Secoya language
| Secoya | |
|---|---|
| Paikoka | |
| Native to | Ecuador, Peru |
| Region | Putumayo River, Vaupés River |
| Ethnicity | Secoya people |
|
Native speakers
|
1,200 (2007) |
|
Tucanoan
|
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | |
| Glottolog | seco1241 |
The Secoya language has been classified as a member of the Tucanoan linguistic family and the sub-family, Western Tucanoan, in Ecuador and Peru. The remaining sub-families are Eastern Tucanoan and Central Tucanoan, comprising at least fourteen languages spoken in the region of the Vaupés River in Colombia and Brazil. Included among the Secoya are a number of people called Angoteros. Although their language comprises only some dialectal differences of Secoya, there are no other communicative obstacles present. The Siona of the Eno River, linguistically different from the Siona of the Putumayo, say there are significant dialectal differences between their language and Secoya, but are still considered a part of them. In ethnographic publications, the Secoya go by other alternate names as well: Encabellado, Pioje (meaning "no" in Secoya), Santa Maria, and Angutera.
The voiceless stops /p, t, k, kʷ/ are the same as Spanish, however the aspiration is more articulated in Secoya. The phoneme /t/ is pronounced with the tip of the tongue making contact with the upper teeth. The velar-labialized /kʷ/ is pronounced similarly to /k/, but with rounding of the lips. The glottal stop /ʔ/ almost disappears when strong stress on the previous syllable does not occur.
In intervocalic context, the voiced stop /d/ is performed by the simple variant [r], equal to the Spanish intervocalic /r/. Nasal speech is performed with the nasal consonant [n].
The voiceless phonemes /sʰ/ and /h/ are both articulated in the alveolar position, making them difficult to distinguish. The /s/ is pronounced a little harder and determines a dull elongation prior to an unstressed vowel. The phoneme /zʰ/ has some laryngeal stress and expresses the laryngealization on adjacent vowels.
The nasal consonant /m/ is pronounced the same as in Spanish. The sound n, which is phonemic in other Western Tucanoan languages, is contained in Secoya as a variant of the voiced stop /d/.
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Wikipedia