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Nukak language

Nukak
Guaviare
Pronunciation [nɨkák náuʔ]
Native to Colombia
Region Department of Guaviare, Amazon Basin
Ethnicity Nukak
Native speakers
700 of Nukak proper (2010)
400 monolinguals (no date)
Dialects
Official status
Official language in
In Colombia it is recognized as an official language within the Nukak territory
Regulated by Instituto Colombiano de Antropología e Historia
Language codes
ISO 639-3
Glottolog kaku1242
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

The Nukak language is a language of uncertain classification, perhaps part of the small Nadahup (Makú) language family. It is mutually intelligible with Kakwa.

There are six oral and six nasal vowels.

The vowel [u] becomes the labial semivowel [w] in several environments: in postnuclear position (when it appears immediately after the nuclear vowel of a morpheme), before another vowel, and at the beginning of the word or syllable. The semivowel [w] is devoiced (IPA symbol [ʍ]) if the tone rises and the following vowel is [i], [ĩ], [ɨ].

The vowel [i] becomes the palatal semivowel [j] in postnuclear position.

There are eleven consonant phonemes: /p/; /b/ (realized as [m] with a nasal vowel, otherwise as [mb] at the start of a word, and as [bm] at the end of a word); /t/; /d/ (realized as [n] with a nasal vowel, otherwise as [nd] at the start of a word, and as [dn] at the end of a word); /tʃ/ (realized as [ts] or [tʃ] in free variation); /ɟ/ (realized as [ɲ] in a nasal environment); /k/; /ɡ/ (realized as [ŋ] in a nasal environment); /ɺ/ (lateral sonorant, alternating with the approximant [ɹ], the tap [ɾ], and the lateral approximant [l]); /h/; /ʔ/ (the glottal stop).


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