Mapoyo-Yabarana language

Mapoyo, or Mapoyo–Yavarana, is a Carib language spoken along the Suapure and Parguaza Rivers, Venezuela. The ethnic population of Mapoyo proper is about 365. Yabarana dialect is perhaps extinct; 20 speakers were known in 1977.^[1] An additional dialect, Pémono,^[2] was discovered in 1998. It was spoken by an 80-year-old woman and has since gone extinct.

Mapoyo
Mapoyo–Yavarana
Native to	Venezuela
Region	Suapure River
Ethnicity	520 Mapoyo & Yabarana (2007)[1]
Extinct	Last speaker of Pemono after 1998. A few semi-speakers of Mapoyo proper (2007), 20 Yabarana (1977)[1]
Language family	Carib Venezuelan Carib Mapoyo–Tamanaku Mapoyo
Language codes
ISO 639-3	Variously: mcg – Mapoyo yar – Yabarana pev – Pémono
Glottolog	mapo1245
ELP	Yawarana
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Phonology

Consonants

	Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Stop	p	t		k	ʔ
Nasal	m	n	ɲ
Fricative	β	s			h
Rhotic		ɾ
Approximant	w		j

• /h/ can be heard as a palatal [ç] when preceding a voiceless plosive.
• /n/ can be heard as a velar [ŋ] when preceding a velar /k/.
• /β/ can be heard as a voiced stop [b], when after a voiceless plosive or glottal /ʔ/.
• /s/ can be heard with an allophone of [ts] when word-initially, or after a glottal /ʔ/.
• /j/ can be heard as a voiced fricative [ʝ], when before a back vowel.

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
High	i	ɨ	u
Mid	e	ɘ	o
Low		a

• Sounds /i, u/ are reduced to [ɪ, ʊ] in syllable-final position.
• /ɘ/ is heard as a lower [ə] sound when preceding /h/, or following /β/.
• /a/ is heard as [ɑ] when occurring after an initial bilabial sound.^[3]

References

1. Mapoyo at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
   Yabarana at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
   Pémono at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
2. Not the same as Pemon
3. Medina, Francia (1997). Introducción a la Fonética y a la Fonología Mapoyo (Caribe). Caracas: Universidad Central de Venezuela.

• Granadillo, Tania. 2019. El mapoyo y la rama venezolana de lenguas caribes. Cadernos de Etnolingüística, volume 7, número 1, julho/2019, p. 43-55.

External links

• Yabarana word list