Wounaan language

Wounaan
Noanamá
Woun Meu
Native toColombia, Panama
EthnicityEmbera-Wounaan
Native speakers
10,800 (2007)[1]
Chocoan
  • Wounaan
Language codes
ISO 639-3noa
Glottologwoun1238
ELPWaunana

The Wounaan language, also known as Noanamá and Woun Meu, is a Chocoan language, with around 10,000 speakers on the border between Panama and Colombia.

Phonology

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The following tables show the vowel and consonant sounds of Wounann, transcribed using the International Phonetic Alphabet.

Vowels

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Vowels[2]
Front Central Back
unrounded rounded
Close oral i ɯ u
nasal ĩ ɯ̃ ũ
Close-mid oral e ɤ o
nasal ɤ̃ õ
Open oral a
nasal ã

Consonants

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Bilabial Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
Stop voiceless p t k ʔ
aspirated
voiced b d g
Affricate ()
Fricative s ɕ h
Nasal m n
Approximant l j w
Trill r
Flap ɾ
  • /ɕ/ occurs as [t͡ʃ] across dialects.
  • /t͡ʃ/ occurs as [ʃ] at the end of a word.[3]

Notes

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  1. ^ Wounaan at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. ^ Mejía 2000.
  3. ^ Murillo Miranda & Marín Esquivel 2022, pp. 17–39.

References

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  • Mejía, Gustavo (2000). "Presentación y descripción fonológica y morfosintáctica del waunana". In González de Pérez, María Stella; Rodríguez de Montes, María Luisa (eds.). Lenguas indígenas de Colombia: una visión descriptiva. Santafé de Bogotá: Instituto Caro y Cuervo. pp. 85–96.
  • Murillo Miranda, José Manuel; Marín Esquivel, Rebeca (2022). "Notas sobre la fonología del waunana de Panamá". Revista Lengua y Literatura (in Spanish). 8 (1): 17–39.