| Nukak | |
| Nativename: | Guaviare |
| Pronunciation: | pronounced as /[nɨkák náuʔ]/ |
| States: | Colombia |
| Region: | Department of Guaviare, Amazon Basin |
| Ethnicity: | Nukak |
| Speakers: | 700 of Nukak proper |
| Date: | 2010 |
| Ref: | e18 |
| Speakers2: | 400 monolinguals (no date) |
| Familycolor: | American |
| Fam1: | Puinave-Maku?[1] [2] |
| Fam2: | Northwestern Puinave-Maku |
| Fam3: | Nukak-Kakwa |
| Dia1: | Wayari, Meu, Taka, Mi'pa |
| Nation: | In Colombia it is recognized as an official language within the Nukak territory |
| Agency: | Instituto Colombiano de Antropología e Historia |
| Iso3: | mbr |
| Glotto: | kaku1242 |
| Glottorefname: | Kakua–Nukak |
| Notice: | IPA |
| Map: | Nukak.png |
The Nukak language (Guaviare) is a language of uncertain classification, perhaps part of the macrofamily Puinave-Maku. It is very closely related to Kakwa.[3]
There are six oral and six nasal vowels.[4]
| Front | Central | Back | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Close | pronounced as /ink/ pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ pronounced as /ink/ | |
| Mid | pronounced as /ink/ pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ pronounced as /ink/ | ||
| Open | pronounced as /ink/ pronounced as /ink/ |
The vowel pronounced as /[u]/ becomes the labial semivowel pronounced as /[w]/ in several environments: in postnuclear position (when it appears immediately after the nuclear vowel of a morpheme), before another vowel, and at the beginning of the word or syllable. The semivowel pronounced as /[w]/ is devoiced (IPA symbol pronounced as /[ʍ]/) if the tone rises and the following vowel is pronounced as /[i]/, pronounced as /[ĩ]/, pronounced as /[ɨ]/.
The vowel pronounced as /[i]/ becomes the palatal semivowel pronounced as /[j]/ in postnuclear position.
Nasalization in Nukak language is a prosodic property of the morpheme that affects all segments within each morpheme except voiceless stops. Each morpheme is either completely nasal or completely oral.
There are eleven consonant phonemes: pronounced as //p//; pronounced as //b// (realized as pronounced as /link/ with a nasal vowel, otherwise as pronounced as /[mb]/ at the start of a word, and as pronounced as /[bm]/ at the end of a word); pronounced as //t//; pronounced as //d// (realized as pronounced as /link/ with a nasal vowel, otherwise as pronounced as /[nd]/ at the start of a word, and as pronounced as /[dn]/ at the end of a word); pronounced as //tʃ// (realized as pronounced as /link/ or pronounced as /link/ in free variation); pronounced as //ɟ// (realized as pronounced as /link/ in a nasal environment); pronounced as //k//; pronounced as //ɡ// (realized as pronounced as /link/ in a nasal environment); pronounced as //ɺ// (lateral sonorant, alternating with the approximant pronounced as /link/, the tap pronounced as /link/, and the lateral approximant pronounced as /link/); pronounced as //h//; pronounced as //ʔ// (the glottal stop).
The following table of consonant phonemes shows each phoneme followed by the corresponding letter in the Nukak alphabet, where different.
| Bilabial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Occlusive | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ (c) | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ (') | ||
| pronounced as /ink/ ~ pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ ~ pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ ~ pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ ~ pronounced as /ink/ | ||||
| Continuant | pronounced as /ink/ (r) | pronounced as /ink/ | |||||
pronounced as //ɺ// is pronounced pronounced as /link/ when followed by pronounced as //t// and pronounced as /link/ when preceded by a voiced consonant. If pronounced as //ɟ// is preceded by pronounced as /link/ or pronounced as /link/, it is pronounced voiceless pronounced as /link/. With some infixes or prefixes, pronounced as //ʔ// is replaced by pronounced as //n// when it is followed by any vowel or pronounced as //h// or in nasal pronounced as /link/ suffixes.
The voiced palatal allophones pronounced as /link/ ~ pronounced as /link/ can be considered variants of the vowel pronounced as /link/ when they precede a vowel in the initial position of a root or of an affix, or when they lie between two vowels.
The nuclear vowels of nouns, verbs, and adjectives bear tone. Nukak has two tonemes (minimal pairs exist between them): high (H) and rising (LH). In the surface phonology there are also a low tone and a falling tone. The rising and falling tones are accompanied by lengthening of the vowel, however, the falling tone has been analyzed as actually being the allomorph of the high tone in closed syllables ending in pronounced as /[h]/ or an occlusive consonant, except pronounced as /[t]/ or in morpheme final open syllables. Unaccented syllables always bear the low tone (toneless).
The high and rising tones occur only in monosyllabic, monomorphemic lexemes. Multisyllabic morphemes are stressed on the first syllable.
The default word order in sentences is subject–object–verb (SOV). In any case, the subject always precedes the object. Verbs are conjugated for person. The language is agglutinative. The grammatical and lexical meanings expressed by prepositions in the Indo-European languages are expressed by suffixes in Nukak. Adjectives, which are not inflected for grammatical gender, usually follow their head noun.
