Oro Win language
| Oro Win | |
|---|---|
| Oro Towati' | |
| Native to | Brazil |
| Region | Rondônia |
| Ethnicity | 55 Oro Win (1998)[1] |
Native speakers | 5 (2011)[1] |
Chapacuran
| |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | orw |
| Glottolog | orow1243 |
| ELP | Orowari |
Oro Win is classified as Critically Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger. | |
Oro Win is a moribund Chapacuran language spoken along the upper stretches of the Pacaás Novos River in Brazil.[2] As of 2010, there were only six known speakers of Oro Win in Brazil, and all of them were over 50 years of age.[3] However, other reports dictate that there are 12 speakers as of 2015, and there are efforts to increase use of Oro Win among the community.[4][5]
Phonology
Oro Win is one of only five languages known to make use of a voiceless bilabially post-trilled dental stop, [t͡ʙ̥].
| Front | Back | |
|---|---|---|
| Close | i | |
| Near-close | ʏ | |
| Close-mid | e | o |
| Open | a |
| Bilabial | Dental | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stop | p | t̪ʙ | t | k | ʔ | |
| Fricative | ɸ | s | ||||
| Nasal | m | n | ||||
| Flap | ɾ | |||||
| Semivowel | j | w |
Vocabulary
[tʙ̥otʙ̥ok inan] 'I walk on logs'
[kotʙ̥ok inan] 'I start a motor'
[katʙ̥ʉ na] 'It is an owl'
[tʙ̥untʙʉ na] 'It is a helicopter'
[tʙ̥um] 'small boy'[7]
References
- ^ a b Oro Win at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
- ^ "Oro Win - Indigenous Peoples in Brazil". pib.socioambiental.org. Retrieved 2025-05-30.
- ^ Birchall, Joshua. "Oro Win Language". Programa Povos Indígenas no Brasil do Instituto. Retrieved 2012-12-30.
- ^ "Did you know Orowari is critically endangered?". Endangered Languages. Retrieved 2025-04-21.
- ^ Tondineli, Patrícia Goulart (2021). (Re)vitalizar línguas minorizadas e/ou ameaçadas: teorias, metodologias, pesquisas e experiências (PDF) (1 ed.). EDITORA DA UNIVERSIDADE FEDERAL DE RONDÔNIA - EDUFRO. doi:10.47209/978-65-87539-61-4 (inactive 19 August 2025). ISBN 978-65-87539-61-4.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of August 2025 (link) - ^ a b Lev, Michael; Stark, Tammy; Chang, Will (2012). "Phonological inventory of Oro Win". The South American Phonological Inventory Database (version 1.1.3 ed.). Berkeley: University of California: Survey of California and Other Indian Languages Digital Resource.
- ^ "Word List for Oro Win". archive.phonetics.ucla.edu. Retrieved 2025-11-24.
Bibliography
- Everett, Daniel; & Kern, B. (1996). Wari’: The Pacaas Novos language of western Brazil. London: Routledge.
- Ladefoged, Peter; Everett, Daniel. (1996). The status of phonetic rarities. Language, 72 (4), 794–800.
External links
- Oro Win: Povos Indígenas no Brasil - Instituto Socioambiental
- Linguistics Professor Discovers New Language in Brazilian Rain Forest. Pittsburgh University Times v. 27 n. 4 (1994). (offline, but see this copy)
- UCLA Phonetics Lab Data – recordings of [t͡ʙ̥] in Oro Win.