A Phonemic Analysis of the ApurinÃ£ Language

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CONTENTSI. Introduction 2II. Chart of Phones 3III. Interpretation Procedures 4IV. Contrastive Chart of Phonemes 13V. Evidence for Phonemic Decisions 14VI. Formational Statement of Phonemes 30VII. Hyperphonemic Observations 34VIII. Distribution of Phonemes 35I. IntroductionThe Apurinã tribe is found along the Purus River in the state of Amazonas. The termApurinã probably did not originate with the people of this tribe, but they now freely recognizethe term as referring to them and it is by this term that the Neo-Brazilians of the area designatethe tribe. The tribe is fast disintegrating. Little groups or even individual families may be foundscattered along the length of the Purus from the Jari to the Acre (both are tributaries). Thenumber of living speakers has not yet been determined. The Apurinã remnant probably numbersover a thousand. Perhaps as many as half of them still use and prefer Apurinã to Portuguese butthis guess may be too optimistic.This analysis is based exclusively upon the dialect spoken by a group of about 50Apurinã that live on the Igarapé São João about a mile downstream from the town of Tapauá atthe mouth of the Ipixuna River. The number, extent and nature of other dialects has not yet beendetermined. The Apurinã language may be safely classed as Aruak. The material upon which thisanalysis is based was gathered during a total of six months spent among the Apurinã. This timewas accumulated during three tribal visits: April 1963; July-September 1963; March-June 1964.The men can speak Portuguese well enough to buy and sell and talk about the weather, but theydo not feel at home with the national language. The women control considerably less of thenational language. The language material was not gathered in "informant hours" nor elicitedbilingually, but rather from spontaneous conversation in Apurinã.Hence this analysis does not represent the speech of any single informant or informantsbut rather the speech of the community. If one individual made more of a contribution than anyof the others it would be Makaní'biε (Ignácio), the oldest man of the community. He is at least60 years of age. His control of Portuguese is inferior to that of the younger men. He is the fatheror father-in-law of almost every other man in the group.2
II. Chart of phonesa. Consonants:pt t y k k y (ʔ)b d g g yȼčǰs š (h)z ž (h̃)rlm n ñ (ŋ)w w̃ y ỹb. Vowels:i Iĩ υ Uι Ι i̶̵ oι̃ ĩ̶̵ υ̃ε Ɛ ʌ Ʌ õæ a˂ a (ɔ·)ɛ̃ ʌ̃æ̃ãc. Stress: 'N.B. Encircled phones are submembers of one phoneme. Phones within parentheses are somarked because their phonetic status or relationships cannot be conveniently indicated onthe chart.3
Page 1: A Phonemic Analysis of the Apurinã
Page 5 and 6: . Phones that may be C or V[y] and
Page 7 and 8: matter of idiolect, being used much
Page 9 and 10: [Ṽ] -patterns as a unit and fills
Page 11 and 12: d. Idiosyncratic features:[ɔ·] di
Page 13 and 14: the occurrence of [h̃] is both pho
Page 15 and 16: pε'tʌmʌtʌ 'you see' bε'tʌmʌt
Page 17 and 18: V.a.Consonants (cont.)/t/ /č/ /š/
Page 19 and 20: V.a.Consonants (cont.)/k/[k y ] [k]
Page 21 and 22: V.b.Vowels (cont.)/ι̃/[ι]ι̃ši
Page 23 and 24: V.b.V.b.V.b.V.b.Vowels (cont.)/ι/
Page 25 and 26: V.b.Vowels (cont.)/æ/ /æ̃/ /a/ a
Page 27: V.b.V.b.V.b.Vowels (cont.)/o//õ/[
Page 31 and 32: a. Consonants:/t/ [t y ] - vl. alve
Page 33: a/ [Ʌ] - vl. low close central unr
Page 36 and 37: CV-šV- ȼV- čVišio'piri 'bat' č
Page 38 and 39: -CV-šV -ȼV -čVi ka'piši 'coon'
Page 40 and 41: VIII.ĩι̃(cont.)-CṼ-pṼ -tṼ
Page 42: VVVṼ̃εi εi 'man's response whe

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