Awa Pit language

Located in the region of Colombia and Ecuador, the Awa or Awa Pit speaking people is an indigenous group settled between the Andes Mountains and the Western Coast. Awa Pit or otherwise known as Cuaiquer (Coaiquer, Cuayquer, Kwaiker, Kwayquer, etc.), in both group and name, is classified as part of the Barbacoan language.[3] Another term that this group goes by is the “Inkal Awa''or the mountain people, to distinguish themselves from other indigenous groups within that region[3].Awa pit is classified by UNESCO as a severely endangered language.[4] The Awa pit language has a subject–object–verb structure and has adopted the Latin script.[5] Grammatically, Awa pit uses a characteristic conjunct/disjunct system of verb suffixes for person-marking which displays similarities with some Tibeto-Burman languages, such as the Newari language of Kathmandu.[3][6][7]

Cuaiquer
Awa Pit
Native toColombia, Ecuador
Ethnicity15,000 Awa-Kwaiker (2007)[1]
Native speakers
13,000 (2008)[1]
Barbacoan
Language codes
ISO 639-3kwi
Glottologawac1239
ELPAwa Pit[2]

Speakers and characteristics

The Awa pit language has around 21 thousand speakers, mostly residing on the Colombian Pacific slopes of the Andes, with about a thousand in an adjacent area of Ecuador.[5] The Awa Pit language is spoken less and less each year. In a study done in 2008 there were about 12,000 Awa Pit speakers, but as of 2011 there are about 2,100 speakers left in the provinces of northern Ecuador.[8] Most Awa women are monolingual to the Awa Pit language, while some men can speak both spanish and Awa Pit and a very few of these Awa Pit speakers can both read and write the language.[3] Literacy among Awa speakers is less than 1% in their native language and under 5% in the secondary Spanish language.[5] The Awa people are mostly farmers. Their crops include plantains, corn, sugarcane, and beans.[3] Many of the Awa do not live near each other, they live in scattered settlements often 2-3 kilometers apart, and often move depending on the planting and harvesting seasons.[3]

Phonology

The Awa pit inventory is as follows:[9][10]

Awa Pit alphabet and pronunciation[11]

Aa          Ãã               Ch  ch            Ee                     Ẽẽ                 Ii                   Ĩ ĩ           [a]         [t𐊖~ts]            [e]             [e]                     [i]                [i]                  [ɨ]
Ɨɨ           Ɨɨ                   Jj           K k                   Ll                    Mm                    N
[ɨ]         [ɨ̃]                  [ʤ]           [k]                   [l]                   [m]                 [n]


Ñ ñ            Pp                 Rr              Ss                     sh                T t                 Uu
[n]           [p]                 [r]            [s]                    [ 𐊖]               [t]                 [u]


Ũ ũ           Vv                 Ww              Yy                      Zz              Zh zh                 ꞌ
[ũ]           [v]                [w]            [j]                      [z]              [𝔷]                 [?]

other letters 
 h              kw                   ng
 [ᑋ]            [kʷ]               [ ᶇ]

     Ɨ̃  ɨ̃ ʥ  



Sample text in Awa Pit[12]
Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.

Maza wantuz awa m+jan wuantuz nitchatpa karakas m+nkaskachapmuchi Mamaz kualtuz puchakas awapit relionkaz upini6nkaz politikakaz mamaztusne indulekaz nacionalkaz socialkaz posicionkaz pialkaz chikta mamaztuskaz kunticionkaz.
Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.

Suntakaz sarawai tisticionkaz chiwuasha kunticionkaz jurftika internacionalkaz paiskaz territuiukas mamaz kupairuwai p+na kaiztawuai intepetientene purai atministracionne autunumukaz napt+t

https://omniglot.com/writing/awapit.htm

Consonant phonemes
Bilabial Alveolar Postalveolar Palatal Velar
plain lateral
Nasal m n ŋ
Stop p t k
Fricative voiceless s ɬ ʃ
voiced z ʒ
Approximant l j w
Vowel phonemes
Front Central Back
Close i ɨ u
Open a

Word Forms

Possessive Word Forms

Possessive word formations in Awa Pit can be used to decipher or specify a certain kind of function or occurrence. These range from location-object, material-object, whole-parts of something, and definitions very reminiscent of English prepositions. This is partly because of the usage of ‘relational nouns’. Possession seems to be the main connection that these functions have and in the case of Awa Pit, the postposition pa is a known marker or using possessive adjectives is another way. It is also explained that “In some cases, however, there is an alternation between a possessive postposition with pa, a possessive adjective, and a bare noun modifier, where the bare noun acting as a modifier must occur directly before the noun it modifies… the alternation between these constructions can be seen to depend on humanness and referentiality”.[3] This means that if a modifying noun is labelled human and referential then a postpositional word form is utilized. A possessive adjective is used instead if the non-head part is considered pronominal.

