Nomatsiguenga language explained

Nomatsiguenga
Nativename:inato
States:Perú
Ethnicity:Machiguenga
Speakers:6,500
Date:2003
Ref:e18
Familycolor:American
Fam1:Arawakan
Fam2:Southern
Fam3:Campa
Fam4:Matsigenka
Iso3:not
Glotto:noma1263
Glottorefname:Nomatsiguenga

Nomatsiguenga (Matsigenka) is an Arawakan language of Peru. It is close enough to Machiguenga to sometimes be considered dialects of a single language, especially given that both are spoken by the Machiguenga people. Most speakers are monolingual.

Phonology

According to Lawrence, Nomatsiguenga has the following consonant and vowel phonemes.

! Bilabial! Dental! Alveo-
palatal
! Velar! Glottal! Unspecified
Nasalpronounced as /link/ (m) pronounced as /link/ (n) pronounced as /link/ (ng, n) N (n, m)
Voicelesspronounced as /link/ (p) pronounced as /link/ (t) pronounced as /link/ (k)
Voicedpronounced as /link/ (b) pronounced as /link/ (g)
Fricativepronounced as /link/ (s) pronounced as /link/ (sh) pronounced as /link/ (h)
Affricatepronounced as /link/ (ts) pronounced as /link/ (ch)
Liquidpronounced as /link/ (r)
Semivowelpronounced as /link/ (y)

The archiphoneme (N) is the only consonant that can appear word-medially or in a syllable coda.

Front! colspan=2
CentralBack
Highpronounced as /link/ (i) pronounced as /link/ (ii) pronounced as /ɨi/ (ë)
Midpronounced as /link/ (e) pronounced as /link/ (ee) pronounced as /link/ (o) pronounced as /link/ (oo)
Lowpronounced as /link/ (a) pronounced as /link/ (aa)

The diphthong pronounced as //ɨi// does not have a long counterpart, nor does it pattern with the other phonemic diphthongs.

Nomatsiguenga has three phonemic diphthongs: pronounced as //ai//, pronounced as //ei//, and pronounced as //oi//.

Grammar

Nomatsiguenga is one of the few languages in the world that has two different causative mechanisms to denote whether the causer was involved in the activity with the causee or not. The prefix ogi- is used to express the idea that the causer was not involved in the activity, while the suffix -hag is used when the causer is involved.[1]

References

Notes and References

  1. Book: Wise, M. R. . Handbook of Amazonian languages . Mouton de Gruyter . 1986 . Derbyshire . D. C. . 1 . Berlin . 567–642 . Grammatical characteristics of PreAndine Arawaken languages of Peru . Pullum . G. K.. Cited in Book: Dixon, R. M. W. . 2000 . A Typology of Causatives: Form, Syntax, and Meaning . Dixon . R. M. W. . Aikhenvald . Alexendra Y. . Changing Valency: Case Studies in Transitivity . Cambridge University Press.