| Uwa | |
| Also Known As: | Tunebo |
| Nativename: | Uw Cuwa |
| States: | Colombia, formerly in Venezuela |
| Region: | the largest groups live on the northern slopes of the Sierra Nevada del Cocuy, Boyacá Department |
| Ethnicity: | U'wa |
| Speakers: | 3,550 |
| Date: | 2000 |
| Ref: | e19 |
| Familycolor: | American |
| Fam1: | Chibchan |
| Fam2: | Chibcha–Motilon |
| Fam3: | Chibcha–Tunebo |
| Lc1: | tnd |
| Ld1: | Angosturas Tunebo/Bahiyakuwa |
| Lc2: | tbn |
| Ld2: | Barro Negro Tunebo (Eastern Tunebo/Yithkaya) |
| Lc3: | tuf |
| Ld3: | Central Tunebo (Cobaría/Kubaru'wa & Tegría/Tagrinuwa) |
| Lc4: | tnb |
| Ld4: | Western Tunebo (Aguas Blancas/Rikuwa) |
| Glotto: | tune1260 |
| Glottorefname: | Tunebo |
| Notice: | IPA |
| Map: | U'wa ou Tunebo.png |
The Uwa language, Uw Cuwa, commonly known as Tunebo, is a Chibchan language spoken by between 1,800 and 3,600 of the Uwa people of Colombia, out of a total population of about 7,000.[1]
There are half a dozen known varieties. Communication between modern varieties can be difficult, so they are considered distinct languages.
Adelaar (2004) lists the living
Umaña (2012) lists Cobaría, Tegría, Agua Blanca, Barro Negro.
Berich lists the dialects Cobaría; Agua Blanca (= Uncasía, Tamarana, Sta Marta); Rinconada, Tegría, Bócota, & Báchira
Cassani lists Sínsiga, Tegría, Unkasía (= Margua), Pedraza, Manare, Dobokubí (= Motilón)
Osborn (1989) lists
the latter all extinct
Fabre (2005) lists:
Additional names in Loukotka are Manare and Uncasica (presumably a spelling variant of Unkasía/Uncacía), as well as Morcote, of which nothing is known. Manare, at the source of the Casanare, is Eastern Tunebo.
| Front | Back | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| High | pronounced as /i/ | pronounced as /u/ | |
| Mid | pronounced as /e/ | pronounced as /o/ | |
| Low | pronounced as /a/ | ||
| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Labio-velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | pronounced as /m/ | pronounced as /n/ | |||||
| Stop | pronounced as /b/ | pronounced as /t/ | pronounced as /k/ | pronounced as /kʷ/ | pronounced as /ʔ/ | ||
| Fricative | pronounced as /s/ | pronounced as /ʃ/ | pronounced as /h/ | ||||
| Vibrant | pronounced as /r/ | ||||||
| Oral semi-vowel | pronounced as /w/ | pronounced as /j/ | |||||
| Nasal semi-vowel | pronounced as /w̃/ |
Uwa is an ergative–absolutive language with an SOV word order.
All isolated verbs end in -a. Nouns can be divided into three groups: personal nouns, verbal nouns, and other. The plurality of a referent is not explicitly marked on a verb; however, it is possible to mark a group of human referents using the -in suffix. Some kinship terms use a different term instead of using the -in suffix (e.g., ‘son’; ‘sons’). Verbal nouns are derived from verbs by appending -quib (refers to one actor, e.g., ‘he who carries’), -quin (refers to multiple actors, e.g., ‘those who carry’) or -quey (the action, e.g., ‘the coming’, OR the patient of an action, e.g., ‘that which is brought’). Other nouns cannot be affixed with the aforementioned suffixes.
There are four case suffixes: ergative, absolutive, genitive and vocative.
The subject of a transitive clause, i.e., the ergative case, is marked with the -at suffix:
The subject of an intransitive clause or the object of a transitive clause, i.e., the absolutive case, takes the null suffix -∅:
The owner of a referent is marked with the genitive case using the -ay suffix. It can replace the ergative marker -at in the 1st person singular pronoun of transitive sentences.
The vocative suffix -u is used to identify a referent being addressed:
The personal pronouns distinguish between the 1st, 2nd and 3rd person (which is further divided into proximal and distal), as well as between the singular and plural:
| singular | plural | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st person | asa, as | isa, is | |
| 2nd person | baha, bah | baa | |
| 3rd person | proximal | uiya | uiyina |
| distal | eya, ey | eyina, eyin | |
The demonstrative pronouns make a two-way distinction: (proximal, ‘this’) and (distal, ‘that’).
Additionally, there exists an intensifier-reflexive pronoun that is analogous to the English ‘oneself’ or ‘alone’. The pronoun itself is subject to inflection:
| singular | plural | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st person | ajmar, amar | ijmár | |
| 2nd person | behmar | bemar | |
| 3rd person | ima | imar |
| singular | plural | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st person | ajáy | isay | |
| 2nd person | bahay | bay | |
| 3rd person | proximal | uiyay | uiyinay |
| distal | eyay | eyinay | |
The Uwa language uses a base-10 (decimal) number system.
In general, adjectives are placed after the noun, although there are instances where they can be placed before it. Nevertheless, the majority of the time, adjectives are utilized in the verbal form:
In noun phrases, the adjective tends to take the -a suffix.[2]
Verbs in Uwa language can be divided into the following categories: transitive, intransitive, bitransitive, impersonal, objective clause, auxiliary and copular.
The verb is most frequently preceded by the intentional form of the verb without the declarative suffix:
There are a number of different affixes that can appended to the verb.
The intentional suffixes -in and -n indicate the intention to be fulfilled by the action of the verb. The action occurs in the future.
Negation can be marked three ways. Future, ability or obligation, and stative verbs are negated with the word . Inability or impossibility is marked with -ajar/-ajat in the main verb and with an interrogative word in the same clause, plus an -i suffix on the focused word of focus. The -ti suffix is used on the main verb:
Ability or obligation is indicated in the verb by the suffix -ata. It indicates that something can or must be done. It can also function as a way to express command without using the imperative.
The inability is indicated by appending the suffix -ajar:
Four tenses can be distinguished: present, past, immediate past and immediate future.
| past | -jac/-jec/-joc | |
| immediate past | -ira/-iri | |
| present | -ca | |
| immediate future | -ayquira |
Adverbs are positioned immediately following the verb: