Shipibo–Konibo language

Shipibo-Conibo
Shipibo
Native toPeru
RegionUcayali Region
EthnicityShipibo-Conibo people
Native speakers
26,000 (2003)
Panoan
  • Mainline Panoan
    • Nawa
      • Chama
        • Shipibo-Conibo
Dialects
  • Shipibo–Konibo
  • Kapanawa
  • ?Xipináwa †
Language codes
ISO 639-3shp
Glottologship1254
Peruvian national anthem in Shipibo
National Anthem of Peru in Shipibo
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Shipibo (also Shipibo-Conibo, Shipibo-Konibo) is a Panoan language spoken in Peru and Brazil by approximately 26,000 speakers.

History

In 1557, the Spanish explorer Juan de Salinas y Loyola encountered the Kokama and Pariache; the latter have been identified as Konibo. He described them as though they had been organized into a chiefdom. Throughout the 18th century, the Shipibo, Konibo, and Xetebo allied with the Kokama to defend their territory from the Spaniards; they were successful until 1790. Afterwards, the Franciscans missionized them until their expulsion in the 1820s. They produced the first surviving works on Shipibo-Konibo, including a Konibo grammar sketch and vocabulary in 1800, though these would remain unpublished until a century later.

Dialects

A Shipibo jar

Shipibo has three attested dialects:

Extinct Xipináwa (Shipinawa) is thought to have been a dialect as well, but there is no linguistic data.

Phonology

Vowels

Monophthongs of Shipibo, from Valenzuela, Márquez Pinedo & Maddieson (2001:282)
Monophthong phonemes
Front Central Back
Close i ĩ ⟨i⟩ ɯ ɯ̃ ⟨e⟩
Mid o õ ⟨o⟩
Open a ã ⟨a⟩

In connected speech, two adjacent vowels may be realized as a rising diphthong. /i/ and /o/ are lower than their cardinal counterparts (in addition to being more front in the latter case): [i̞], [o̽], /ɯ/ is more front than cardinal [ɯ]: [ɯ̟], whereas /a/ is more close and more central [ɐ] than cardinal [a]. The first three vowels tend to be somewhat more central in closed syllables, whereas /ɯ/ before coronal consonants (especially /n, t, s/) can be as central as [ɨ].

Nasalization

The oral vowels /i, ɯ, o, a/ are phonetically nasalized [ĩ, ɯ̃, õ, ã] after a nasal consonant, but the phonological behaviour of these allophones is different from the nasal vowel phonemes /ĩ, ɯ̃, õ, ã/. Oral vowels in syllables preceding syllables with nasal vowels are realized as nasal, but not when a consonant other than /w, j/ intervenes.

Unstressed vowels

The second of two adjacent unstressed vowels is often elided. Unstressed vowels may be devoiced or even elided between two voiceless obstruents.

Consonants

Consonant phonemes
Labial Dental/
Alveolar		 Retroflex Palato-
alveolar		 Dorsal Glottal
Nasal m ⟨m⟩ n ⟨n⟩
Plosive p ⟨p⟩ t ⟨t⟩ k ⟨c/qu⟩
Affricate ts ⟨ts⟩ tʃ ⟨ch⟩
Fricative voiceless s ⟨s⟩ ʂ ⟨s̈h⟩ ʃ ⟨sh⟩ h ⟨j⟩
voiced β ⟨b⟩
Approximant w ⟨hu⟩ ɻ ⟨r⟩ j ⟨y⟩

References

  1. ↑ Shipibo-Conibo at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. 1 2 Valenzuela, Pilar M. (2003). Transitivity in Shipibo-Konibo Grammar (PDF) (phd thesis). Eugene, OR: Ann Arbor: UMI.
  3. 1 2 3 Fleck (2013), p. 18.
  4. ↑ Fleck (2013), p. 14.
  5. ↑ Loukotka, Čestmír (1968). Wilbert, Johannes (ed.). Classification of South American Indian Languages (PDF) (4th ed.). Latin American Center, UCLA: Latin American Center, University of California Los Angeles. ISBN 9780879031077.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Valenzuela, Márquez Pinedo & Maddieson (2001), p. 282.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Valenzuela, Márquez Pinedo & Maddieson (2001), p. 283.
  8. ↑ Valenzuela, Márquez Pinedo & Maddieson (2001), pp. 282–283.
  9. 1 2 3 Valenzuela, Márquez Pinedo & Maddieson (2001), p. 281.

Bibliography