Bakairi language

Bakairí
Bacairí, Bacaïri
Kurâ
Pronunciation	[baka.iˈɾi]
Native to	Brazil
Region	Mato Grosso
Ethnicity	Bakairi people
Native speakers	(950 cited 1999)
Language family	Cariban Pekodian Bakairí
Dialects	Western Eastern
Language codes
ISO 639-3	bkq
Glottolog	baka1277
ELP	Bakairí
Linguasphere	80-AIB-aa
Bakairi is classified as Vulnerable by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger

Bakairí (Bacairí) is a Cariban language, spoken by the Bakairi people in the state of Mato Grosso in Brazil.

Phonology

The consonant and vowel inventories for Bakairí are shown below.

Consonants

		Bilabial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Plosive	voiceless	p	t		k	ʔ
	voiced	b	d		ɡ
Fricative	voiceless		s	ʃ		h
	voiced		z	(ʒ)
Nasal		m	n	(ɲ)
Liquid	rhotic		ɾ
	lateral		l
Glide		w		j

/ʔ/ is only heard in the western dialect.

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
High	i ĩ	ɨ ɨ̃	u ũ
Mid	e ẽ	ə ə̃	o õ
Low		a ã

Sounds /ɨ, ɨ̃/ are only heard in the eastern dialect.

Syntax

Baikarí word order is either subject–object–verb or object–verb–subject.

References

• Faria, Geraldo Pinto De, Junior (2022). A Grammar of the Bakairi Language (PhD thesis). Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. doi:10.48273/lot0609. ISBN 978-94-6093-394-3.{{cite thesis}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
• Meira, Sérgio (2005). "Reconstructing Pre-Bakairi Segmental Phonology". Anthropological Linguistics. 47 (3): 261–291. JSTOR 25132338.