Achagua, or Achawa ( aca, Achawa), is an
Arawakan language spoken in the
Meta Department
Meta () is a departments of Colombia, department of Colombia. It is close to the geographic center of the country, to the east of the Andean mountains. A large portion of the department, which is also crossed by the Meta River, is covered by a ...
of
Colombia
Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...
, similar to
Piapoco
Piapoco is an Arawakan language of Colombia and Venezuela.
A "Ponares" language is inferred from surnames, and may have been Piapoco or Achagua.
History
Piapoco is a branch of the Arawak language, which also includes Achagua and Tariana. P ...
. It is estimated that 250 individuals speak the language, many of whom also speak Piapoco or
Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries
**Spanish cuisine
Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Can ...
.
"Achagua is a language of the
Maipurean Arawakan group traditionally spoken by the Achagua people of Venezuela and east-central Colombia."
A "Ponares" language is inferred from surnames, and may have been Achawa or Piapoco.
There is 1 to 5% literacy in Achagua.
Phonology
Consonants
* /n/ is realized as when preceding palatal consonants.
* /k/ is palatalized when preceding /i/.
* Sounds /b, d/ are preglottalized within accented syllables or after accented syllables.
* /b/ is realized as when occurring intervocalically.
* /w/ is realized as when preceding /i/.
* /s̪/ is realized as when preceding /i/.
* /ʝ/ is heard as an affricate in word-initial positions. It can also be realized as a glide freely in intervocalic positions.
* /ɭ/ can be heard as a flap in free variation before /i/.
Vowels
Notes
External links
*
*
OLAC resources in and about the Achagua languageListen to a sample of Achagua from Global Recordings Network*
The Archive of Indigenous Languages of Latin America https://www.ailla.utexas.org/islandora/search/Achagua?type=dismax
Languages of Colombia
Arawakan languages
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