Last updated: 2020-06-10

HEAVILY COMPROMISED: alphabet is heavily phonetic based; documentation is rather contradicting and ambiguous

Background

Language Family: Chibchan / Talamanca

Bribri is spoken in the Limón and Puntarenas provinces of Costa Rica.
Where dialects diverge, I will follow the Coroma dialect (represented in Crúbadán).

Phonology

Consonants

Bribri has a geminate series of voiceless affricates and stops, which are realized phonetically as aspirated in the Salitre dialect (López García 1995, 3:35; Jara 1995, 16).
- The documentation regarding the gemination and aspiration across dialects is rather contradicting. Schlabach (1974; as cited in Jara Murillo 2004, 97–98) lists phonemic aspirated consonants in the Amubre dialect; Wilson (1982; as cited in Jara Murillo 2004, 97–98) list phonemic aspirated consonants in the Salitre dialect and phonemic geminate consonants in the Amubre dialect. Schlabach (1974) does explain that in the Coroma dialect, geminate consonants rather than aspirated consonants are present, although accompanied by little to no aspiration. I have opted for the analysis of underlying geminates.
Notice that Bribri does not have phonemic nasals; rather, they manifest phonetically (Yasugi 1995, 36; Jara Murillo 2004, 95; Wetzels and Nevins 2018, 20; Chevrier 2017).
There is some debate around the phonemic status of /j/ and /w/, which also extends to other Chibchan languages (e.g. Cabécar). Yasugi (1995) and Constenla (1981) do not include them as part of the inventory (p. 43; p. 115); Constenla (1981) explains that such phonemes are allophones that arise preceding vowels. López García (1995), however, does include /j/ and /w/ as separate phonemes along with the nasal consonants (p. 35). I have opted for Constenla’s approach to not include them in the phonemic inventory.
There is also some debate around the phonemic status of /x/ and /h/. Jara Murillo (2004) and Jara (1995) opt for /h/ (p. 96; p. 13), whereas López García (1995) and Constenla (1981) opt for /x/ (p. 35; p. 106). Constenla (1981) does express that /x/ is pronounced lenis, which would make for frequent debuccalization to /h/. Since I find this the more likely phonological process, I have opted to include /x/ rather than /h/ in the phonemic inventory.
Although it’s relatively clear that the alveolar flap is realized as an allophone of /d/ (Constenla 1981, 12; Jara Murillo 2004, 95l; Margery Peña 1996, xxi), the phonemic status of other such trills and approximants isn’t as clear. Constenla (1981) only accounts for an alveolar lateral flap (p. 113), López García (1995) accounts for an alveolar trill, approximant, and flap (p. 35), and Jara Murillo (2004), Jara (1995), and Margery Peña (1996) account for both an alveolar trill and a retroflex lateral approximant (p. 94; p. 13; p. xxii). I have opted to go with the majority, and include both the alveolar trill and the retroflex lateral approximant in the inventory.
Bribri’s phonemic inventory includes the rather interesting phoneme /tk/ (Constenla 1981, 111; Jara Murillo 2004, 96–97). Constenla (1981) describes it as a co-articulated voiceless dental-palatal stop accompanied with fricative release (p. 111) and Yasugi (1995) describes it as a dento-velar stop (p. 748). Although Jara Murillo (2004) describe it similar to Constenla (1981) as a dental-palatal stop, his explanation makes it seem that it’s underlyingly more velar, but arises more alveopalatal in the Coroma dialect (p. 96). Therefore, I have decided to classify it as a dento-velar stop.
- The cluster always appears as a phoneme (i.e. /t/ and /k/ are never adjacent belonging to different syllables) (Constenla 1981, 111).

	Place of Articulation
Manner of Articulation	Labial	Alveolar	Retroflex	Postalveolar	Dento-Velar	Velar	Glottal
Stops	p pː b	t tː d			tk	k kː	ʔ
Affricates		ts tsː		tʃ tʃː dʒ
Fricatives		s		ʃ		x
Trills		r
Approximants			ɭ
Note: Cells with three phonemes are ordered voiceless, geminate, and voiced. Cells with two phonemes are ordered voiceless and geminate.

Vowels

Nasal vowels are phonemic in Bribri (Jara 1995, 13). They are indicated by a macron below each vowel. /ɪ/ and /ʊ/ don’t have nasal counterparts.
Bribri has three contrastive tones presented atop each vowel (Jara 1995, 13):
- High tone: marked by a grave accent (`)
- Falling tone: marked by an acute accent (´)
- Low tone: unmarked
A rising tone, represented with a circumflex (ˆ), is said to be present only in the Amubre dialect (Jara Murillo and García Segura 2009, 8; Jara Murillo 2004, 111). The high tone and rising tone are said to vary freely in both the Coroma and Salitre dialect. Crúbadán does not mark rising tone, which is consistent with my analysis of the Coromo dialect.

