Parakanã language

Parakanã
Native to	Brazil
Region	Pará
Ethnicity	Parakanã
Native speakers	900 (2004)
Language family	Tupian Tupí–Guaraní Group IV Akwáwa Parakanã
Language codes
ISO 639-3	pak
Glottolog	para1312
ELP	Parakanã

Parakanã is a Tupi-Guarani language spoken in the Brazilian state of Pará. The language is classified under the Tenetehara branch or fourth language group of Tupi-Guarani languages as suggested by Rodrigues & Cabral (2012). Parakanã is a dialect of the Akwáwa cluster and is sometimes referred to as Awaeté, Parakanân or Parocana. The Parakanã are the primary speakers of their language. It has been recorded as part of the International Organization for Standardization under the Ethnologue listing pak. Their language has been transcribed and preserved by Christian missionaries for Bible translations.

Phonology

The following is the Parakanã dialect:

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i	ɨ
Mid	e		o
Open		a

• Vowel sounds are realized as nasalized when preceding nasal consonants.
• /e/ can also be heard as [ɛ] when in stressed position.
• /ɨ/ can also be heard as [ə] when preceding a vowel.
• /a/ can be heard as back [ʌ] when in word-final position. In its nasal form, it is heard as back [ʌ̃].
• /o/ can be heard as [u] when in unstressed position.

Consonants

	Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar		Glottal
				plain	lab.
Plosive	p	t	tʃ	k	kʷ	ʔ
Fricative	β					h
Nasal	m	n		ŋ
Tap		ɾ
Glide					(w)

• /β/ can also be heard as a glide [w].
• /tʃ/ can be realized as a glide [j] in final position, and as voiced [dʒ] in intervocalic positions.