| Yanomaman | |
|---|---|
| Geographic distribution | Amazon |
| Ethnicity | Yąnomamö |
| Linguistic classification | One of the world's primarylanguage families |
| Subdivisions | |
| Language codes | |
| Glottolog | yano1268 |
 | |
Yanomaman, also asYanomam,Yanomáman,Yamomámi, andYanomamana (alsoShamatari,Shirianan), is a family of languages spoken by about 20,000Yanomami people in southernVenezuela and northwesternBrazil (Roraima,Amazonas).
Ferreira, Machado & Senra (2019) divide the Yanomaman family into two branches, with six languages in total.[1][2]
Sanumá is the most lexically distinct. Yanomamö has the most speakers (20,000), while Yãnoma has the fewest (178).
Internal classification by Jolkesky (2016):[3]
(† = extinct)
Yanomaman is usually not connected with any other language family.Joseph Greenberg has suggested a relationship between Yanomaman andMacro-Chibchan. Migliazza (1985) has suggested a connection withPanoan and Chibchan. Neither proposal is widely accepted.[4]
Jolkesky (2016) notes that there are lexical similarities with theIrantxe,Taruma,Katukina-Katawixi,Puinave-Kak,Tupi,Arawa,Guahibo, andJivaro language families due to contact.[3]
Yanomami is not what the Yanomami call themselves and is instead a word in their language meaning "man" or "human being". The American anthropologistNapoleon Chagnon adopted this term with the transcriptionYa̧nomamö to use as anexonym to refer to the culture and, by extension, the people. The word is pronounced with nasalisation of all the vowels. As the phoneme indicated by the spelling 'ö' does not occur in English, variations in spelling and pronunciation of the name have developed, withYanomami,Yanomamö,Ya̧nomamö orYa̦nomamö, andYanomama all being used. Some anthropologists have used the spellingYanomamɨ to indicate the vowel[ɨ],[citation needed] but because many presses and typesetters eliminate the diacritical marks, the pronunciation /i/ and spelling of the name with ⟨i⟩ has emerged.
Yanomaman languages have a phonological distinction between oral and nasal vowels. There are seven basic vowel qualities: /a e i o u ɨ ə/, which can occur as oral or nasal sounds.[5]
| Front | Central | Back | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oral | Nasal | Oral | Nasal | Oral | Nasal | |
| Close | i | ĩ | ɨ⟨y⟩ or⟨ö⟩ | ɨ̃⟨ỹ⟩ | u | ũ |
| Mid | e | ẽ | ə⟨ë⟩ | o | õ | |
| Open | a | ã | ||||
In the table above, the practical orthography is shown in angle brackets below the phoneme, if different.
The Yanomaman languages present extensivenasal harmony. When in Yanomaman words, avowel is phoneticallynasalized, all vowels that follow within the same word are also nasalized. The consonants of Yanomama are shown in the table below:[5]
| Labial | Alveolar | Post- alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | ||||
| Stop | p | ttʰ | k | ʔ | ||
| Fricative | s | ʃ | j | h | ||
| Approximant | w | l |
Yanomaman languages are SOV, suffixing, predominantlyhead-marking with elements ofdependent-marking. Its typology is highlypolysynthetic. Adjectival concepts are expressed using stative verbs, there are no true adjectives. Adjectival stative verbs follow their noun.
There are five demonstratives which have to be chosen according to distance from speaker and hearer and also according to visibility, a feature shared by many native Brazilian languages such asTupian ones includingOld Tupi. Demonstratives, numerals, classifiers and quantifiers precede the head noun.
There is a distinction betweenalienable and inalienable possession, again a common areal feature, and a rich system of verbal classifiers, almost a hundred, they are obligatory and appear just before the verb root. The distinction between inclusive and exclusive 1st person plural, a feature shared by most Native American languages, has been lost in Yanam and Yanomam dialects, but retained in the others.
Yanomami morphosyntactic alignment isergative–absolutive, which means that the subject of an intransitive verb is marked the same way as the object of a transitive verb, while the subject of a transitive verb is marked differently. The ergative case marker is-ny. The verb agrees with both the subject and object.
Evidentiality in the Yanomami dialect is marked on the verb and has four levels: eyewitness, deduced, reported, and assumed. Other dialects have fewer levels.
The object of the verb can be incorporated into it, especially if it is not in focus:
Non-incorporated:
sipara
axe
kamijə-ny sipara ja-puhi-i
1sg-ERG axe 1sg-want-DYN
'I want an/the axe'
Incorporated:
ja-sipara-puhi-i
kamijə-ny ja-sipara-puhi-i
1sg-ERG 1sg-axe-want-DYN
'I want [it], the axe'
Relative clauses are formed by adding a relativizing ('REL' below) suffix to the verb:
wãro-n
man-ERG
shama
tapir
shyra-wei
kill-REL
ware-ma
eat-COMPL
wãro-n shama shyra-wei ware-ma
man-ERG tapir kill-REL eat-COMPL
'the man who killed the tapir ate it'
Sanuma dialect also has a relative pronounĩ.
Loukotka (1968) lists the following basic vocabulary items for Yanomaman language varieties.[6]
| gloss | Shirianá | Parimiteri | Sanemá | Pubmatari | Waica | Karime | Paucosa | Surára |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| one | kauitxamhét | chaamí | muliman | mahón | ||||
| two | tasíma | polakabí | botokaki | porakabö | ||||
| three | tasimaimhét | hiːriːpólagʔa | prukatabö | |||||
| head | bel-éhe | pil-héawan | pi-hé | pei-hé | pei-yáhe | ne-umgipe | peːiua-hé | |
| ear | beli-yaméke | pilmórokwiːn | pi-xinkawán | yímikek | pei-yameke | peːiua-niumekakeː | ||
| tooth | beli-uáke | pil-nákwan | pi-nakuán | pei-uák | pei-uáke | ne-parike | peːiua-uáke | |
| man | horóme | waro | wandzyé | wanodá | ũálõ | uáru | uau | uhanó |
| water | mãepe | madzyu | maduú | mãõ | mahu | maú | maú | |
| fire | oáke | kwárogʔe | kuadák | koawáke | oáke | uauká | kauːwaká | |
| stone | mamáke | muadamiːn | máma | mama | ||||
| sun | belipshí | pilmórokwiːn | pilmoró | motóka | motúka | mitukaki | peniboːínshi | |
| manioc | nazygóke | naasʔís | nashita | makóke | ||||
| jaguar | déhe | póleawan | poʔlé | íla | téhe | ührá |
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