Ticuna language explained

Tïcuna
Nativename:Duüxügu
States:Brazil, Colombia, Peru
Region:West Amazonas. Also spoken in Colombia, Peru.
Coordinates:-3.25°N -103°W
Ethnicity:Ticuna people
Speakers:63,000
Date:2021
Familycolor:American
Fam1:Tïcuna–Yuri
Iso3:tca
Glotto:ticu1245
Glottorefname:Ticuna
Map:Ticuna.png
Mapcaption:Distribution of speakers of the Ticuna language

Ticuna, Tikuna, Tucuna or Tukuna is a language spoken by approximately 50,000 people in the Amazon Basin, including the countries of Brazil, Peru, and Colombia. It is the native language of the Ticuna people and is considered "stable" by ethnologue.[1] Ticuna is generally classified as a language isolate, but may be related to the extinct Yuri language (see Tïcuna-Yuri) and there has been some research indicating similarities between Ticuna and Carabayo.[2] [3] It is a tonal language, and therefore the meaning of words with the same phonemes can vary greatly simply by changing the tone used to pronounce them.

Tïcuna is also known as Magta, Maguta, Tucuna/Tukuna, and Tukna.

Sociolinguistic situation

Brazil

Ticuna is the Indigenous language most widely spoken in Brazil.[4]

Despite being home to more than 50% of the Ticunas, Brazil has only recently started to invest in native language education. Brazilian Ticunas now have a written literature and an education provided by the Brazilian National Foundation for the Indian (FUNAI) and the Ministry of Education. Textbooks in Ticuna are used by native teachers trained in both Portuguese and Ticuna to teach the language to the children. A large-scale project has been recording traditional narrations and writing them down to provide the literate Ticunas with some literature to practice with.

Ticuna education is not a privilege, but part of a wider project carried on by the Brazilian government to provide all significant minorities with education in their own language.

In 2012, the Brazilian government launched an educational campaign for the prevention of AIDS and violence against women, the first such campaign in Brazil ever conducted in an indigenous language.[5]

Peru

Ticunas in Peru have had native language education at least since the 1960s. They use a writing system that was, apparently, the base for the development of the Brazilian one. However, much of the literature available to Peruvian Ticunas comprise standard textbooks.

Colombia

Colombian Ticunas are taught in Spanish, when they have access to school at all. Since the establishment of Ticuna schools in Brazil some have ventured to attend them .

Christian Ministries

A number of Christian ministries have reached the Ticuna people. These ministries have translated the bible into the native Ticuna language and even have a weekday radio show that is broadcast in Ticuna, Portuguese, and Spanish by the Latin American Ministries (LAM).[6]

Literacy

Besides its use at the Ticuna schools, the language has a dozen books published every year, both in Brazil and Peru. Those books employ a specially devised phonetic writing system using conventions similar to those found in Portuguese (except for K instead of C and the letter Ñ instead of NH) instead of the more complex scientific notation found, for instance, at the Language Museum.

In school Ticuna is taught formally. Children in schools typically in areas of Catholic Missionaries are also taught either Portuguese or Spanish as well.[7]

Linguistic structure

Ticuna is a fairly isolating language morphologically, meaning that most words consist of just one morpheme. However, Ticuna words usually have more than one syllable, unlike isolating languages such as Vietnamese. Ticuna is an unusually tonal language for South America, with over 10 mostly contour tones. Tones are only indicated orthographically, with diacritics, when confusion is likely. The six vowels may be nasal or laryngealized; consonants may also be glottalized. Glottal stop is spelled x, and the sixth vowel ü. Typologically, Ticuna word order is subject–verb–object (SVO), though unusually this can vary within the language.

Research has indicated isolated tonal languages with complex tones are more likely to occur in regions of higher humidity and higher mean average temperature because it is believed the vocal folds can produce less consistent tones in colder, drier air. Ticuna was one of the languages of focus in this study due to its prevalence—and complexity—of tones.[8]

Classification

Some have tentatively associated the Ticuna language within the proposals of the macro-arawakano or with macro-tukano stocks, although these classifications are highly speculative given the lack of evidence. A more recent hypothesis has linked Yuri-Ticuna with the Saliban and Hoti languages in the Duho stock. However, the linguistic consensus is that Ticuna may actually be a language isolate in its present-day situation, since Yuri is extinct.

Phonology

VowelsVowels qualities are pronounced as //a e i ɨ u o//. Vowels may be nasalized and/or show creaky voice, under which tones are lowered.[9] There are diphthongs pronounced as //ai̯// and pronounced as //au̯// that carry a single tone, contrasting with vowel sequences pronounced as //ai// and pronounced as //au// that carry two tones.
FrontCentralBack
Closepronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/
pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/
Midpronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/
pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/
Openpronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/
pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/
TonesTicuna has one of the largest tone inventories in the world with 8–12 phonemic tones depending on the dialect.
ConsonantsThe consonants of Ticuna consist of the following phonemes:
BilabialDentalPalatalVelarGlottal
Plosive/
Affricate
pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/(pronounced as /link/)pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/
pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/
Nasalpronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/
Liquidpronounced as /link/
Glidepronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/
Natively, Ticuna has no lateral or uvular consonants, although /l/ is found in some Spanish loanwords.

