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 |
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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