Aikanã language


Aikanã is an endangered language isolate spoken by about 200 Aikanã people in Rondônia, Brazil. It is morphologically complex and has SOV word order. Aikanã uses the Latin script. The people live with speakers of Koaia (Kwaza).

Demographics

Aikanã is traditionally spoken in the Terra Indígena Tubarão-Latundê, where it is still the dominant language. It is also spoken in the Terra Indígena Kwazá do Rio São Pedro, where Kwazá is traditionally spoken. A few Aikanã families in also reside in the Terra Indígena Rio Guaporé, but they do not speak the language there. There are nearly 100 ethnic Aikanã people, in the Comunidade Indígena Cassupá e Salamãi, although the final Aikanã speaker there died in 2018.

Classification

Van der Voort observes similarities among Aikanã, Kanoê, and Kwaza, and believes that it is strong enough to definitively link the three languages together as part of a single language family. An automated computational analysis by Müller et al. also found lexical similarities between Aikanã and Kwaza. However, since the analysis was automatically generated, the grouping could be either due to mutual lexical borrowing or genetic inheritance.
Jolkesky also notes that there are lexical similarities with Kanoe, Kwaza, and Nambikwara due to contact.

Varieties

Varieties listed by Loukotka :
  • Huari - spoken between the Corumbiara River and Guarajú River, Rondônia
  • Masaca - spoken on the left bank of the Corumbiara River
  • Aboba - extinct language once spoken on the Guarajú River
  • Maba - extinct language once spoken on the Guajejú River
  • Puxacaze - once spoken on the Guajejú River, Brazil
  • Guajejú - once spoken at the sources of the Jamarí River and Candeia River

Phonology

Vowels

  • /y, ỹ/ can also be heard as close-mid .
  • /a, ã/ are heard as before /i, ĩ/.

Consonants

  • Within the position of nasal vowels, sounds /b, d, d͡ð/ become and /w, ɾ, h/ become .
  • /t̪͡s, d͡ð/ are only heard as affricates in word-initial position. Elsewhere, they are heard as a fricatives and .
  • /w/ can be heard as a fricative when before /i/.
  • /ɾ/ can also be heard as between vowels.
  • /d͡ʒ/ is heard as before a front-vowel, before a non-front vowel, and as or before a nasal vowel.

Grammar

In Aikanã, the verb phrase or predicate morphological template is:
verbsubjectclassifier
directional		aspect
modality		valencyobjecttenseobjectsubjectnegationmood

Vocabulary

Loukotka lists the following basic vocabulary items for Huari and Masaca, as well as Capixana.
Aikanã plant and animal names from Silva are listed in the corresponding Portuguese article.