Arhuaco language
| Arhuaco | |
|---|---|
| Ikʉ | |
| Native to | Colombia |
| Ethnicity | 14,800 Arhuacos (2001) |
|
Native speakers
|
8,000 (2009) |
|
Chibchan
|
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | |
| Glottolog | arhu1242 |
Arhuaco, commonly known as Ikʉ, is an Indigenous American language of the Chibchan language family, spoken in South America by the Arhuaco people.
It has 14,800 speakers, all in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta region of Colombia, 90% of whom are monolingual. Literacy is 1 to 5% in their native language. Some speak Spanish, and 15 to 25% are literate in that auxiliary language. The users have a very strong traditional culture and have vibrant use of their tongue.
It is also known as: Aruaco, Bintuk, Bíntukua, Bintucua, Ica, Ijca, Ijka, Ika, and Ike.
The language uses a subject–object–verb (SOV) sentence structure.
/ə/ is raised to and merged with /ɨ/ word finally.
This language registers 17 consonant phonemes:
Frank, Paul. 1985. A grammar of Ika. PhD thesis. University of Pennsylvania.
Frank, Paul. 2000. Ika syntax. Dallas, TX: Summer Institute of Linguistics.
Landaburu, Jon. 2000. La lengua Ika. in Lenguas indigenas de Colombia: Una visión descriptiva. Bogota: Instituto Caro y Cuervo.
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