| Dâw | |
| Also Known As: | Kuri-Dou |
| States: | Brazil |
| Region: | Amazonas |
| Ethnicity: | Dâw people |
| Speakers: | 94 |
| Date: | 2004 |
| Familycolor: | American |
| Fam1: | Nadahup |
| Iso3: | kwa |
| Glotto: | daww1239 |
| Glottorefname: | Daw |
| Dia1: | Kurikuriaí (Kurikuriari) |
| Notice: | IPA |
Dâw is a Nadahup language spoken by about one hundred Dâw people in the northwestern part of Amazonas, Brazil, in an area commonly known as Alto Rio Negro. Most Dâw also speak Nheengatu and Portuguese.
An extinct variety, Kurikuria(r)í, named after the Curicuriari River, was a distinct language sociolinguistically, but at least partially intelligible with Dâw.
Dâw has 15 vowels:
| Front | Back | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unrounded | Unrounded | Rounded | ||
| Close | i, ĩ | ɯ, ɯ̃ | u, ũ | |
| Close-mid | e | ɤ | o | |
| Open-mid | ɛ, ɛ̃ | ɔ, ɔ̃ | ||
| Open | a, ã | |||
Vowels are laryngealized when occurring beside a glottal stop, as seen in the examples below.
pronounced as //ʔɛʔ/ [ʔɛ̰́ʔ]/ "large mouth"
pronounced as //nɯʔ/ [nɯ̰́ʔ]/ "to lack"
Vowel harmony in Dâw is seen primarily in two situations: in compounding and with the focus marker pronounced as //-Vʔ//, where V indicates a vowel. When combining two words with the first word having the syllable structure CVC, vowel harmony is not seen, e.g. pronounced as //pɔx// "high" + pronounced as //lã̌ʃ// "boat" = pronounced as //pɔxlã̌ʃ// "airplane". However, when combining two words with the first word having the syllable structure CV, vowel harmony is seen, e.g. pronounced as //xɔ̂// "canoe" + pronounced as //tɯm// "eye" = pronounced as //xɯtɯm// "sun". The vowel of the focus marker pronounced as //-Vʔ// is the same as the vowel of the syllable it is appended to, e.g. pronounced as //jɯ̂w// "blood" + pronounced as //-Vʔ// = pronounced as //jɯ̂wɯʔ//.
Dâw has 25 consonants:
| Bilabial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | Voiced | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ |
| Voiceless | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||
| Fricative | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||
| Nasal | Plain | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |
| Glottalized | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||
| Approximant | Plain | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||
| Glottalized | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||
Glottalized consonants are also laryngealized, as seen in the examples below.
pronounced as //wˀac/ [w̰ˀác̚]/ "oar"
pronounced as //ʃělˀ/ [ʃěːl̰ˀ̚]/ "banana"
The plosive consonants have no audible release as codas, e.g. pronounced as //pɤp// "to kick" is realized as pronounced as /[pɤp̚]/, and pronounced as //kɤɟ// "to scratch with the nail" as pronounced as /[kʼɤc̚]/. As onsets, pronounced as //c// and pronounced as //k// are realized as ejective consonants, i.e. pronounced as /[cʼ]/ and pronounced as /[kʼ]/, unlike the other plosive consonants, which are realized simply as plain consonants, e.g. pronounced as /[cʼóc̚]/ "without hair", pronounced as /[kʼɛ̃́k̚]/ "to hook".
Stress is fixed in Dâw, occurring on the last syllable of a word. A few suffixes in Dâw do not take the stress, however. The suffixes are divided into two groups, metric suffixes and extrametric suffixes. The former follows the general rule of stress on the last syllable, while the latter does not. See the examples below, where pronounced as //-ɔh// is a metric suffix, and pronounced as //-ĩh// an extrametric suffix.
pronounced as /[bɤ̀ˈjɤ̂ː]/ "to return"
pronounced as /[bɤ̀jɤ̂ːˈɔ́h]/ "return!"
pronounced as /[bɤ̀ˈjɤ̂ːĩ̀h]/ "is returning"
In Dâw there are either three or four tones, depending on analysis. There are a low tone, a high tone, a rising tone and a falling tone, marked by a grave accent, an acute accent, a caron and circumflex, respectively, but only the two latter are lexical. The low tone only occurs on syllables without stress, while the high tone only occurs on syllables with stress, and the rising and falling tones may occur on all syllables. As the low and high tones are not lexical, they are often left unmarked, as in pronounced as //tɤɡ// "tooth", which really is realized as pronounced as /[tɤ́ɡ̚]/.