The Nukak nouns are marked for gender, number, and case. There are two grammatical genders. The plural of animate nouns is indicated with the suffix -wɨn. Case markers include the following:
accusative -na
dative -ré' ("to")
instrumental -hî' ("with")
locative -rí' ("in", "by")
genitive -î ' ("of", "belongs to")
Depending on the noun lexeme, the vocative case is expressed by a tone change; by the suffix -a; or by duplicating the nuclear vowel after the root final consonant.
Nouns can take tense suffixes, e.g., -hîpî' , "that [masculine] which came before", and a question suffix, -má' . The connective formative -tɨ expresses either coordination with another noun, i.e., "also", or the clause conjunction, "and".
Noun classifying suffixes are common: -na' (long and slender), -da' "small and round", -dub "small, slender, and pointed", -nɨi "flat and thin", -ne "long-haired", -yi "abundant, profuse".
| Singular, subject | Singular, object | Plural, subject | Plural, object | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| First (I, we) | wéem | wéna | wíit | wítta | |
| Second (you sg., you pl.) | méem | ména | yéeb | yebmna | |
| Third masculine | close to speaker | nin | ninna | kéet | kéeta |
| less close to speaker but visible | kan | kanna | kéet | kéeta | |
| far from speaker, not visible | kun | kunna | kéet | kéeta | |
| Third feminine | close to speaker | nin' | nin'na | kéet | kéeta |
| less close to speaker but visible | kan' | kan'na | kéet | kéeta | |
| far from speaker, not visible | kun' | kun'na | kéet | kéeta | |
Possessive pronouns are free forms: wî' "mine", mí' "yours singular", aî' "his", mi'î' "hers", wîi' "our", ñí' "yours plural, i'î' "theirs". The relations "my, your, her", etc. are expressed with prefixes on the possessed noun: wa "my", ma "your singular", a, "his", mi "her", hi "our", ñi "your plural", i "their". In conjugation, the same prefixes are agent (subject) markers. They occur either with or without personal pronouns.
déi ("what?" "which" referring to things), de pán "what?" referring to actions, háu'ka, de'e "who?", déimɨnɨ "when?", ded "where?", jáu' why?". They combine with various other markers, e.g., case suffixes: the allative de' yúkú "towards where?", the instrumental de'e hin "with whom?", the genitive de'e î' "whose?". Interrogatives combine with tense markers as in jáu' ra' ("due to what?" + recent past).
Verbs are conjugated with a subject prefix and with suffixes and infixes expressing aspect (continuous, immediate); tense (past, present, future) and mood (imperative, desiderative, interrogative). For example:
Past -nábé
Future -nátu'
dubitative -náhitu'
Conditional -'náno'
imperfect -náka
negative -kaná
continuing -né'
Interrogative
past -yáa
future -pî'
conditional -no'pî'
present -ráa'
negative -ka
Desiderative -iná- ("perhaps")
Planeative -ɨí' - ("to plan" an action)
Repetitive -pî- ("repeatedly")
Agentive -rít ("because", "due to")
The imperative mood is formed by duplicating the last vowel of the verb stem, after the root final consonant or semivowel. The vowels [u] and [i] are pronounced as semivowels [w], [j] when duplicated after the final consonant.
The past imperfect is formed by suffixing to the stem the duplicate of the last vowel in the stem plus [p]: (-VC-Vp). The combination of the past imperfect suffix with the marker -tí´ marks a past subjunctive: jɨm "to be"; jɨmɨ "may have been",; past imperfect jɨmɨp "was"; subjunctive preterite jɨmɨptí´ "if it were".
Verbal negation is expressed in different ways: with the suffix -ka, which comes between the verb root and the tense, mood, and aspect markers; with certain prefixes to the verb stem; with the words yab´ , "no", dɨi´ , "refuse", îí´ , "without effect" . Negative commands have a specific marker, -kê´ .
There are many compound verbs. The elements may be two or more verb roots or they may be a verb root plus a noun, adjective, or adverb. The marker -a converts an intransitive verb root into a transitive verb.
Verbs are nominalized with the suffixes -hát, the abstract idea of the action, -pe' , the affected object, participle. The agent of the action is indicated with the agentive ("actance") prefix and a suffix expressing person and number. The agentive suffixes are -ni' for the first person, second person, and third person singular feminine; -ni for the third person singular masculine; and -nit for the third person plural. To these may be added the marker for imminence, currently in progress, or emphasis, -yé' .
All verb roots end in a consonant or semivowel. The meaning "to be" can be expressed in two ways: explicitly with the verb jɨm or tacitly through the various interrogative markers along with the personal pronouns, and occasionally with another verb, yit, which has the emphatic form yittí' , "I am".
The Nukak language has many adverb forms. Various adverbs are important in the construction of sentences. For example, they frequently use hébáká "indeed", and for even greater insistence, -yé' is suffixed. The verbal link tɨtíma'hî "after" can occur between the subject and the object and verb. Morphologically, some adverbs are independent words; these can follow nouns, like hattí' "also", "neither", "yet". There are some adverbial suffixes, e.g., -hê' "only", "precisely".
Kútu' "Hey!", "Attention!" is an exclamation said in order to begin to speak. Other exclamatory words or phrases are hâré "Be careful!" or dɨpí hâré "Be very careful!"; waá'yé' "Enough!; be'bét yé' "Hurry up!"; ni'kábá'í' "That's it!".