// Workers AI · dad joke modeWhat did Tsafiki say to its speaker? "You speak my language".

Tsafiki, also known as Tsachila or Colorado, is a Barbacoan language spoken in Ecuador by about 2,000 ethnic Tsáchila people.

Phonology

/b, d/ are preglottalized [ˀb, ˀd] when occurring intervocalically.
/k/ can become voiced [ɡ] when intervocally after nasal sounds.
/ɹ/ is heard as [ɾ] when occurring word-initially, and when following a nasalized vowel, an allophone [n] occurs.
/s/ is heard as [ʃ] when preceding high vowels /i, u/ and after unaccented high vowels.
/t͡s/ is heard as [t͡ʃ] when preceding high vowels, but many speakers pronounce it as [t͡ʃ] in all environments.

Tsafiki has five vowels. Four vowels have nasalized forms.

Tsafiki has a four-way evidentiality system. Unmarked verbs indicate "direct" witness.^[3]

Manuel

ano

food

fi-e

eat-VIS+DECL

'Manuel ate' (speaker saw him)

-nu- is used when it is inferred from physical evidence.

Manuel

ano

food

fi-n-ki-e

eat-INFR-DECL

'Manuel ate' (speaker sees dishes)

↑ Tsafiki at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
↑ Dickinson, Connie (2002). Complex Predicates in Tsafiki. Ann Arbor: UMI.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link)
↑ Miyaoka, Osahito; Sakiyama, Osamu; Krauss, Michael E., eds. (2007). The vanishing languages of the Pacific rim. Oxford linguistics. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 196–197. ISBN 978-0-19-926662-3. OCLC 71004259.

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