Dâw language

Dâw
Kuri-Dou
Native to	Brazil
Region	Amazonas
Ethnicity	Dâw people
Native speakers	94 (2004)
Language family	Nadahup Dâw
Dialects	Kurikuriaí (Kurikuriari)
Language codes
ISO 639-3
Glottolog	daww1239
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Dâw is a Nadahup language spoken by about one hundred Dâw people in the northwestern part of Amazonas, Brazil, in an area commonly known as Alto Rio Negro. Most Dâw also speak Nheengatu and Portuguese.

An extinct variety, Kurikuria(r)í, named after the Curicuriari River, was a distinct language sociolinguistically, but at least partially intelligible with Dâw.

Dâw has 15 vowels:

Vowels are laryngealized when occurring beside a glottal stop, as seen in the examples below.

Vowel harmony in Dâw is seen primarily in two situations: in compounding and with the focus marker /-Vʔ/, where V indicates a vowel. When combining two words with the first word having the syllable structure CVC, vowel harmony is not seen, e.g. /pɔx/ "high" + /lã̌ʃ/ "boat" = /pɔxlã̌ʃ/ "airplane". However, when combining two words with the first word having the syllable structure CV, vowel harmony is seen, e.g. /xɔ̂/ "canoe" + /tɯm/ "eye" = /xɯtɯm/ "sun". The vowel of the focus marker /-Vʔ/ is the same as the vowel of the syllable it is appended to, e.g. /jɯ̂w/ "blood" + /-Vʔ/ = /jɯ̂wɯʔ/.

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