The affricate pronounced as //dʒ// (spelled "y") may be pronounced as pronounced as //ɟ//,[10] and also pronounced as //j//, but only before the vowel pronounced as //a//. A central pronounced as //ɨ// vowel sound may also be pronounced as a back pronounced as /[ɯ]/ sound. Other sounds, pronounced as //f s x l// are found in Spanish loans.

Syntax

Ticuna displays nominative/accusative alignment, with person, number, noun class, and clause type indexed on the verb via proclitics. Transitive and unergative verbs tend to favor an Subject-(Object)-Verb word order, while unaccusative verbs show a preference for Verb-Subject word order.

Common words[11]

Ticuna WordMeaning
WüxiOne
TaxreTwo
TomaxixpüThree
ÃgümücüFour
Wüxi mixepüxFive
Naixmixwa rü wüxiSix
Naixmixwa rü taxreSeven
Naixmixwa rü tomaxixpüEight
Naixmixwa rü ãgümücüNine
GuxmixepüxTen
ChatüMan
NgexüiWoman
AiruDog
IakeSun
TawēmakeMoon
DexáWater
The counting words in Ticuna imply a base five system of counting as the word for five is the combination of "one five". Six through nine all contain the same beginning "naixmixwa rü" and then append the values for one through four respectively (such that six is "naixmixwa rü" and "wüxi" meaning one).

Examples of spoken language

An example of spoken Ticuna can be found here.[12]

Phrase[13] Meaning
Nuxmaxē pa corixgeneral greeting spoken to a man ("sir")
Nuxmaxē pa chiuraxgeneral greeting spoken to a woman ("madam")
Nuxmaxē pa yimaxgeneral greeting spoken to a man ("fellow")
Nuxmaxē pa woxrecügeneral greeting spoken to a woman ("girl")
Nuxmaxē pa pacüxgeneral greeting spoken to a young woman ("miss")
Nuxmaxē pa chomücüxgeneral greeting spoken to a friend
Nuxmaxgeneral greeting spoken to a stranger
Ngexta cuxū?Where are you going? (spoken to one person)
Ngexta pexī?Where are you going? (spoken to a group)
Ngexta ne cuxū?Where are you coming from? (spoken to one person)
Ngexta ne pexī?Where are you coming from? (spoken to a group)

Vocabulary (Loukotka 1968)

Loukotka (1968) lists the following basic vocabulary items.[14]

gloss Tucuna
one wöi
two tádi
three tamaípo
head na-eró
ear na-chin
tooth ná-puita
man yáte
fire öo
sun öake
earth náni
maize cháwue
tapir náke

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Size and vitality of Ticuna . 2022-11-28 . Ethnologue . en.
  2. Web site: Linking Isolated Languages: Linguistic Relationships of the Carabayo. 28 April 2014.
  3. Seifart. Frank. Echeverri. Juan Alvaro. 2014-04-16. Evidence for the Identification of Carabayo, the Language of an Uncontacted People of the Colombian Amazon, as Belonging to the Tikuna-Yurí Linguistic Family. PLOS ONE. 9. 4. e94814. 10.1371/journal.pone.0094814. 1932-6203. 3989239. 24739948. 2014PLoSO...994814S. free.
  4. Skilton. Amalia. 2021. Ticuna (tca) language documentation: A guide to materials in the California Language Archive. Language Documentation & Conservation. en-US. 15. 153–189. 10125/24972. 1934-5275.
  5. News: Associated Press. Brazilian government uses indigenous language for the first time in anti-AIDS campaign. The Washington Post. 2012-10-21. 2012-10-11.
  6. Web site: Latin American Ministries – Project Ticuna.
  7. Web site: Ticuna Indigenous Trive in Brazil and Colombia.
  8. Everett . etal . Caleb. February 3, 2015. Climate, vocal folds, and tonal languages: Connecting the physiological and geographic dots. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 112. 5 . 1322–7. 10.1073/pnas.1417413112. 25605876. 4321236. 2015PNAS..112.1322E . 1678719 . free .
  9. Anderson, Doris, Conversational Ticuna, Summer Institute of Linguistics, 1962
  10. Book: Montes Rodríguez, María Emilia. Lengua ticuna: resultados de fonología y sintaxis. 2004.
  11. Web site: Vocabularin in Native American Languages: Ticuna Words. Native Languages.
  12. Web site: Global Recordings – Ticuna Language.
  13. Web site: Greetings in more than 3000 languages.
  14. Book: Loukotka, Čestmír . Čestmír Loukotka . Classification of South American Indian languages . registration . UCLA Latin American Center . 1968 . Los Angeles.