Palikúr language

Not to be confused with Karipuna language (disambiguation).

Palikúr (Brazilian Portuguese: Palicur, French: Palikur) is an Arawakan language of Brazil and French Guiana. Knowledge of French and Portuguese is common, and French Guianese Creole is used as the common language among the tribes in the area and with the local population. Palikúr is considered endangered in French Guiana and vulnerable in Brazil.^[2][3]

Palikúr
Karipuna
Pa'ikwené, Pa'ikwaki
Native to	Brazil, French Guiana
Ethnicity	Palikur
Native speakers	1,500 (2000–2010)[1]
Language family	Arawakan Northern Palikuran Palikúr
Language codes
ISO 639-3	plu
Glottolog	pali1279
ELP	Palikur

Phonology

Consonants

Consonant phonemes

		Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Plosive	voiceless	p	t		k
	voiced	b	d		ɡ
Fricative			s	ʃ		h
Nasal		m	n
Glide		w		j

• Plosives in word-final position are heard unreleased as [p̚, t̚, k̚, b̚, d̚, ɡ̚].
• /p/ can be heard as [v] or [β] when before close vowels /i, u/, or within intervocalic positions.
• /t, d, n/ when before front vowels /i, ĩ/ are heard as palatal and post-alveolar sounds [tʃ, dʒ, ɲ].

Vowels

Vowel phonemes

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i ĩ		u ũ
Mid	e ẽ		o õ
Open		a ã

• /e, o/ are heard as [ɛ, ɔ] within different positions.
• /a/ is heard as a nasalized central vowel sound [ɐ̃] when preceding a nasal consonant.^[4]

Loanwords

Palikúr has several loanwords, many of which are wildlife-related, from the Carib language, including:^[5]

English	Palikúr	Carib
Sloth	waikuli	waikore
Anteater	tamanua	tamaanuwa
Giant armadillo	malulaima	manuraimo
Paca	urana	urana
Agouti	kuʃiwai	akusiwai
Peccary	pakira	pakiira
Coati	kuwaʃ	kuwasi
Otter	saruru	sarooro
Squirrel monkey	akarma	akarima
Pied tamarin	kusiri	kusiri
Spider monkey	kuwata	kuwata
Hummingbird	tukusi	tukuʔsi
Juruti	wilusi	werusi
Thrush	kuwaswi	kurasiwai
Southern American bushmaster	urukru	urukuku
Tortoise	wajamu	wajaamu
Giant Amazonian ants	irakrĩ	irako

Pronouns

Palikúr has dependent and independent personal pronouns.^[5] The verb marks the object by using suffixes, but not the subject, which must appear in the form of a nominal group or as an independent pronoun. This affixation of only the object and not of the subject is linguistically very rare: the norm is the affixation for both or for only the subject. The noun complement is marked by a possessive prefix.^[3]

Palikúr	English	Prefixes Noun, Relation, Subject of Verb	Suffixes Object of verb	Independent Pronouns
1sg	I	n(u)-	-(u)n	náhu
2sg	you (singular)	pi-	-pi	písu
3msg	he	ri-	-ri	irV
3fsg	she	ru-	-ru	erV
1pl.incl	we (inclusive)	u-	-wi	wísu
1pl.excl	we (exclusive)	w(a)-		u-su
2pl	you (plural)	ji-	-ji	jí-su
3pl	they	ri-...-kisV, ru-...-kisV	-rikisV, rukisV	irV-kisV

References

1. Palikúr at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
2. Rosélis Remor de Souza Mazurek (2016). "Mapping in the Oiapoque Indigenous Territories". Revue d'ethnoécologie (9). doi:10.4000/ethnoecologie.2701. Archived from the original on 2023-02-14. Retrieved 2021-03-27.
3. "Le palikur". Sorosoro (in French). Archived from the original on 13 July 2021. Retrieved 27 March 2021.
4. da Silva, Elissandra Barros (2016). A Língua Parikwaki (Palikur, Arawak): Situação Sociolinguística, Fonética e Fonologia. Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro.
5. Ramirez, Henri (17 March 2021). Enciclopédia das línguas Arawak acrescida de seis novas línguas e dois bancos de dados (in Brazilian Portuguese). Editora CRV. ISBN 9786555788822.

External links

• Lev, Michael; Stark, Tammy; Chang, Will (2012). "Phonological inventory of Palikúr". The South American Phonological Inventory Database (version 1.1.3 ed.). Berkeley: University of California: Survey of California and Other Indian Languages Digital Resource.