Everything about Wari Language totally explained
The
Wari’ language (also
Orowari,
Wari,
Pacaá Novo,
Pacaás Novos,
Pakaa Nova,
Pakaásnovos) is the sole remaining vibrant language of the
Chapacuran language family of the Brazilian-Bolivian border region of the
Amazon. It has about 1300-1800 speakers, also called
Wari’.
Wari’ has two phonetic oddities: its "skewed" vowel inventory, and the
voiceless dental bilabially trilled affricate [t͡ʙ̥], which is only reported from four other languages, and is only phonemic in Wari' and two neighbouring languages.
Phonetics
Wari’ syllables range in complexity from
CV to CVVC. The only exceptions appear to be final consonant clusters involving a glottal stop (see below).
Consonants
/t͡ʙ̥/ is a
bilabial trill preceded by a
dental stop, forming a single unit. Only about 24 words contain the sound, some of which are
onomatopoeic.
Wari’ has words ending in consonant clusters mʔ and nʔ. These have been analysed as single sounds, but apparently only to avoid complicating the Wari’ syllable structure.
Vowels
Vowels are generally expected to be somewhat evenly distributed in vowel space (that is, spread out rather than bunched up when represented on a vowel chart). Additionally, when a language has few vowels, that'll normally be
unrounded when front and rounded when back. Usually rounded front vowels and unrounded back vowels are only found in languages with large inventories such as
German and
Vietnamese. However, while Wari’ has only six vowels, four of these are high/mid front vowels, of which two are rounded (although /ø/ is somewhat rare). This compares to only a single back vowel. The front vowels are so close that it's sometimes difficult for a non-native speaker to distinguish them. This results is what is probably the most asymmetrical vowel system known.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Wari Language'.
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