Last updated: 2019-11-05
Background
Language Family: Carib / Northern / East-West Guiana / Wayana-Trio
- Wayana is spoken in Suriname, a country off the coast of South America.
Phonology
Consonants
- For some speakers, /s/ is said to have neutralized with /h/ (Jackson 1972, 48); however, I have chosen to include both in the phonemic inventory, given that the distinction is still made by the majority of speakers.
|
|
Place of Articulation
|
|
Manner of Articulation
|
Labial
|
Alveolar
|
Retroflex
|
Palatal
|
Velar
|
Glottal
|
|
Stops
|
p
|
t
|
|
|
k
|
|
|
Fricatives
|
|
s
|
|
|
|
h
|
|
Nasals
|
m
|
n
|
|
|
|
|
|
Flaps
|
|
|
ɽ
|
|
|
|
|
Approximants
|
w
|
|
|
j
|
|
|
Vowels
- Although, long vowels (duplicate graphemes) are apparent in the language (although marginally so), Tavares (2005) explains that there are no minimal pairs between long and short vowels (p. 11). Long vowels likely result as a by-product from syllable reduction. In the rules, instances of long vowels will be transcribed as short.
- (Non-like) vowels that occur consecutively are interpreted as sequences rather than complex phonemes (Tavares 2005, 29).
- I have chosen to use /ɘ/ rather than /ə/ (used in Tavares 2005, 9, 38) to represent the mid central vowel, given that it doesn’t appear to be a true reduced vowel (e.g. /əpə/ -> arm).
|
|
Front
|
Central
|
Back
|
|
High
|
i
|
ɨ
|
u
|
|
Mid
|
e
|
ɘ
|
o
|
|
Low
|
|
a
|
|
Alphabet
|
Grapheme
|
Phoneme
|
|
a
|
/a/
|
|
e
|
/e/
|
|
ë
|
/ɘ/
|
|
h
|
/h/
|
|
i
|
/i/
|
|
ï
|
/ɨ/
|
|
j
|
/j/
|
|
k
|
/k/
|
|
l
|
/ɽ/
|
|
m
|
/m/
|
|
n
|
/n/
|
|
o
|
/o/
|
|
p
|
/p/
|
|
s
|
/s/
|
|
t
|
/t/
|
|
u
|
/u/
|
|
w
|
/w/
|
Syllable Structure
- Syllables in Wayana include the following structures (Jackson 1972, 25):
Lenition Rules
- /p/, /t/, and /k/ are voiced preceding voiced consonants (Jackson 1972, 48).
- /p/, /t/, and /k/ primarily debuccalize preceding /p/, /t/, and /k/, respectively (ibid.).
- /p/ can also debuccalize preceding /m/.
- /t/ can also debuccalize preceding /l/ and /n/.
- /w/ and /j/ are deleted preceding /u/ and /i/, respectively (Tavares 2005, 30).
- Vowels and whole syllables are often deleted, which is consistent with other Carib languages (Tavares 2005, 31).
Misc. Rules
- /p/, /t/, and /k/ can change to nasals, maintaining place of articulation (e.g. /p/ goes to /m/), preceding other nasal consonants (Jackson 1972, 48–49).
- Vowels often nasalize preceding nasal consonants (Tavares 2005, 14).
- Consonants do not geminate in Wayana (Tavares 2005, 17). Phonological processes, such as the debuccalization, mentioned above, seem to remedy these potential consonant clusters. Tavares (2005) explains that there is one instance of consonant gemination (⟨kk⟩); however, he does posit that it’s merely due to a mis-transcription (p. 17). Therefore, geminates will not be accounted for in the rules.
- [r] and [l] vary freely with /ɽ/ (Tavares 2005, 24).
- /w/ varies freely with /β/ preceding front vowels (ibid.).
- /t/ occasionally palatalizes preceding /i/ (Tavares 2005, 18).
References
Jackson, Walter S. 1972. “A Wayana Grammar.” In Languages of the Guianas, edited by Joseph E. Grimes, 35:47–77. Summer Institute of Linguistics Publications in Linguistics and Related Fields. Summer Institute of Linguistics of the University of Oklahoma. http://www.sil.org/acpub/repository/11212.pdf.
Tavares, Petronila da Silva. 2005. “A Grammar of Wayâna.” PhD thesis, Rice University.