The Uwa language, ''Uw Cuwa'', commonly known as Tunebo, is a
Chibchan
The Chibchan languages (also Chibchan, Chibchano) make up a language family indigenous to the Isthmo-Colombian Area, which extends from eastern Honduras to northern Colombia and includes populations of these countries as well as Nicaragua, Costa ...
language spoken by between 1,800 and 3,600 of the
Uwa people of
Colombia, out of a total population of about 7,000.
[Adelaar & Muysken (2004:109)]
Varieties
There are half a dozen known varieties. Communication between modern varieties can be difficult, so they are considered distinct languages.
Adelaar (2004) lists the living
*central dialects Cobaría and Tegría on the northern slopes of the
Sierra Nevada del Cocuy
The Sierra Nevada del Cocuy Chita or Guican National Natural Park (or Sierra Nevada de Chita or Sierra Nevada de Güicán, es, Parque Natural Sierra Nevada del Cocuy Chita o Guican is a national park and a series of highlands and glaciated peaks l ...
,
*a western group near
Agua Blanca in the departments of
Santander
Santander may refer to:
Places
* Santander, Spain, a port city and capital of the autonomous community of Cantabria, Spain
* Santander Department, a department of Colombia
* Santander State, former state of Colombia
* Santander de Quilichao, a m ...
and
Norte de Santander
North Santander (Spanish: Norte de Santander) () is a department of Northeastern Colombia. It is in the north of the country, bordering Venezuela. Its capital is Cúcuta, one of the country's major cities.
North Santander is bordered by Vene ...
,
*an eastern group at a place called ''Barro Negro'' in the lowlands of
Arauca and
Casanare,
*and the extinct dialect Sínsiga near
Chita, Boyacá
Chita is a town and municipality in the Colombian Department of Boyacá, part of the Valderrama Province a subregion of Boyaca in Colombia.
Municipalities of Boyacá Department
{{Boyacá-geo-stub ...
.
Umaña (2012) lists Cobaría, Tegría, Agua Blanca, Barro Negro.
Berich lists the dialects Cobaría; Agua Blanca (= Uncasía, Tamarana, Sta Marta); Rinconada, Tegría, Bócota, & Báchira
Cassani lists Sínsiga, Tegría, Unkasía (= Margua), Pedraza, Manare, Dobokubí (= Motilón)
Osborn (1989) lists
*Bethuwa (= Pedraza, extinct),
*Rikuwa (Dukarúa, = Agua Blanca),
*Tagrinuwa (Tegría),
*Kubaruwa (Cobaría),
*Kaibaká (= Bókota),
*Yithkaya (= San Miguel / Barro Negro),
*Bahiyakuwa (= Sínsiga),
*Biribirá,
*and Ruba,
the latter all extinct
Fabre (2005) lists:
*Bontoca (perhaps the same as the Bókota = Kaibaká cited in Osborn), of the mountains of
Guican
*Cobaría, along the Cobaría River
*Pedraza or Bethuwa
Angosturas? along the Venezuelan border; extinct
*Sínsiga, in the Guican mountains, recorded from
Chita, Boyaca in 1871
*Tegría or Tagrinuwa, along the Cobaría River
*Unkasia, along the Chitiga and Marga rivers (Telban 1988)
Additional names in Loukotka are Manare and Uncasica (presumably a spelling variant of Unkasía/Uncacía), as well as Morcote, of which nothing is known. Manare, at the source of the Casanare, is Eastern Tunebo.
Phonology
Vowel
Consonants
Notes
References
*
*Alain Fabre, 2005.
Diccionario etnolingüístico y guía bibliográfica de los pueblos indígenas sudamericanos'.
*Edna R. Headland, 1994. ''Diccionario Bilingüe Tunebo-Español, Español-Tunebo con una breve gramática tuneba''. Ann Arbor: UMI.
External links
uwacolombia.org
Chibchan languages
Languages of Colombia
Languages of Venezuela
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