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Pemon language

Cariban language spoken in Venezuela

Pemon language

Cariban language spoken in Venezuela

FieldValue
namePemon
altnameArecuna
nativenameIngarikó, Kapon
statesVenezuela, Brazil, Guyana
ethnicityPemon
speakers6,000
date1990–2006
refe18
familycolorcariban
fam1Cariban
fam2Venezuelan Carib
fam3Pemóng–Panare
fam4Pemóng
scriptLatin
dia1Camaracoto
iso3aoc
glottopemo1248
glottorefnamePemon
dia2Taurepang–Arekuna
Lino Figueroa, a Pemon, author of Makunaima, demonstrating the Pemon Language.

The Pemon language (or Pemón in Spanish) is an Indigenous language of the Cariban family spoken by some 30,000 Pemon people, in Venezuela's Southeast, particularly in the Canaima National Park, in the Roraima State of Brazil and in Guyana.

It covers several dialects, including Arecuna (or Arekuna), Camaracota, Camaracoto, Ingariko (or Ingarikó), and Taulipang or Taurepan (Camaracoto may be a distinct language). The Pemon language may also be known and designated informally by one of the two dialects Arecuna (or Arekuna) or Ingariko (or Ingarikó), or incorrectly under the name Kapon which normally designates another closely related small group of languages.

Pemon is one of several other closely related Venezuelan Cariban languages which also include the Macushi and Kapon (or Kapong, also sometimes used by natives to name the Pemon language itself, even if Kapon strictly covers only the two Akawaio and Patamona languages). These four languages (including Macushi) form the group of Pemongan (or Pemóng) languages. The broad Kapon (or Kapong) and selective Ingariko (or Ingarikó) terms are also used locally as a common ethnonym grouping Pemón, Akawaio, and Patamono peoples (and sometimes as well the Macushi people), and may be used as well to refer to the group of the four Pemongan (or Pemóng) languages that they speak.

Typology

The Pemon language's syntax type is SOV with alternation to OVS.

Writing

Pemon was an oral language until the 20th century. Then efforts were made to produce dictionaries and grammars, primarily by Catholic missionaries, specially Armellada and Gutiérrez Salazar. The Latin alphabet has been used, adding diacritic signs to represent some phonemes not existing in Spanish.

Phonology

Vowels

Arekuna Pemon has the following vowels:

FrontCentralBackCloseOpen-midOpen

There are still texts only using Spanish characters, without distinguishing between pairs such as and . Diphthong sounds are .

Consonants

LabialDentalAlveolarPalatalVelarStopFricativeNasalTap/FlapApproximant

Allophones of are .

Grammar

Pronouns in Pemon are:

PemonEnglish
yuré
amäre(singular)
muere, mesere
urekon
ina(exclusive)
amärenokon(plural)
ichamonan

Notes

References

Literature

References

  1. [http://ressources-cla.univ-fcomte.fr/gerflint/Venezuela1/luis.pdf La Transitividad en Japrería] {{webarchive. link. (2011-07-21 .)
  2. "Archived copy".
  3. {{Harvsp. Edwards. 1978
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