Rikbaktsa language explained

Rikbaktsá
Nativename:	erigpaksá
Ethnicity:	1,140 Rikbaktsa people (2006)
Speakers:	40
Date:	2010
Ref:	e18
Familycolor:	American
Iso3:	rkb
Glotto:	rikb1245
Glottorefname:	Rikbaktsa
Map:	Rikbaktsa language.png

The Rikbaktsa language, also spelled Aripaktsa, Erikbatsa or Erikpatsa and known ambiguously as Canoeiro, is a language spoken by the Rikbaktsa people of Mato Grosso, Brazil, that forms its own branch of the Macro-Gê languages.

As in other languages of the area, word endings indicate the gender of the speaker.^[1] Rikbaktsa is a subject-object-verb language.

Most Rikbaktsa can speak both Rikbaktsa and Portuguese. Younger individuals tend to speak Portuguese more frequently and fluently than their elders, but older individuals generally struggle with Portuguese and use it only with non-indigenous Brazilians.^[1]

Jolkesky (2016) also notes that there are lexical similarities with the Cariban languages.^[2]

Locations

The 22nd edition of Ethnologue reports that it is spoken around confluence of the Sangue River and Juruena River in:

Japuira on the east bank of the Juruena River, between the Arinos River and Sangue River
Posto Escondido on the west bank of the Juruena River (9 villages, 14 settlements)

Phonology

Vowels!!Front!Central!Back
Close	i	ɨ	u
Close-mid	e		o
Mid		ə
Open		a

Nasal vowels!!Front!Central!Back
Close	ĩ	ɨ̃	ũ
Close-mid	ẽ		õ
Mid		ə̃
Open		ã

/i, u/ can be heard as [ɪ, ʊ] when in syllable-final position.
/e, o/ can be heard as [ɛ, ɔ] when in unstressed syllables.
/a/ is heard as [ʌ] in final unstressed syllables, as [æ] when following /tʃ/ heard as [tʃʲ], and as [ɑ] when occurring after the sequence /ku/.

!Labial!Alveolar!Palato-
alveolar!Retroflex!Palatal!Velar!Glottal
Stop	voiceless	p	t				k	(ʔ)
Stop	voiced	b	d
Affricate				t͡ʃ
Fricative				ʃ				h
Nasal		m	n
Approximant		w				j
Flap			ɾ		ɽ

A glottal stop [ʔ] can also be heard in initial and final position when before and after vowels.
/d/ can be palatalized as [dʲ] when before /i/.
/t͡ʃ/ can be palatalized as [t͡ʃʲ] when in front of /a/.
/p, k/ can be heard as aspirated [pʰ, kʰ] when before an accented syllable.
/k/ can be heard as voiced [ɡ] when before voiced consonants.
/w/ can be heard as [β] when in stressed syllable before front vowels.
Sounds /ɾ, w, h/ can be heard as nasal [ɾ̃, w̃, h̃] when in nasal vowel positions.^[3]

Vocabulary

Loukotka (1968) lists the following basic vocabulary items.^[4]

gloss	Erikbaktsa
one	aistuːba
ear	ka-spi
tooth	írata
hand	ka-shuisha
woman	matutsi
water	pihʔik
fire	idoː
stone	harahairi
maize	uanátsi

Notes and References

Arruda, Rinaldo S.V. "Rikbaktsa: Language." In Encyclopedia of Indigenous Peoples in Brazil. Instituto Socioambiental (November 1998).
Jolkesky . Marcelo Pinho de Valhery . 2016 . Estudo arqueo-ecolinguístico das terras tropicais sul-americanas . Ph.D. dissertation . Brasília . University of Brasília . 2.
Book: Silva, Leia de Jesus . Aspectos da fonologia e a morfologia da língua Rikbaktsa . Universidade de Brasília . 2005.
Book: Loukotka, Čestmír . Čestmír Loukotka . Classification of South American Indian languages . registration . UCLA Latin American Center . 1968 . Los Angeles.