Enawene Nawe language explained

Enawene Nawe language should not be confused with Salumá language.

Enawene Nawe
Nativename:Salumã
Region:Mato Grosso, Brazil
Ethnicity:Enawene Nawe people
Speakers:570
Date:2014
Familycolor:American
Fam1:Arawakan
Fam2:Southern
Fam3:Paresi–Xingu ?
Fam4:Paresi–Enawene Nawe ?
Iso3:unk
Glotto:enaw1238
Glottorefname:Enawené-Nawé

Enawene Nawe (Enawené-Nawé, Enawenê-Nawê, Eneuene-Mare), also known as Salumã, is an Arawakan language of Brazil spoken by about 570 people living in the Juruena River basin area, and more specifically along the Iquê river in the state of Mato Grosso.

Classification

Aikhenvald (1999) classifies Enawene Nawe as a South Arawak language together with Terena, Lapachu and Moxo.[1] However, more recent works by both Fabre (2005) and Brandão & Facundes (2007) consider the language to form a subgroup with Paresi in the Paresi–Xingu branch of Arawakan languages.

Comparison of personal pronouns betweenParesi and Enawene Nawe[2]
Person Paresi Enawene Nawe
natyo nato
hitso hixo
eze ere
witso wixo
xitso dexo
ezenae erenaha
Comparison of numbers
Number Paresi Enawene Nawe
one hatita xoxola
two hinama initini
three hanama koytala
four zalakakoa noxi
Comparison of other vocabulary
Word Paresi Enawene Nawe
to fall ezoa edoa
itch mare, mali wera
drink era, tera wesera
corn kozeto korito
eye zotse edose
house hati, hana hakolo
vulture oloho olohõ
night maka mikya
stone tsehali sairi
uncle koko kokore
sour katyala katala
basket koho tohe
bathe koaha nakohã
arrive kaoka takwa

Phonology

Consonants

Enawene Nawe is described by Zorthêa (2006) as having 15 contrastive consonants.[3]

!Labial!Alveolar!Post-alv./
Palatal!Velar!Glottal
Plosivepronounced as /ink/ (kw)pronounced as /ink/ (t)pronounced as /ink/ (ky)pronounced as /ink/ (k)
pronounced as /ink/ (d)
Nasalpronounced as /ink/ (m)pronounced as /ink/ (n)pronounced as /ink/ (ñ)
Flappronounced as /ink/ (r)
Fricativepronounced as /ink/ (s)pronounced as /ink/ (x)pronounced as /ink/ (h)
Approximantpronounced as /ink/ (w)pronounced as /ink/ (l)pronounced as /ink/ (y)

Among these, the following allophonic variations are reported:[4]

Type! Examples
(w)varies between pronounced as /link/ and pronounced as /link/ in word-initial position before the front vowels pronounced as //e// and pronounced as //i//
  • (wesera) "to drink": pronounced as /[weseɾa~beseɾa]/
  • (wera) "itch": pronounced as /[weɾa~beɾa]/
(m)varies between pronounced as /link/ and pronounced as /link/
  • (datamare) "(mythical character)": pronounced as /[datamaɾe~datawaɾe]/
  • (Alame) "(proper noun)": pronounced as /[alame~alawe]/
(d)varies between pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/ and pronounced as /link/
  • (datowa) "tomorrow": pronounced as /[datowa~latowa]/
  • (derohi) "ritual step": pronounced as /[deɾohi~leɾohi]/
  • (edoa) "to fall": pronounced as /[edoa~eɾoa]/
(r)varies between pronounced as /link/ and pronounced as /link/
  • (Kawari) "(proper noun)": pronounced as /[kawaɾi~kawali]/
  • (korito) "corn": pronounced as /[koɾito~kolito]/
(k)varies between pronounced as /link/ and pronounced as /link/ between vowels(nawenekota) "I think": pronounced as /[nawenekota~nawenegota]/
(ky)varies between pronounced as /link/ and pronounced as /link/ between vowels
(t)varies between pronounced as /link/ and pronounced as /link/ between vowels
  • (atana) "thunder": pronounced as /[atana~adana]/
  • (meta) "tickle": pronounced as /[meta~meda]/

Vowels

Enawene Nawe is described by Zorthêa (2006) as having 4 oral vowels and 4 nasal vowels.

Oral!! Front! Back
Near-Closepronounced as /ink/ pronounced as /ink/~pronounced as /ink/
Midpronounced as /ink/~pronounced as /ink/
Openpronounced as /ink/
Nasal!! Front! Back
Near-Closepronounced as /ink/ pronounced as /ink/~pronounced as /ink/
Midpronounced as /ink/~pronounced as /ink/
Openpronounced as /ink/

Grammar

Pronouns

Independent personal pronouns
PersonSingularPlural
1stnatowixo
2ndhixodexo
3rdereerenaha

Numerals

The first eleven numbers in Enawene Nawe are as follows:

Number Enawene Nawe
1 xoxola
2 initini
3 koytala
4 noxi
5 monarese,eswe
6 lolokwate
7 lolate
8 hoxiro
9 mamalakari
10 ketera
11 darayti

Zorthêa (2006) notes that all numbers except initini (2) and monarese (5) can be preceded and followed by affixes.

Affixes

Enawene Nawe makes use of a variety of suffixes and prefixes to derive different meanings from root words.

Gender suffixes

Zorthêa (2006) describes Enawene Nawe as having two suffixes to explicitly mark gender: -lo for the feminine gender and -re for the masculine. De Almeida (2015), however, notes four suffixes: -nero and -lo mark the feminine gender, while -nere and -li mark the masculine.

Examples from de Almeida (2015):

Place suffix

The suffix -kwa is used to mark places and is commonly found in village names. For example, the name of the Enawene Nawe village Matokodakwa is ultimately derived from matokoda, meaning "container for transporting liquids", and -kwa "place".

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Ana Paula Barros . Brandão . A reference grammar of Paresi-Haliti (Arawak) . 6–7 . 2014 . 2021-01-21 . 2020-11-30 . https://web.archive.org/web/20201130004720/https://amerindias.github.io/referencias/bra14referencegrammarparesi.pdf . live .
  2. Web site: Ana Paula Barros . Brandão . A documentação participativa: o caso das línguas Paresi-Haliti e Enawene Nawe . The participatory documentation: the case of the Paresi-Haliti and Enawene Nawe languages . pt . 101 . 2018 . 2021-01-21 . 2019-04-30 . https://web.archive.org/web/20190430033848/https://periodicos.ufpa.br/index.php/moara/article/download/6815/5380 . live .
  3. Web site: Kátia Silene . Zorthêa . Daraiti Ahã: Escrita alfabética entre os Enawene Nawe . Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso . pt . Daraiti Ahã: Alphabetical writing among Enawene Nawe . 2006 . 2021-01-21 . 2015-05-12 . https://web.archive.org/web/20150512224303/http://etnolinguistica.wdfiles.com/local--files/tese%3Azorthea-2006/zorthea_2006_daraiti.pdf . live .
  4. Web site: Juliana . de Almeida . Enawene-Nawe Wixo: Diferença e convivialidade na gestão sociopolítica do cosmos . pt . Enawene-Nawe Wixo: Difference and user-friendliness in the socio-political management of the cosmos . Universidade federal do Amazonas . 2015 . 2021-01-21 . 2021-01-28 . https://web.archive.org/web/20210128045724/https://tede.ufam.edu.br/bitstream/tede/4828/2/Disserta%C3%A7%C3%A3o%20-%20Juliana%20de%20Almeida.pdf . live .