Pemon language
The Pemon language is an Indigenous [languages of the Americas|Indigenous language] of the Cariban family spoken by some 30,000 Pemon people, in Venezuela's Southeast, particularly in the Canaima National Park, in the Roraima State of Brazil and in Guyana.
It covers several dialects, including Arecuna, Camaracota, Camaracoto, Ingariko, and Taulipang or Taurepan. The Pemon language may also be known and designated informally by one of the two dialects Arecuna or Ingariko, or incorrectly under the name Kapon which normally designates another closely related small group of languages.
Pemon is one of several other closely related Venezuelan Cariban languages which also include the Macushi and Kapon. These four languages form the group of Pemongan languages. The broad Kapon and selective Ingariko terms are also used locally as a common ethnonym grouping Pemón, Akawaio, and Patamono peoples, and may be used as well to refer to the group of the four Pemongan languages that they speak.
Typology
The Pemon language's syntax type is SOV with alternation to OVS.Writing
Pemon was an oral language until the 20th century. Then efforts were made to produce dictionaries and grammars, primarily by Catholic missionaries, specially Armellada and Gutiérrez Salazar. The Latin alphabet has been used, adding diacritic signs to represent some phonemes not existing in Spanish.Phonology
Vowels
Arekuna Pemon has the following vowels:| Front | Central | Back | |
| Close | |||
| Open-mid | |||
| Open |
There are still texts only using Spanish characters, without distinguishing between pairs such as and. Diphthong sounds are.
Consonants
Allophones of are.Grammar
Pronouns in Pemon are:| Pemon | English |
| yuré | |
| amäre | |
| muere, mesere | |
| urekon | |
| ina | |
| amärenokon | |
| ichamonan |