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Matsiguenga language

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(Redirected from Machiguenga language) Arawakan language spoken in Peru ‹ The template Infobox language is being considered for merging. ›
Machiguenga
Matsigenka
Native toPeru
Ethnicity13,000 Machiguenga (2007)
Native speakers6,200 (2007)
Language familyArawakan
  • Southern
Language codes
ISO 639-3Either:
mcb – Machiguenga
cox – Nanti (Pucapucari)
Glottologmats1245
ELPMachiguenga

Machiguenga (Matsigenka) is a major Arawakan language in the Campa sub-branch of the family. It is spoken in the Urubamba River Basin and along the Manu River in the Cusco and Madre de Dios departments of Peru by around 6,200 people. According to Ethnologue, it is experiencing pressure from Spanish and Quechua in the Urubamba region, but is active and healthy in the Manu region (most speakers are monolingual in Matsigenka). It is close enough to Nomatsiguenga that the two are sometimes considered dialects of a single language; both are spoken by the Machiguenga people. Nanti is partially mutually intelligible but ethnically distinct.

There is extensive morphological inflection in Matsigenka; it is considered to be polysynthetic and features an agglutinative morphology, where both suffixes and prefixes are used to mark various inflectional categories.

Phonology

Consonants

Labial Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
plain pal. plain pal.
Plosive p t k
Affricate t͡s t͡ʃ
Fricative β s ʃ ɣ ɣʲ h
Nasal m n ɲ
Rhotic r
  • Sounds /p, t, tʲ/ are heard as voiced after nasal consonants. They may also be heard as prenasalized in word-initial positions.
  • /β/ can be heard as approximant sounds intervocalically between /a/. It can also be heard as a voiced plosive after nasals, and as prenasal in word-initial position.
  • Sounds /ɣ, ɣʲ/ can be heard as approximant sounds intervocalically in syllable-initial position, and /ɣʲ/ as [j] in free variation in word-initial position. They are also heard as after nasal sounds. /ɣ, ɣʲ/ can be heard as prenasal in word-initial position.
  • /n/ can be heard as [ŋ] before velar sounds.

Vowels

Front Back
Close i u
Mid e o
Open a
  • /i, u/ can be heard as semivowels when preceding vowels.

References

  1. ^ Machiguenga at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
    Nanti (Pucapucari) at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. Snell, Betty (1978). Machiguenga: Fonología y Vocabulario Breve (in Spanish). Pucallpa: Instituto Lingüístico del Verano.
Languages of Peru
Spanish varieties
Indigenous
languages
Arawakan
Campa
Piro
Upper AmazonResígaro
Western
Aymaran
Bora–Witoto
Cahuapanan
Jivaroan
Panoan
Quechuan
Cajamarca–Cañaris
Central
Lowland
Southern
Tucanoan
Tupian
Zaparoan
Isolates and other
Sign languages
Arawakan (Maipurean) languages
Northern
Caribbean
Palikuran
Pidjanan
Upper Amazon
Western Nawiki
Eastern Nawiki
Central Upper Amazon
Manao
Southern
Western
Central Maipurean
Piro
Bolivia–Parana
Campa
Macro-Arawakan


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