The Hodï (Jodï, JotÃ, Hoti) language, also known as Yuwana (Yoana), Waruwaru, or Chikano (Chicano), is a small
unclassified language
An unclassified language is a language whose genetic affiliation to other languages has not been established. Languages can be unclassified for a variety of reasons, mostly due to a lack of reliable data but sometimes due to the confounding inf ...
spoken by the
Hodï
The Hodï or Jotï (from the Hodï word for "people") are a small group of indigenous people who live in the Amazon rainforest in Venezuela. The last census held in Venezuela, in 2011, registered 982 individuals identifying as Hodï; a 2016 estima ...
people of
Venezuela
Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...
. Very little is known of it; its several hundred speakers are monolingual hunter-gatherers. The people call themselves ''Jojodö'' ('the people') or ''Wįlǫ̈'', and their language ''Jojodö tjįwęnę''.
Sources are inconsistent with nasals, varying between e.g. ''nV'' and ''lá¹¼''.
Classification
No classification of Hodï has yet been established to the satisfaction of linguists.
Attempts have been made to link Hodï with the nearby
Piaroa–Saliban languages
The Piaroa–Saliban, also known as Saliban (in spanish : ''Sálivan''), are a small proposed language family of the middle Orinoco Basin, which forms an independent island within an area of Venezuela and Colombia (northern ''llanos'') dominated ...
. A recent proposal classifies Hodï and (Piaroa–)Saliban as the branches of a single Jodï–Saliban
macrofamily
In historical linguistics, a macrofamily, also called a superfamily or phylum, is a proposed genetic relationship grouping together language families (also isolates) in a larger scale classification.Campbell, Lyle and Mixco, Mauricio J. (2007), '' ...
. However, similarities in vocabulary with the Piaroa–Saliban languages may in fact be due to
sprachbund
A sprachbund (, lit. "language federation"), also known as a linguistic area, area of linguistic convergence, or diffusion area, is a group of languages that share areal features resulting from geographical proximity and language contact. The lang ...
ing: Henley, Mattéi-Müller and Reid (1996) argue that the apparent
cognate
In historical linguistics, cognates or lexical cognates are sets of words in different languages that have been inherited in direct descent from an etymology, etymological ancestor in a proto-language, common parent language. Because language c ...
s between Hodï and Piaroa–Saliban are rather
loanword
A loanword (also loan word or loan-word) is a word at least partly assimilated from one language (the donor language) into another language. This is in contrast to cognates, which are words in two or more languages that are similar because th ...
s.
Limited by poor data, Henley et al. argue that Hodï may be related to the
Nadahup languages
The Naduhup languages, also known as Makú (Macú) or ''Vaupés–Japurá'', form a small language family in Brazil, Colombia, and Venezuela. The name '' Makú'' is pejorative, being derived from an Arawakan word meaning "without speech". ''Na ...
. The only linguist to speak Hodï and
Piaroa
The Piaroa people, known among themselves as the ''Huottüja'' or ''De'aruhua'', are a pre-Columbian South American indigenous ethnic group of the middle Orinoco Basin in present-day Colombia and Venezuela, living in an area larger than Belgium, ...
, Stanford Zent, has collected more reliable data and argues that it is "probably" related to the Piaroa–Saliban languages.
Since 1985 a relationship to the
Yanomaman languages
Yanomaman, also as Yanomam, Yanomáman, Yamomámi, and Yanomamana (also Shamatari, Shirianan), is a family of languages spoken by about 20,000 Yanomami people in southern Venezuela and northwestern Brazil (Roraima, Amazonas).
Subdivision
Ferr ...
has also been suggested, in part on the grounds that Hodï shares 20% of its vocabulary with this family, but this hypothesis has since been largely rejected.
Phonology
The first phonological analysis is Vilera DÃaz (1985). She largely retains the vocalic description of earlier researchers, apart from finding vowel length is a product of emphasis, but does not state whether vowel nasalization is phonemic, and does not provide a minimal pair for /o/ vs /u/.
[Vilera DÃaz, Diana C. 1985. "Introducción morfológica de la lengua Hoti". Thesis in Anthropology. Caracas: Universidad Central de Venezuela.]
The mid central vowel is written .
;Vowels
Quatra (2008) maintains that
›and
‘are distinct phonemes, but does not provide any minimal pairs to demonstrate that. He also maintains that
˜and
‘are only nasalized following nasal consonants.
;Consonants
There is no minimal pair for /β/, so it is not clear that it's a separate phoneme.
/n/ is
‹before a velar. /k/ and /kʲ/ are
¡, ɡʲafter a nasal and occasionally intervocalicly. Intervocalic /l/ is
º /b/ (perhaps É“) is
“Ê·before /i e o/. /É—/ was written 'd' due to lack of typewriter support. It's not clear why /w/ is placed in the labial rather than the labio-velar column, nor why it isn't paired with /hÊ·/.
ʲvaries as
ʃʲ and
Ê’varies as
²in all contexts, not just adjacent to nasal vowels.
Phonetic aspiration occurs at boundaries, often before voiceless consonants and always before /l/.
The voiced stops are realized as nasals
nbetween nasal vowels. From the orthography, it is assumed that the 'aspirated' consonants are pre-aspirated, but there are no minimal pairs to establish them as phonemic.
Bibliography
*Guarisma P., V.; Coppens, W. (1978). Vocabulario Hoti. Antropológica, 49:3-27. GUDSCHINSKY, S. C. (1974). Fragmentos de Ofaié: a descrição de uma lÃngua extinta. Série LingüÃstica, 3:177-249. BrasÃlia: SIL.
*Krisólogo B., P. J. (1976). Manual glotológico del idioma wo'tiheh. (Lenguas indÃgenas de Venezuela, 16.) Caracas: Centro de lenguas Indigenas, Instituto de Investigaciones Historicas, Universidad Católica "Andrés Bello".
*Mattei-Müller, M. (1981). Vocabulario Hodï (Hoti). (Manuscript).
*Quatra, M. M. (2008). Bajkewa jkwïkïdëwa-jya jodï ine - Dodo ine. Diccionario básico Castellano - Jodï. Caracas: Ediciones IVIC.
References
External links
* Alain Fabre 2005. ''Diccionario etnolingüÃstico y guÃa bibliográfica de los pueblos indÃgenas sudamericanos''
HOTIYuwana(
Intercontinental Dictionary Series
The Intercontinental Dictionary Series (commonly abbreviated as IDS) is a large database of topical vocabulary lists in various world languages. The general editor of the database is Bernard Comrie of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary An ...
)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hodi language
Indigenous languages of the Americas
Jodi–Saliban languages