Mawayana language
Arawakan language of South America
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Mawayana (Mahuayana), also known as Mapidian (Maopidyán), is a moribund Arawakan language of northern South America. It used to be spoken by Mawayana people living in ethnic Wai-wai and Tiriyó villages in Brazil, Guyana and Suriname.[5][2] As of 2015, the last two speakers of the language are living in Kwamalasamutu.[6][2]
| Mawayana | |
|---|---|
| Mapidian | |
| Native to | Brazil, Guyana and Suriname |
| Region | Kwamalasamutu (currently) |
| Ethnicity | Mawayana |
Native speakers | 2 (2015)[1][2] |
Arawakan
| |
| Dialects |
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | Either:mzx – Mawayanampw – Mapidian (duplicate code)[4] |
| Glottolog | mapi1252 Mapidian-Mawayanamawa1268 Mawakwa (retired) |
| ELP | Mawayana |
History
In the 1840s, the Mawayana were in contact with the Taruma, but both groups have amalgamated with the Wai-wai people, and those who joined have lost both their languages. Only two elderly women, who were part of a group of Mawayana who accompanied American missionaries to convert the Tiriyó people, and subsequently moved in with them,[7] still spoke the language in 2015, and their children did not speak Mawayana.[8] A few rememberers exist who do not use it on a daily basis.[9]
Classification
Aikhenvald (1999) lists Mawayana (and possibly Mawakwa as a dialect) together with Wapishana under a Rio Branco (North-Arawak) branch of the Arawakan family. Carlin (2006:314) notes that Mawayana "is closely related to Wapishana" and according to Ramirez (2001:530) they share at least 47% of their lexicon.
Phonology
Mawayana has, among its consonants, two implosives, /ɓ/ and /ɗ/, and what has been described as a "retroflex fricativised rhotic", represented with ⟨rž⟩, that it shares with Wapishana. The vowel systems contains four vowels (/i-e, a, ɨ, u-o/), each of which has a nasalised counterpart.[10]
Consonants
Vowels
Mawayana vowel phonemes:[5]
Vowels have both nasal and length contrast.
Morphology
Morphosyntax
Mawayana has a polysynthetic morphology, mainly head-marking and with suffixes, although there are pronominal prefixes. The verbal arguments are indexed on the verb through subject suffixes on intransitive verbs, while agent prefixes and object suffixes on transitive verbs.[11]: 319
n-kataba-sï
1A-grab.PST-3O
'I grabbed him.'
tõwã-sï
sleep.PST-3S
'He fell asleep.'
nnu
1PN
a-na
when-1S
mauɗa
die
chika-dza
NEG-COMPL
Mawayana
mawayana
'When I die there will be no Mawayana left at all.'
Verb roots
Verbal roots in Mawayana may be composed of at least one consonant (m- 'say', ch- 'do'), and the root must end in a consonant.[8]