless			s		ʃ ⟨sh⟩	x ⟨j⟩		h
	voiced			z		ʒ ⟨zh⟩
Lateral				l
Nasal		m		n			ŋ ⟨ñ⟩
Approximant		w				j ⟨y⟩

• Affricate sounds [ts, dz, tʃ, dʒ] are heard when sibilant sounds /s, z, ʃ, ʒ/ precede /n/. If /t, d/ precede /i/ then they are realized as affricates [tʃ, dʒ].
• /n/ before /i/ may be realized as a palatal [ɲ].^[2]

References

1. Kogi at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
2. Gawthorne, Linda A.; Hensarling, Grace E. (1984). Fonología del cogui. Sistemas fonológicos de idiomas colombianos (V.G.Waterhouse, comp.): Lomalinda: Editorial Townsend.