Itonama language
Dormant language of Bolivia
title: "Itonama language" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["critically-endangered-languages", "language-isolates-of-south-america", "macro-paesan-languages", "languages-of-bolivia", "mamoré–guaporé-linguistic-area"] description: "Dormant language of Bolivia" topic_path: "linguistics" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Itonama_language" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary Dormant language of Bolivia ::
::data[format=table title="Infobox language"]
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| name | Itonama |
| nativename | sihni pandara |
| states | Bolivia |
| region | Beni Department |
| ethnicity | Itonama people (2006) |
| extinct | 2012–2023 |
| ref | |
| familycolor | American |
| family | Language isolate |
| script | Latin |
| nation | Bolivia |
| iso3 | ito |
| glotto | iton1250 |
| glottorefname | Itonama |
| map2 | Lang Status 20-CR.svg |
| mapcaption2 | |
| notice | IPA |
| :: |
| name = Itonama | nativename = sihni pandara | states = Bolivia | region = Beni Department | ethnicity = Itonama people (2006) | extinct = 2012–2023 | ref = | familycolor = American | family = Language isolate | script = Latin | nation = Bolivia | iso3 = ito | glotto = iton1250 | glottorefname = Itonama | map2 = Lang Status 20-CR.svg | mapcaption2 = | notice = IPA
Itonama () is a language isolate once spoken by the Itonama people in the Amazonian lowlands of north-eastern Bolivia. It was spoken on the Itonomas River and Lake in Beni Department.
In Magdalena town on the western bank of the Itonama River (a tributary of the Iténez River), located in Iténez Province, only a few elderly people remember a few words and phrases.
Language contact
Jolkesky (2016) notes that there are lexical similarities with the Nambikwaran languages due to contact.
An automated computational analysis (ASJP 4) by Müller et al. (2013) found lexical similarities between Itonama and Movima, likely due to contact.
Phonology
Vowels
::data[format=table]
| Front | Central | Back | High | Mid | Low |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ~ | |||||
| :: |
Diphthongs are .
Consonants
::data[format=table] | Bilabial | Alveolar | Post- alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | Nasal | Plosive/ Affricate | plain | ejective | voiced | Fricative | Liquid | lateral | rhotic | Semivowel | |---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | ~ | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | ~ | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | ~ | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | ::
The postalveolar affricates have alveolar allophones . Variation occurs between speakers, and even within the speech of a single person.
The semivowel is realized as a bilabial fricative when preceded and followed by identical vowels.
Morphology
Itonama is a polysynthetic, head-marking, verb-initial language with an accusative alignment system along with an inverse subsystem in independent clauses, and straightforward accusative alignment in dependent clauses.
Nominal morphology lacks case declension and adpositions and so is simpler than verbal morphology (which has body-part and location incorporation, directionals, evidentials, verbal classifiers, among others).
Vocabulary
Loukotka (1968) lists the following basic vocabulary items for Itonama. They are shown here alongside the forms cited in the Intercontinental Dictionary Series (IDS), which takes its data from Camp and Liccardi (1967).
:{| class="wikitable sortable" ! gloss !! Itonama (Loukotka) !! Itonama (IDS) |- | one || chash-káni || u-kʼaʔne |- | two || chash-chupa || -tʃupa |- | tooth || huomóte || oh-womotʼe |- | tongue || páchosníla || oh-potʃosnila |- | hand || mapára || uh-maʔpara |- | woman || ubíka || wabɨʔka |- | water || huanúhue || wanuʔwe |- | fire || ubári || u-bari |- | moon || chakakáshka || u-ʔtʲahka-ʔkaʔka |- | maize || udáme || u-tʃuʔu, kanasbɨstʃa |- | jaguar || ótgu || |- | house || úku || u-ku |}
References
References
- {{Ethnologue28. ito. Itonama
- Loukotka, Čestmír. (1968). "Classification of South American Indian languages". UCLA Latin American Center.
- (2023). "Amazonian Languages: Language Isolates. Volume I: Aikanã to Kandozi-Chapra". Walter de Gruyter.
- Jolkesky, Marcelo Pinho de Valhery. (2016). "Estudo arqueo-ecolinguístico das terras tropicais sul-americanas". University of Brasília.
- Müller, André, Viveka Velupillai, Søren Wichmann, Cecil H. Brown, Eric W. Holman, Sebastian Sauppe, Pamela Brown, Harald Hammarström, Oleg Belyaev, Johann-Mattis List, Dik Bakker, Dmitri Egorov, Matthias Urban, Robert Mailhammer, Matthew S. Dryer, Evgenia Korovina, David Beck, Helen Geyer, Pattie Epps, Anthony Grant, and Pilar Valenzuela. 2013. ''[https://asjp.clld.org/static/WorldLanguageTree-004.zip ASJP World Language Trees of Lexical Similarity: Version 4 (October 2013)]''.
- Crevels, Mily. (2023-01-30). "11 Itonama". De Gruyter Mouton.
- Crevels, M. "Who did what to whom in Magdalena".
- Key, Mary Ritchie. (2023). "Itonama dictionary".
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