Ocaina language

Ocaina is an indigenous American language spoken in western South America.

Ocaina
Xáfahxajoh
An Ocaina chief in 1924.
Native to	Peru, Colombia
Native speakers	55 (2000–2012)
Language family	Bora–Huitoto Huitoto–Ocaina Ocaina
Language codes
ISO 639-3	oca
Glottolog	ocai1244
ELP	Ocaina

Classification

Ocaina belongs to the Witotoan language family. It is its own group within the Huitoto-Ocaina sub-family.

Geographic distribution

Ocaina is spoken by 54 people in northeastern Peru and by 12 more in the Amazonas region of Colombia. Few children speak the language.

Dialects/Varieties

There are two dialects of Ocaina: Dukaiya and Ibo'tsa.

Phonology

Consonants

Ocaina consonant phonemes

		Bilabial	Alveolar	Postalveolar/ Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	lenis	m	n	ɲ
	fortis	mː	nː	ɲː
Plosive		p b	t r	tʲ dʲ	k ɡ	ʔ
Affricate			ts dz	tʃ dʒ
Fricative		ɸ β	s	ʃ ʒ	x	h

Vowels

Ocaina vowel phonemes

	Front	Central	Back
High	i, ĩ	ɨ, ɨ̃
Low	e	a, ã	o, õ

Tone

Syllables in Ocaina may be marked with one of two tones: high or low.

Syllables

Syllables in Ocaina consist of a vowel; single consonants may appear on either side of the vowel: (C)V(C).

Writing system

Ocaina is written using a Latin alphabet. A chart of symbols with the sounds they represent is as follows:

Latin	IPA
a	/a/
b	/b/
c	/k/ - /ts/
ch	/tʃ/
ds	/dz/
dy	/dʲ/
e	/e/
f	/ɸ/
g(u)	/ɡ/ - /h/
h	/ʔ/
i	/i/
j	/h/
k	/k/
ll	/dʒ/
m	/m/
m̈	/mː/
n	/n/
n̈	/nː/
ñ	/ɲ/
ñ̈	/ɲː/
o	/o/
p	/p/
qu	/k/
r	/r/
s	/s/
sh	/ʃ/
t	/t/
z	/ts/
ty	/tʲ/
u	/ɨ/
v	/β/
x	/x/
y	/ʒ/

• Because the Ocaina alphabet is based on Spanish, c is used to indicate /k/ before a, o, and u, qu is used before e and i, and k is used in loan words, such as kerosene "kerosene".
• Nasalization is indicated by inserting n after a vowel. Compare: tya tyója [tʲa tʲóha] "hang it" vs. tya tyonjan [tʲa tʲṍhã] "clean it".
• High tone is indicated with the acute accent: á, é, í, ó, ú.

References

• Agnew, Arlene; Pike, Evelyn G. (January 1957). "Phonemes of Ocaina (Huitoto)". International Journal of American Linguistics. 23 (1): 24–27. doi:10.1086/464385.
• Leach, Ilo M. (2008). Mary Ruth Wise (ed.). Vocabulario Ocaina (PDF). Serie Lingüística Peruana (in Spanish). Vol. 4 (2nd ed.). Yarinacocha, Peru: Instituto Lingüístico de Verano.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)