Besides the lexical function of tone, tone may also function morphologically and syntactically. Consider the examples below, the first being morphological and the second being syntactical, showing how tone is used in a derivative manner and how tone is used to differentiate intransitive from transitive verbs.
pronounced as /[wɛ̂d̚]/ "to eat"
pronounced as /[wɛ̌d̚]/ "food"
pronounced as /[cʼɔ́ᵇm]/ "to bathe (oneself)"
pronounced as /[cʼɔ̂ːᵇm]/ "to bathe (someone)"
Vowel length is predictable and present in Dâw, yet not distinctive lexically. All vowels with a rising or falling tone are long, while all vowels without a tone are short.
The orthography used by the Dâw community is based on the Latin alphabet, with some correspondences coming from the Tukano language.[1] Note that glottalized consonants are marked with the apostrophe before the consonant when the phoneme appears at the beginning of a word, and after the consonant when it appears anywhere else. Long vowels (i.e., those with tone) are written with two of the same vowel (e.g. nuu', "rat"). When the circumflex or tilde are used with long vowels, only the first of the two is marked with the diacritic (e.g. dêeb).
| Grapheme | Phoneme | Dâw example | Meaning | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| pronounced as //a// | aʼ pronounced as //aʔ// | vessel (for holding liquids) | ||
| pronounced as //ã// | ãa pronounced as //ã̂ː// | to sleep | ||
| pronounced as //â// | âg pronounced as //ɤ// | to drink | ||
| pronounced as //b// | ba' pronounced as //baʔ// | cold | ||
| pronounced as //c// | çâk pronounced as //cɤk// | to jump | ||
| pronounced as //d// | dâw pronounced as //dɤw// | person, Dâw | ||
| pronounced as //ɛ// | e' pronounced as //ɛʔ// | to be big (of something with space inside) | ||
| pronounced as //ɛ̃// | ẽn pronounced as //ɛ̃n// | if | ||
| pronounced as //e// | ê pronounced as //e// | (interrogative marker) | ||
| pronounced as //g// | gid pronounced as //gid// | when (in some determined future) | ||
| pronounced as //i// | id pronounced as //id// | we | ||
| pronounced as //ĩ// | ĩw' pronounced as //ĩwˀ// | groin | ||
| pronounced as //ɟ// | jaay pronounced as //ɟâːj// | after | ||
| pronounced as //k// | kâat pronounced as //kɤ̌ːt// | to stand | ||
| pronounced as //l// | lôn pronounced as //lon// | frog | ||
| or | pronounced as //lˀ// | 'lôx pronounced as //lˀox// | to hang | |
| pronounced as //m// | mem pronounced as //mɛm// | butterfly | ||
| or | pronounced as //mˀ// | 'mãn pronounced as //mˀãn// | dolphin | |
| pronounced as //n// | nãm pronounced as //nãm// | today | ||
| or | pronounced as //nˀ// | 'nãm' pronounced as //nˀãmˀ// | to be dangerous | |
| pronounced as //ɲ// | nhã pronounced as //ɲã// | for what? | ||
| or | pronounced as //ɲˀ// | ʉnh' pronounced as //ɨɲˀ// | for hair to be curly | |
| pronounced as //ɔ// | ox pronounced as //ɔx// | to run, to escape | ||
| pronounced as //ɔ̃// | õot pronounced as //õ̌ːt// | to cry | ||
| pronounced as //o// | ôo pronounced as //ôː// | to smile, to laugh | ||
| pronounced as //p// | pis pronounced as //piʃ// | to be small | ||
| pronounced as //h// | ran pronounced as //han// | to appear | ||
| pronounced as //ʃ// | sãp pronounced as //ʃãp// | piece | ||
| pronounced as //t// | têk pronounced as //tek// | to punch | ||
| pronounced as //u// | ur pronounced as //uh// | same | ||
| pronounced as //ũ// | ũum pronounced as //ũ̂ːm// | to strike/hit/beat, to shoot | ||
| pronounced as //w// | wʉk pronounced as //wɨk// | to be dirty | ||
| or | pronounced as //wˀ// | 'wad pronounced as //wˀad// | rainbow | |
| pronounced as //x// | xêj pronounced as //xeɟ// | anteater | ||
| pronounced as //j// | yam pronounced as //jam// | to dance | ||
| or | pronounced as //yˀ// | 'yãm pronounced as //jˀãm// | dog | |
| pronounced as //ɨ// | ʉb pronounced as //ɨb// | to wake up | ||
| pronounced as //ɨ᷈// | ʉ᷈u pronounced as //ʉ᷈̂ː// | to growl |