Jamamadí language

Madí
Jamamadí
Native to	Amazonas State, Brazil
Ethnicity	Jamamadi, Banawá, Jarawara
Native speakers	800 (2006)[1]
Language family	Arawan Madí
Dialects	Jarawara Banawa Jamamadi
Language codes
ISO 639-3	jaa
Glottolog	jama1261[2]

Madí—also known as Jamamadí (Yamamadí, Yamamandi, Yamadi) after one of its dialects, and also Kapaná or Kanamanti (Canamanti)—is an Arawan language spoken by about 800 Jamamadi, Banawá, and Jarawara people scattered over Amazonas, Brazil.

The language has an active–stative clause structure with an agent–object–verb or object–agent–verb word order, depending on whether the agent or object is the topic of discussion (AOV appears to be the default).^[3]

The dialects of Jamamadi that are or were once spoken include Bom Futuro, Pauini, Mamoria, Cuchudua, Jaruára (Jarawara, Yarawara), Kitiya (Banawá, Banawa Yafi, Jafí), and Tukurina. Pama, Sewacu, Sipo, and Yuberi were either dialects or closely related languages.

Phonology

The phonology is illustrated here with the Jarawara dialect:

Vowels

	Front	Back
High	i iː
Mid	e eː	o oː
Low	a aː

Consonants

	Bilabial	Dental	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Plosive	b	t		ɟ	k	(ʔ)
Nasal	m	n
Fricative	ɸ		s			h̃
Liquid			r
Semivowel					w

The glottal stop [ʔ] has a limited distribution.

The liquid /r/ may be realized as a trill [r], flap [ɾ], or lateral [l]. The palatal stop /ɟ/ may be realized as a semivowel [j].

The glottal fricative /h̃/ is nasalized. See rhinoglottophilia.

Bibliography

• Campbell, Lyle (1997). American Indian languages: The historical linguistics of Native America. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-509427-1.
• Dixon, R. M. W. (1995). "Fusional development of gender marking in Jarawara possessed nouns". International Journal of American Linguistics. 61: 263–294. doi:10.1086/466256.
• Dixon, R. M. W. (2000). "A-constructions and O-constructions in Jarawara". International Journal of American Linguistics. 66: 22–56. doi:10.1086/466405.
• Dixon, R. M. W. (2003). "The eclectic morphology of Jarawara, and the status of word". In R. M. W. Dixon & Alexandra Y. Alkhenvald. Word: A Cross-Linguistic Typology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Dixon, R. M. W. (2004). The Jarawara language of Southern Amazonia. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-927067-8.
• Dixon, R. M. W.; Vogel, A. R. (1996). "Reduplication in Jarawara". Languages of the World. 10: 24–31.
• Everett, Caleb (2012). "A Closer Look at a Supposedly Anumeric Language". International Journal of American Linguistics. 78: 575–590. doi:10.1086/667452.
• Kaufman, Terrence (1994). "The native languages of South America". In C. Mosley & R. E. Asher. Atlas of the world's languages. London: Routledge. pp. 46–76.
• Vogel, Alan (2009). "Covert Tense in Jarawara". Linguistic Discovery. 7. doi:10.1349/PS1.1537-0852.A.333.

References

1. Madí at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
2. Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin; Bank, Sebastian, eds. (2016). "Jamamadi". Glottolog 2.7. Jena: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
3. Dixon, "Arawá", in Dixon & Aikhenvald, eds., The Amazonian Languages, 1999.

External links

• Proel: Lengua Jarawara