Last Updated: 2019-09-11
Background
Language Family: Arawakan / Maipuran / Southern Maipuran / Purus
- Apurinã is spoken throughout the Amazon Basin in Central Brazil.
Phonology
Consonants
- /ɲ/ and /h/ are sometimes omitted from the consonantal inventory depending on the dialect; I have chosen to include them below Facundes (2000) does (pp. 55, 71).
- Voicing is not a contrastive feature in Apurinã (Facundes 2000, 70).
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Place of Articulation
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Manner of Articulation
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Bilabial
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Alveolar
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Postalveolar
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Palatal
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Velar
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Glottal
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Stops
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p
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t
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k
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Affricates
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ts
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tʃ
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Fricatives
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s
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ʃ
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h
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Nasals
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m
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n
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ɲ
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Flaps
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ɾ
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Approximants
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j
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ɰ
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Vowels
- Vowels are contrastive in terms of length and nasality (Facundes 2000, 55).
- Long vowels (both oral and nasal) are indicated by repeated graphemes.
- In addition to oral diphthongs, Apurinã includes nasal diphthongs, although these are extremely infrequent (I have not accounted for the nasal diphthongs in the rules) (Facundes 2000, 85–87).
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Front
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Central
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Back
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High
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i ĩ
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ɨ ɨ̃
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Mid
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e ẽ
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o õ
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Low
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a ã
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Note: Phonemes on the left of each cell are oral and phonemes on the right are nasal.
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Diphthongs
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/ai/, /ei/, /oi/, /ao/, /io/
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Alphabet
- Note: /ɨ̃/, /ɲ/, /j/, and /ɰ/ are not represented in the Crúbadán corpus.
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Grapheme
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Phoneme
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a
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/a/
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ã
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/ã/
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e
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/e/
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ẽ
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/ẽ/
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h
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/h/
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i
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/i/
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ĩ
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/ĩ/
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k
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/k/
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m
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/m/
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n
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/n/
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o
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/o/
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õ
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/õ/
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p
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/p/
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r
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/ɾ/
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s
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/s/
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t
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/t/
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u
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/ɨ/
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ũ
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/ɨ̃/
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w
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/ɰ/
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x
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/ʃ/
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y
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/j/
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Digraph
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nh
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/ɲ/
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ts
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/ts/
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tx
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/tʃ/
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Syllable Structure
- The possible syllable structures include (Facundes 2000, 87–88):
- Based on this, it would seem that Apurinã does not allow for complex onsets and consonant clusters. They also seem to require empty codas.
Lenition Rules
- Voiceless stops can become voiced following nasal vowels (Facundes 2000, 73).
- /h/ deletes when followed by a vowel (Facundes 2000, 83).
Misc. Rules
- Vowels are often devoiced word-finally in unstressed positions (Facundes 2000, 60).
- There is free variation of oral and nasal vowels preceding nasal consonants (the contrast is neutralized) (Facundes 2000, 64).
- Vowels preceding nasal vowels become nasal (Facundes 2000, 66).
- /k/ palatalizes when preceding [ɛ], which is an allophone of /e/ (Facundes 2000, 78).
- Aspiration of stops occurs preceding devoiced vowels in unstressed positions (Facundes 2000, 78–79).
- /n/ palatalizes preceding /i/ (Facundes 2000, 82).
- Apostrophes indicate vowel omission (Polak 1894, 1:3).
References
Facundes, Sidney S. 2000. “The Language of the Apurinã People of Brazil (Maipure/Arawak).” PhD thesis, Buffalo, New York: University of New York, Buffalo.
Polak, J. E. R. 1894. A Grammar and Vocabulary of the Ipuriná Language. Vol. 1. Vocabulary Publication Fund. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co.