Language name: YAGUA
UPSID number: 6839
Alternate name(s):
Classification: South American, Macro-Carib
This language has 23 segments
Its Frequency index is 0.419261544 (average percentage of segments; 0.1: many very rare segments; 0.39: average; 0.7: many common segments)
The language has these sounds: p t k m n ts tS r[ h j w i e a O U i_ i~ e~ a~ O~ U~ i_~
Comment: Payne states that /p, m/ are often labialized [pw, mw] and /m, n/ are prenasalized stops before oral vowels. It is not clear if this means that [mbw] is normally found. On the assumption that prenasalization is optional the nasal segments are anayzed as nasal /m, n/. Yagua has basically a two-level tone system. Other analyses suggest the mid vowels might be derived from vowel coalescence, Payne describes these as phonemes with defective distribution.
Source(s): Payne, D.L. 1985. Aspects of the Grammar of Yagua: A Typological Perspective. PhD Dissertation, UCLA.

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