Waʼikhana language

Piratapuyo
Wahicjana
Native to	Brazil, Colombia
Ethnicity	Pira-tapuya
Native speakers	(1,070 cited 1986)
Language family	Tucanoan Eastern North Piratapuyo
Language codes
ISO 639-3	pir
Glottolog	pira1254
ELP	Piratapuyo

Piratapuyo (Wahicjana [waʔikhana]) is a Tucanoan language of Brazil and Colombia, spoken by the Piratapuyo.

Phonology

Consonants

Piratapuyo consonant phonemes

		Bilabial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Occlusive	voiceless	p	t		k ⟨c, qu⟩	ʔ ⟨h⟩
	voiced	b ⟨b, m⟩	d ⟨d, n⟩		g ⟨g⟩
Spirant			s			h ⟨j⟩
Vibrant			ɾ ⟨r, l⟩
Continuant		w		j ⟨y, ñ⟩

/ʔ/, /ɾ/, /ɡ/ do not occur word-initially, and /h/ is rare in this position.

All consonants but /s/ and /ʔ/ have a nasal allophone before nasal vowels. For the voiced plosives /b d ɡ/, these are the nasal stops [m n ŋ]. The others include voiceless [h̃] and voiced [ɺ̃], [w̃] and [j̃]~[ɲ]. An example is /bã́daʔre/ 'there's none', pronounced [mã́ⁿdaɺɛ].

/ʔ/, /h/ are labialized [ʔʷ], [hʷ] after a back vowel. In the sequence CV₁hV₂, where C is voiceless /p t k s/, V₁ is devoiced in careful enunciation; at normal conversational speed it is elided entirely, resulting in a sequence CʰV₂, where C is aspirated [pʰ tʰ kʰ sʰ]. If the elided V₁ is a back vowel and V₂ is not, C may be labialized as well, though in almost all cases the two vowels are the same.

/w/ has a tendency to become [β] before front vowels ([β̃] or even [ṽ] when nasal); it may also be lightly fricated elsewhere. /j/ likewise may be fricated, or even an affricated [ᵈj] when not nasalized.

Non-nasal /r/ tends to [ɺ] when it occurs after a non-front vowel and before a front vowel, and to [ɾ] elsewhere: /ditárárí/ → [dìi̥táɺáɾí].

Vowels

Piratapuyo vowel phonemes

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i ĩ	ɨ ɨ̃ ⟨ʉ⟩	u ũ
Mid	ɛ ɛ̃		ɔ ɔ̃
Open		a ã

Instead of positing six oral vowels and six nasal, the language has been analyzed as having a suprasegmental feature of nasalization that applies to all vowels and to all susceptible consonants in the word.

/ɛ ɛ̃/ have a high-mid allophone [e ẽ] that occurs before other vowels in hiatus and before velar consonants.

All vowels may be glottalized when followed by /ʔ/.

Devoicing of vowels is common. In the sequence C₁V̀C̥V́, where C̥ is a non-glottal voiceless consonant (that is, {p t k s}), and the first syllable has low tone and the second high/accented, C̥ is preaspirated: that is, the voicing of V̀ ends before the consonant begins. If the first consonant is also {p t k s}, the entire vowel may be devoiced in normal and especially in rapid speech.

Tones

There are two phonemic tones: high (accented) and non-high (mid or low). Successive high tones are each higher than the preceding. (See also pitch accent, downdrift.)

Phonotactics

Syllables may be up to CCVC, where the only initial consonant cluster is /st/ and the only final consonant is /ʔ/.

When syllable-final /ʔ/ is followed by [ɾ], [ɺ], [m] or [n], the two are sometimes separated by an epenthetic echo vowel.