Dulegaya (Kuna Language)
The Kuna Language, spoken by the Kuna people of Panama and Colombia, belongs to the Chibchan linguistic family. Kuna or Cuna is the name of an indigenous people of Panama and Colombia. Panama, officially the Republic of Panama (República de Panamá) is the southernmost country of Central America. Colombia (kəˈlʌmbɪə officially the Republic of Colombia () is a country in northwestern South America. The Chibchan languages (also Chíbchan, Chibchano) make up a Language family indigenous to the Isthmo-Colombian area which extends from
Phonemes
Kuna recognises 5 vowel phonemes and 17 consonantal phonemes. In Phonetics, a vowel is a Sound in spoken Language, such as English ah! or oh!, pronounced with an open Vocal tract The phoneME project is Sun Microsystems reference implementation of Java virtual machine and associated libraries of Java ME with source licensed under the GNU In Articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a Speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the upper Vocal tract, the upper vocal
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| High | i | u | |
| Mid | e | ||
| Low | a |
| labial | alveolar | alveolar | palatal | velar | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lax stops | p | t | k | ||
| Tense stops | pˑ | tˑ | kˑ | ||
| Lax nasals | m | n | |||
| Tense nasals | mˑ | nˑ | |||
| Affricates | tʃ | ||||
| Fricatives | s | ||||
| Lax lateral | l | ||||
| Tense lateral | lˑ | ||||
| Rhotic | r | ||||
| Approximant | w | j |
The oclusive consonants p, t, and k become the sonorants b, d, and g when they are between vowels or beside the consonants m, n, l, r, y, or w, just as at the beginning of the word, when the pronunciation fluctuates liberally. In Phonetics, a vowel is a Sound in spoken Language, such as English ah! or oh!, pronounced with an open Vocal tract A front vowel is a type of Vowel sound used in some spoken Languages The defining characteristic of a front vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far forward A central vowel is a type of Vowel sound used in some spoken Languages The defining characteristic of a central vowel is that the tongue is positioned halfway between A back vowel is a type of Vowel sound used in some spoken Languages The defining characteristic of a back vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far back as A close vowel is a type of Vowel sound used in many spoken Languages The defining characteristic of a close vowel is that the tongue is positioned as close as A mid vowel is a Vowel sound used in some spoken Languages The defining characteristic of a mid vowel is that the tongue is positioned mid-way between an An open vowel is a Vowel sound of a type used in most spoken Languages The defining characteristic of an open vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far as In Articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a Speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the upper Vocal tract, the upper vocal Labials are consonants articulated either with both lips ( bilabial articulation or with the lower lip and the upper teeth ( labiodental articulation In Linguistics, a dental consonant or dental is a Consonant that is articulated with the tongue against the upper teeth such as /t/ /d/ /n/ and Alveolar consonants are articulated with the tongue against or close to the superior Alveolar ridge, which is called that because it contains the alveoli (the sockets Palatal consonants are Consonants articulated with the body of the tongue raised against the Hard palate (the middle part of the roof of the mouth A stop, plosive, or occlusive is a Consonant sound produced by stopping the airflow in the Vocal tract. A stop, plosive, or occlusive is a Consonant sound produced by stopping the airflow in the Vocal tract. A nasal consonant (also called nasal stop or nasal continuant) is produced with a lowered velum in the mouth allowing air to escape freely through the A nasal consonant (also called nasal stop or nasal continuant) is produced with a lowered velum in the mouth allowing air to escape freely through the Affricate Consonants begin as stops (most often an alveolar, such as or) but release as a fricative (such as or or occasionally into Fricatives are Consonants produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together Laterals are "L"-like Consonants pronounced with an occlusion made somewhere along the axis of the tongue while air from the lungs escapes at one side or both Laterals are "L"-like Consonants pronounced with an occlusion made somewhere along the axis of the tongue while air from the lungs escapes at one side or both Rhotic consonants, or "R"-like sounds are non-lateral Liquid consonants This class of sounds is difficult to characterise phonetically though most of them share Approximants are speech sounds ( Phonemes) that could be regarded as intermediate between Vowels and typical Consonants In the articulation of approximants The alveolars s through n become the palatals ʃ and ʎ like l after k.
Morphology
Kuna is an agglutinative language which contains words of up to about 9 morphemes, although words of two or three morphemes are more common. An agglutinative language is a Language that uses Agglutination extensively most Words are formed by joining Morphemes together Most of the morphological complexity is found in the verb word, which contains suffixes of tense and aspect, plurals, negatives, position (sitting, standing, etc. ), and various adverbials. The verb word does not contain person.
References
- Llerena Villalobos, Rito (1987) Relación y determinación en el predicado de la lengua Kuna. Bogotá: CCELA - Universidad de los Andes. ISSN 0120-9507 (Spanish)
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