Arhuaco language

Not to be confused with Ika language (Nigeria).
Arhuaco
Ikʉ
Native to Colombia
Ethnicity 14,800 Arhuacos (2001)[1]
Native speakers
 8,000 (2009)[2]
Chibchan

  • Arwako–Chimila

    • Arwako languages
      • Arhuaco
Language codes
ISO 639-3 arh
Glottolog arhu1242[3]

Arhuaco, commonly known as Ikʉ, is an Indigenous American language of the Chibchan language family, spoken in South America by the Arhuaco people.[4]

It has 14,800 speakers, all in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta region of Colombia, 90% of whom are monolingual.[4] Literacy is 1 to 5% in their native language. Some speak Spanish, and 15 to 25% are literate in that auxiliary language.[4] The users have a very strong traditional culture and have vibrant use of their tongue.[4]

It is also known as: Aruaco, Bintuk, Bíntukua, Bintucua, Ica, Ijca, Ijka, Ika, and Ike.[4]

The language uses a subject–object–verb (SOV) sentence structure.[4]

Phonology

Vowels
Back vowels Central vowels Front vowels
Open vowels i ɨ "ʉ" u
Mid vowels e ə "ë" o
Close vowels a

/ə/ is raised to and merged with /ɨ/ word finally.

Consonants

This language registers 17 consonant phonemes:

Labial Alveolar Alveolo-palatal Velar Glottal
occlusive (voiceless) p t tʃ k ʔ
occlusive (voiced) b d dʒ ɡ
nasal m n~ŋ
fricative s h
fricative β "w" z ʒ
flap ɾ

References

Frank, Paul. 1985. A grammar of Ika. PhD thesis. University of Pennsylvania.

Frank, Paul. 2000. Ika syntax. Dallas, TX: Summer Institute of Linguistics.

Landaburu, Jon. 2000. La lengua Ika. in Lenguas indigenas de Colombia: Una visión descriptiva. Bogota: Instituto Caro y Cuervo.

External links

Notes

  1. ↑ Arhuaco language at Ethnologue (16th ed., 2009)
  2. ↑ Arhuaco at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
  3. ↑ Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin; Bank, Sebastian, eds. (2016). "Arhuaco". Glottolog 2.7. Jena: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Arhuaco, by Arango and Sánchez, Ethnologue, 1998, access date 04-16-08
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