Chipaya language

Chipaya
Puquina
Region	Bolivian Andes
Native speakers	1200 in 1995
Language family	Uru–Chipaya Chipaya
Language codes
ISO 639-3	cap
ELP	Chipaya

Chipaya is a native South American language of the Uru–Chipaya language family. The only other language in the grouping, Uru, is considered by some to be a divergent dialect of Chipaya. Ethnologue lists the language vitality as "vigorous," with 1200 speakers out of an ethnic population of around 1800. Chipaya has been influenced considerably by Aymara, Quechua, and more recently, Spanish, with a third of its vocabulary being replaced by those languages.

The Chipayan language is spoken in the area south of Lake Titicaca along the Desaguadero River in the mountains of Bolivia and mainly in the town of Santa Ana de Chipaya located in the Atahuallpa Province of the Bolivian department of Oruro north of Coipasa Salt Flats. Native speakers generally refer to it as Puquina or Uchun Maa Taqu ("our mother language"), but is not the same as the extinct Puquina language. Uru–Chipaya (as the language is commonly referred to, at least when referencing an aspect the dialects/languages have in common) is an agglutinating language, but has features uncommon to most language of this type, according to preliminary research by the organization DOBES.

Phonology

Consonants

		Bilabial	Alveolar	Post- alveolar	Palatal	Velar		Uvular
						plain	labialized	plain	labialized
Nasal		m  /m/	n  /n/	ň  /ɲ/		ŋ  /ŋ/
Plosive	plain	p  /p/	t  /t/		č  /c/	k  /k/	kʷ  /kʷ/	q  /q/
	ejective	p'  /pʼ/	t'  /tʼ/		č'  /cʼ/	k'  /kʼ/		q'  /qʼ/
Affricate	plain		¢  /ts/	ch  /tʃ/
	ejective		¢'  /tsʼ/	ch'  /tʃʼ/
Fricative			s  /s/	sh  /ʃ/	š  /ç/	h  /x/	hʷ  /xʷ/	x  /χ/	xʷ  /χʷ/
Approximant			l  /l/	lʲ  /lʲ/	y  /j/		w  /enwiki/w/

Consonant Clusters

Multiple possibilities are separated by slashes, and optional elements are enclosed in parentheses.

Possible syllable onsets are:

• (s/š) + p + (h)
• (s/š/sh) + k/q + (h/hʷ/x/xʷ)
• s/š + p/k/kʷ/q/qʷ/h/hʷ/m/n
• t + h/hʷ/x/xʷ
• ¢/č/ch/l + h

Possible syllable codas are:

• h/x + p/t/k/q/l/lʲ/r + (t)
• hʷ/xʷ + k/q + (t)
• Consonant + t

Vowels

• Vowels have continental values for a, [a], e [e], i [i], o, [o], and u [u]. Each vowel can be short, e.g., a [a], or long, e.g., a• [aː].

References

• Ethnologue: Languages of the World (unknown ed.). SIL International.

External links

• Entry for Chipaya at Rosetta Project
• DoBeS - Chipaya Language