	Front	Central	Back
High	i ĩ		u ũ
High-Mid	ɪ		ʊ
Low-Mid	ɛ ɛ̃		ɔ ɔ̃
Low		a ã
Note: Cells that have two phonemes are ordered oral and nasal.

Alphabet

Although [ɾ], [m], [n], and [ɲ] are represented explicitly in the orthography with ⟨r⟩, ⟨m⟩, ⟨n⟩, and ⟨ñ⟩, respectively (Jara Murillo 2004, 95), I will transcribe them to their underlying phonemes (/d/, /b/, /d/, and /dʒ/). Based on my analysis of [w] and [j], I will also transcribe ⟨w⟩ to /u/).

Grapheme	Phoneme
a	/a/
b	/b/
d	/d/
e	/ɛ/
ë	/ɪ/
i	/i/
j	/x/
k	/k/
l	/ɭ/
m	/b/
n	/d/
ñ	/dʒ/
o	/ɔ/
ö	/ʊ/
p	/p/
r	/d/
s	/s/
t	/t/
u	/u/
w	/u/
y	/dʒ/
’	/ʔ/
Multigraph
ch	/tʃ/
pp	/pː/
rr	/r/
sh	/ʃ/
tch	/tʃː/
tt	/tː/
tk	/tk/
ts	/ts/
tts	/tsː/

Syllable Structure

Syllables in Bribri follow the order of (C)V(C) (Constenla 1981, 117).

Lenition Rules

/p/, /t/, and /k/ are pronounced lenis and unreleased in syllable codas (Constenla 1981, 111).
/k/ varies freely with [ɡ] intervocalically (ibid.).
/d/ tends to become a flap [ɾ] word-medially following vowels and intervocalically (Constenla 1981, 112–13; Margery Peña 1996, xxi).
/s/ and /ʃ/ can become voiced preceding voiced stops (Constenla 1981, 113).

Misc. Rules

/b/, /d/, /dʒ/, and /k/ change to [m], [n], [ɲ], and [ŋ] preceding or following nasal vowels and in syllable codas (Jara Murillo 2004, 95; Constenla 1981, 112–13; Margery Peña 1996, xxi).

References

Chevrier, Natacha. 2017. “Aerodynamic and Articulatory Explanations for the Presence of Nasal Consonants in Oral Contexts in Bribri (Chibchan, Costa Rica).” Poster.

Constenla, Adolfo. 1981. “Comparative Chibchan Phonology.” PhD thesis, University of Pennsylvania.

Jara, Carla Victoria. 1995. “Text and Context of the Suwo’: Bribri Oral Tradition.” PhD thesis, Louisiana State University.

Jara Murillo, Carla Victoria. 2004. “Observaciones Para El Estudio Dialectológico de La Lengua Bribri.” Estudios de Lingüística Chibcha XXIII. San José: 89–120.

Jara Murillo, Carla Victoria, and Alí García Segura. 2009. Se’ ẽ’ Yawö Bribri Wa: Aprendemos La Lengua Bribri. San José, Costa Rica: Universidad de Costa Rica.

López García, Angel. 1995. Presentación de Las Lenguas Y Culturas Chibchas. Vol. 3. De Acá Para Allá - Lenguas Y Culturas Amerindias. [Valencia]: [Universidad de Valencia].

Margery Peña, Enrique. 1996. Diccionario Fraseológico Bribri-Español Español-Bribri. 2nd ed. San José: Editorial de la Universidad de Costa Rica.

Schlabach, Raymond A. 1974. “Los Fonemas Del Bribrí Del Valle de Talamanca.” Area Indígena/Aldeia Indígena (Brasil) 34 (2): 355–62.

Wetzels, W. Leo, and Andrew Nevins. 2018. “Prenasalized and Postoralized Consonants: The Diverse Functions of Enhancement.” Language 94 (4).

Wilson, Jack. 1982. “El Alfabeto Bribri.” In Diccionario Fraseológico Bribri-Español, Español-Bribri, edited by Enrique Margery Peña, 15–24. San Jose: Universidad de Costa Rica.

Yasugi, Yoshiho. 1995. “Native Middle American Languages.” Senri Ethnological Studies 39: 3–481.

Bribri

Emily Strand