Movima | |
---|---|
Chosineɬ di' mowi:maj | |
Native to | Bolivia |
Region | Beni Department |
Native speakers
|
ca. 1,400 (2006) |
Official status | |
Official language in
|
Bolivia |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 |
|
Glottolog | movi1243 |
Movima is a language that is spoken by about 1,400 (nearly half) of the Movima, a group of Native Americans that resides in the Llanos de Moxos region of the Bolivian Amazon, in northeastern Bolivia. It is considered a language isolate, as it has not been proven to be related to any other language.
Movima has five vowels:
/e/ and /o/ more closely resemble [ɛ] and [ɔ], respectively, than the close-mid vowels [e] and [o]. Vowels have a phonemic length distinction, although some prosodic processes can lengthen otherwise short vowels. Movima does not have tone.
The plosive /p/ is realized as [p] in the syllable onset but as [pʔᵐ] (which contrasts with the simple nasal phoneme /m/) in the coda. Similarly, /t/ and /k/ are realized as [tʔⁿ] and [ʔɤ] (i.e., as a glottal stop with a vocalic release), respectively, in the syllable coda. In vowel-initial words and between adjacent vowels, an epenthetic glottal stop appears.
The phonemes /f/ and /ɡ/ are only present in Spanish loanwords.