Yucuna language

Yucuna (Jukuna), also known as Matapi, Yucuna-Matapi, and Yukunais,^[1] is an Arawakan language spoken in several communities along the Mirití-Paraná River in Colombia.^[2] Extinct Guarú (Garú) was either a dialect or a closely related language. Yucuna is a polysynthetic language, and it uses SVO word order.^[3]

Yucuna
Jukuna
Native to	Colombia
Region	Miritiparaná River
Native speakers	1,800 (2001)[1]
Language family	Arawakan Northern Upper Amazon Western Nawiki Yucuna
Dialects	Guarú † ?
Language codes
ISO 639-3	ycn
Linguist List	qqj (Guarú)
Glottolog	yucu1253  Yucuna guar1294  Guaru
ELP	Yucuna

The Matapi, a Tucanoan people, lived at the headwaters of the Popeyacá and Yapiyá, tributaries to the Miriti River and Apaporis River but most may have been sold as slaves or moved to Brazil. The remainder joined the Yucuna.^[4]

Phonology

The Yucuna phoneme inventory consists of 16 consonants and 5 vowels.^[5]

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i		u
Mid	e		o
Open		a

Consonants

		Bilabial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal		m	n	ɲ ⟨ñ⟩	(ŋ)[a]
Plosive	unaspirated	p	t	t͡ʃ ⟨ch⟩	k ⟨c/qu⟩[b]	ʔ ⟨'⟩
	aspirated	pʰ ⟨ph⟩	tʰ ⟨th⟩
Fricative			s			h ⟨j⟩
Approximant		w ⟨hu⟩	l	j ⟨y⟩
Tap			ɾ ⟨r⟩

1. /ŋ/ occurs as an allophone of /n/ before /k/.
2. /k/ can be written ⟨qu⟩ before front vowels, and ⟨c⟩ otherwise.

See also

• Cariban languages