| Also Known As: Ticuna Language,Tikuna,Tukuna,Tucuna,Ticuna,Magüta,Tukúna
Description:
Tïcuna is a language spoken by approximately 40,000 people in Brazil, Peru, and Colombia. It is the native language of the Tïcuna people. Tïcuna is generally classified as a language isolate, but may be related to the extinct Yuri language. (See Tïcuna-Yuri.) It is a tonal language, and therefore the meaning of words with the same phonemes can vary greatly simply by changing the tone used to pronounce them.
Tïcuna is also known as Magta, Maguta, Tikuna, Tucuna, Tukna, and Tukuna.
Despite being home to more than 50% of the Ticunas, Brazil has only recently started to invest on native language education. Brazilian Ticunas now have a written literature and an education provided by the Brazilian National Foundation for the Indian (FUNAI) and the Ministry of Education. Textbooks in Ticuna are used by native teachers trained in both Portuguese and Ticuna to teach the language to the children. A large scale project has been recording traditional narrations and writing them down to provide the literate Ticunas with some literature to practice with.
Ticuna education is not a privilege, but part of a wider project carried on by the Brazilian government to provide all significant minorities..... full article at Wikipedia |
