Arhuaco language

Arhuaco, commonly known as Ikʉ, is an Indigenous American language of the Chibchan language family, spoken in South America by the Arhuaco people.[4]

"Ica language" redirects here. It is not to be confused with the Ika language of Nigeria.
Arhuaco
Ikʉ
Native toColombia
Ethnicity14,800 Arhuacos (2001)[1]
Native speakers
8,000 (2009)[2]
Chibchan
  • Arwako–Chimila
    • Arwako languages
      • Arhuaco
Language codes
ISO 639-3arh
Glottologarhu1242[3]

There are 8000 speakers, all in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta region of Colombia, 90% of whom are monolingual.[4] Literacy is 1 to 5% in their native language. Some speak Spanish, and 15 to 25% are literate in that auxiliary language.[4] The users have a very strong traditional culture and have vibrant use of their tongue.[4]

It is also known as: Aruaco, Bintuk, Bíntukua, Bintucua, Ica, Ijca, Ijka, Ika, and Ike.[4]

The language uses a subject–object–verb (SOV) sentence structure.[4]

Phonology
Vowels
Back vowels Central vowels Front vowels
Open vowels i i ɨ ʉ u u
Mid vowels e e ə y o o
Close vowels a a

/ə/ is raised to and merged with /ɨ/ word finally.

Consonants

This language registers 17 consonant phonemes:

Labial Alveolar Alveolo-palatal Velar Glottal
occlusive (voiceless) p p t t tʃ ch k k ʔ (ꞌ (saltillo))
occlusive (voiced) b b d d dʒ ɉ ɡ g
nasal m m n~ŋ n
fricative (voiceless) s s h j
fricative (voiced) β w z z ʒ zh
flap ɾ r

References

Frank, Paul. 1985. A grammar of Ika. PhD thesis. University of Pennsylvania.

Frank, Paul. 2000. Ika syntax. Dallas, TX: Summer Institute of Linguistics.

Landaburu, Jon. 2000. La lengua Ika. in Lenguas indigenas de Colombia: Una visión descriptiva. Bogota: Instituto Caro y Cuervo.

P.84. . in Scientific American.

Notes
  1. Arhuaco language at Ethnologue (16th ed., 2009)
  2. Arhuaco at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
  3. Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Arhuaco". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
  4. Arhuaco, by Arango and Sánchez, Ethnologue, 1998, access date 04-16-08
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