Examples[3]

EX) Santos = pa     pimpul         EX) ap        pimpul           EX) kwizha        pimpul

Santos = POSS   leg                my       leg                           dog              leg

‘Santos’s leg’                                    ‘my leg’                              ‘the leg of (a/the) dog’

EX) awa = wa    pit

Person = POSS      language/tongue

‘(the) person’s tongue [most likely]; (the) person’s way of speaking [unlikely]’

EX) awa                pit

person                    language/tongue

‘the language of the people (Awa Pit) [most likely]; human tongues [unlikely]’

“Ideas of alienable possession and kinship relations necessarily involve the use of the postpositional or possessive adjective constructions (with the exception of “plural possessive adjectives”), rather than a bare noun modifier”[3]

Alienable possession and kinship are basically referential humans but there are a few cases where possession are fluid enough to contain higher animates therefore treating it like as if is was human (Awa Pit ‘personifies it in question’).

kwizha = wa       pelota

dog = POSS       ball

‘the dog’s ball’


Plural Possessive Adjectives

Singular possessive adjectives happen in the assumed slot and descriptive adjectives happen between the possessive adjective and the main head noun itself:

ap katsa til       kuzhu

my   big        black pig

‘my big black pig’

There are no specific plural possessive adjective constructions because “In order to translate a phrase such as our house, speakers of Awa Pit have two options: the more common option is to simply use the singular possessive adjective:”[3]

ap yal

my  house

‘my house, our house’

There is another option and that is to use the plural subject pronoun (unmalleable) into the bare noun modifier: (no adjectives can get between the pronoun and the subsequent noun)

au   yal

we  house

‘our house’

Alienable Possession and Kinship Relations

Non-head nominal is considered referential and human, and the involvement of pa or a possessive adjective is needed.  Kinship relations are similar to alienable possession but is different when it comes to body-part possession because the non-head noun is not considered human nor referential. Essentially in Awa Pit, there is no difference between alienable and inalienable possession in an NP. That is due to the fact that different forms are reserved for referential human possession no matter the possession’s nature.[3]

1) Santos = pa   kuzhu

Santos = POSS  pig

‘Santos’s pig’

2) Carmen = pa  ayshpihsh

Carmen = POSS  sister

‘Carmen’s sister’

3) paynya cuchillo

his        knife

‘his  knife’

4) ap akkwa

my  mother

‘my  mother’

Whole-Part

Part whole relations are incorporated in the same fashion as possession in Awa Pit. In this case, the whole acts as a modifier while the part acts as the head noun. The modifier whole could be a referential human and that means that the formation with pa or a possessive adjective are utilized. Non-referential human or non-humans traced with bare-nouns are likely to be used as well. It is also worth mentioning that Awa Pit is a Barbacoa language that specializes in placing part-whole relationships with a bare noun or a ‘genitive marker’.[3]

1) Santos = pa  sayl

Santos = POSS  arm

‘Santos’s arm’

2) ap   pimpul

my  leg

‘Santos’s arm’

3) awa  kizpu

person  head

‘a human’s head’

4) ti  aya

tree  skin

‘(tree) bark’

Inflections

In terms of tense inflections, there are formal markers when referring to the past and the future in Awa Pit, and there is also an extra subtle category that helps express the present. Basically, if a marker for the past or future does not display itself in a sentence, then the string of inflections most likely represents the present. It is worth saying that the present is marked by a zero morpheme in a ‘pure structuralist form’, since tense markers happen after mood suffixes just before any person markers can appear.[3]

1) ku-mtu-ata-w

eat-IMP-PAST

‘I was eating’

2) ku-mtu-ani-s

eat-IMP-FUTURE

‘I will be eating’

3) ku-mtu-s

eat-IMP-PRESENT

‘I am eating’

There are also mood inflections that display a variety of meanings and discover a less cooperative group than the rest in semantically and syntactically manners. The mood marker na is only utilized for past counterfactual clauses such as before tense marking and after person marking. An s would be used for Locutor while an unmarked form would go for the Non-Locutor. Negation and interrogation inflections are only used for content question forms or by going through auxiliary verbs. The inflectional marker ma is considered both a negative inflectional marker and a ‘homophonous interrogative marker’ at the same time.[3]

Sentence Structure

Parts of Speech: noun, pronoun, adjective, verbs, post-positions, adverbs, interjections, discourse particles

AOV/SV organization

A=transitive subject, O=transitive object, V=verb, SV=serial verb marker, ACC=accusative

Constituent order:
Subject Temporal Adjuncts Locational Adjuncts Circumstantial Adjuncts Non-subject Complements Manner Adverbials Verb

Temporal adjuncts-when, how long, or how frequent the action happened

Locational adjuncts-where the action happened

Circumstantial adjuncts-adds information about the action

Non-subject complements-

Manner adverbials- tell how something happens (happily, tragically, simply, gently, etc.)

