Chipaya language
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. Some linguists have proposed connections to the Arawakan or even Mayan languages, but so far neither of these arguments has much acceptance in the linguistic community. 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, to the extent that linguistists estimate only 67% of the Chipaya vocabulary is genuinely pure Chipayan.
The Chipayan language is spoken in the area of Lake Titicaca in the mountains of Peru, as well as along the Desaguadero River. Native speakers generally refer to it as Puquina or Uchun Maa Taqu ("our mother 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 | Palatal | Postalveolar | Velar | Uvular | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| plain | labialized | plain | labialized | ||||||
| Plosives | plain | p [p] | t [t] | č [c] | k [k] | kʷ [kʷ] | q [q] | ||
| ejective | p' [p’] | t' [tʼ] | č' [c'] | k' [kʼ] | q' [q'] | ||||
| Affricates | plain | ¢ [ts] | ch [tʃ] | ||||||
| ejective | ¢' [tsʼ] | ch' [tʃʼ] | |||||||
| Fricatives | s [s] | š [ç] | sh [ʃ] | h [x] | hʷ [xʷ] | x [Х] | xʷ [Хʷ] | ||
| Nasals | m [m] | n [n] | ň [ɲ] | ŋ [ŋ] | |||||
| Approximants | w [w] | y [j] | |||||||
| Laterals | l [l] | lʲ [lʲ] | |||||||
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].