| Wayana | |
|---|---|
Cariban
| |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | – |
Wayana is a language of the Cariban family, spoken by the Wayana people, who live mostly in the borderlands of French Guiana, Brazil, and Suriname. In Brazil, they live along the Paru and Jari rivers, in Suriname, along the Tapanahoni and Paloemeu rivers, and in French Guiana, along the upper Maroni River and its tributariesCite error: The opening <ref> tag is malformed or has a bad name (see the help page).. The exact number of Wayana is unclear. The issue is complicated due to the fact that counts are done on a per-country basis. SIL Ethnologue lists 850 users of the language and 1950 ethnic Wayana in all countries, using counts from 2006 and 2007 (“Wayana”, n.d.)[1]. Instituto Socioambental, a Brazilian NGO, lists 1629 ethnic Wayana, using counts from 2002 and 2014. The count of ethnic Wayana individuals is further complicated due to the close ties that the Wayana share with other ethnic groups in the region, especially the Aparai in Brazil, to the extent that they are sometimes considered one group, the Wayana-Aparai.[1]
History
editNginda-rni
DEM(M)-FOC
ngaja-mi
see-IRR
jurliji-rdarra
bird-PL
diyim
fly
ka-rdu
3SG-go
'Look at all the birds flying!'
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Phonology
editConsonants
editAllophonic processes
editVowels
editMorphology
editThings to show
editNginda-rni
DEM(M)-FOC
ngaja-mi
see-IRR
jurliji-rdarra
bird-PL
diyim
fly
ka-rdu
3SG-go
'Look at all the birds flying!'
Tavares, P. (2005). A grammar of Wayana. Retrieved from Rice University Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Wayana’s morphology, like that of other Cariban languages, is very rich, and makes extensive use of affixes (Gildea, 2005). There are five major speech classes in Wayana: nouns, verbs, postpositions, adverbs, and particles. Each class can be distinguished by the presence (or absence) of specific affixes. Particles take no affixes, and are not morphologically bound.