[3]

Noun Phrase Construction:
Either:

-Possessive adjective

-Demonstrative adjective

-PostPositional phrase

 Quantifier Descriptive Adjective Noun

[3]

Word Classes:
=na ‘Topic marker’
=miŋ ‘Restrictive marker’
=kas ‘Additive marker’
=ma ‘Interrogative marker’
=ma ‘Temporal marker’
=ka ‘Emphasis marker’

[3]

Noun Phrase
an kɨh
this leaf
DemAdj N

“This leaf.”

P.118

[3]

Noun Phrase
katsa yal
big house
adj noun

“A large house”

P.91

[3]

Noun Phrase (past)
wakata ii-tɨ-zi
cattle die-PAST-NONLOCUT

“The cow died”

P.120

[3]

Plural Possessive adjectives
au yal
we house

“Our house.”

P.124

ap yal
mine/my house
adj noun

“My house, our house.”

p.124

-a speaker can use singular form or the plural subject pronoun [3]

Noun Phrase

[3]

(next two examples) shows Unmarked nature of S and A, and the division of O between referential human (accusatory) and other (unmarked)
Demetrio na-wa pyan-tɨ-tɨ-s
Demetrio 1SG-ACC hit-TERM-PAST-LOCUS:UNDER
A O V

“Demetrio hit me.”

Demetrio kuzhu pay-t kway-zi
Demetrio pig buy-SV DROP-NONLOCUT
A O (not ref. human) V

“Demetrio bought a pig.”

p.65

Transitive Verbs
na=na Santos=ta namna-mtu-s
1SG. (NOM)=TOP Santos=ACC follow/catch:up-IMPF-LOCUT
Subj Obj V

“I am following Santos.”

P.100

[3]

Ditransitive Verbs
Camilo=na na-wa pala kwin-tɨ-s
Camilo=TOP 1SG-ACC plantain give-PAST-LOCUT:UNDER
Subj Obj(1) Obj(2) V

“Camilo gave me a plantain.”

P.101

[3]

Postpositional Phrase
[mesa=ta libro] kwin-zha
[table=in book] give-IMP. 1OBJ
locPP noun

“Give me the book on the table.”

p.118

[3]

Causative
tɨnta awa uk man ki-nin-tu
strong person stone move(1) move(2)-CAUS-IMPFPART

“The strong man moved the stone (caused the stone to move).”

P.165

[3]

Semblative postposition
shitshu=kana kwiyan-tu=na
bird=like cry-IMPFPART=TOP

“She cries like a bird.”

p.144

[3]

References
  1. Cuaiquer at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
  2. Endangered Languages Project data for Awa Pit.
  3. Curnow, Timothy Jowan (1997). A Grammar of Awa Pit (Cuaiquer): An indigenous language of south-western Colombia. PhD Thesis, Australian National University, Canberra. Retrieved 23 April 2012.
  4. Haboud, Marleen; Adelaarurl, Willem (2008). "Awapit" . In: Moseley, Christopher, ed (2010). Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger, 3rd edn, Paris. UNESCO Publishing (online version). Retrieved 23 April 2012.
  5. Awa–Cuaiquer, per SIL, Ethnologue, 1986 and 1991. Retrieved 23 April 2012.
  6. Curnow, Timothy Jowan (2 May 2002). "Conjunct/disjunct marking in Awa Pit". Linguistics – An Interdisciplinary Journal of the Language Sciences 40(3):611-627.(subscription required)
  7. Cysouw, Michael (2003). "The Paradigmatic Structure of Person Marking", p 43–44. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199554263
  8. "Awa Pit / Cuaiquer alphabet, pronunciation and language". omniglot.com. Retrieved 2020-12-11.
  9. Curnow, Timothy Jowan; Liddicoat, Anthony J (1998). "The Barbacoan languages of Colombia and Ecuador". Anthropological Linguistics 40(3):384-408.(subscription required)
  10. https://omniglot.com/writing/awapit.htm https://omniglot.com/writing/awapit.htm. Missing or empty |title= (help); External link in |website= (help)
  11. https://omniglot.com/writing/awapit.htm https://omniglot.com/writing/awapit.htm. Missing or empty |title= (help); External link in |website= (help)
  12. https://omniglot.com/writing/awapit.htm https://omniglot.com/writing/awapit.htm. Missing or empty |title= (help); External link in |website= (help)
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