Itonama language

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Itonama
Spoken in:	Bolivia
Total speakers:	<5
Language family:	Language isolate
Writing system:	Latin alphabet
Language codes
ISO 639-1:	none
ISO 639-2:	sai
ISO 639-3:	ito
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode.

Itonama is a moribund language isolate of Bolivia.

Contents 1 Phonology 1.1 Vowels 1.2 Consonants 2 References

[edit] Phonology

[edit] Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
High	i	ɨ	u
Mid	e	ɵ
Low	a

Diphthongs: /ai au/.

[edit] Consonants

		Bilabial	Alveolar	Postalveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Stop	Plain	p	t		tʲ	k	ʔ
	Ejective		tʼ			kʼ
	Voiced	b	d
Affricate	Plain		tʃ
	Ejective		tʃʼ
Fricative			s				h
Nasal		m	n
Lateral			l
Flap			ɾ
Semivowel		w			j

The postalveolar affricates /tʃ tʃʼ/ have alveolar allophones [ts tsʼ]. Variation occurs between speakers, and even within the speech of a single person.

The semivowel /w/ is realized as a bilabial fricative [β] when preceded and followed by identical vowels.

[edit] References

• (Spanish) Crevels, Mily (2002). "Itonama o Sihnipadara, Lengua no clasificada de la Amazonía Boliviana". Estudios de Lingüística 16.