| Also Known As: Sokaka,Xerewyana,Parukoto-charuma,Hishkaryana,Chawiyana,Kumiyana,Hixkariana,Wabui,Sherewyana,Hichkaryana,Faruaru,Xereu,Parucutu
Description:
Hixkaryana is one of the Carib languages, spoken by just over 500 people on the Nhamundá river, a tributary of the Amazon River in Brazil. It is one of a few known natural languages that normally use Object Verb Subject word order, and may have been the first such language to be described (by linguist Desmond C. Derbyshire).
Hixkaryana has the following consonant phonemes:
The vowels are /e/, /ɯ/, /u/, /ɔ/, and /æ/, written , , , , and .
In Hixkaryana, arguments are indexed on the verb by means of person prefixes. These prefixes form an inverse-like pattern in which the argument highest in the hierarchy 2nd > 1st > 3rd is indexed on the verb. If the object of a transitive verb outranks the subject according to this hierarchy, the appropriate O-prefix is used; otherwise, an A-prefix is used.
Intransitive verbs take prefixes mostly similar to the transitive prefixes given above. The arguments' grammatical number is indexed on the verb by means of portmanteau suffixes that combine tense, aspect, mood, and number.
In most cases, the person prefixes unambiguously determine which of the arguments in the subject and which is the object. When both the subject and the object..... full article at Wikipedia |
