Yukpa language
| Yukpa | |
|---|---|
| Motilón | |
| Yupka wonkü | |
| Native to | Venezuela, Colombia |
| Ethnicity | Yukpa people |
Native speakers | 6,000 (2007–2009)[1] |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | yup |
| Glottolog | yukp1241 |
| ELP | Yukpa |
Distribution of Yukpa | |
Yukpa (Yuco, Yucpa, Yuko, Yupa) is a Cariban language, spoken by 3,000 people in Zulia State in Venezuela and 3,000 across the border in Colombia.[1] It is also known as Carib Motilón, Macoíta, Northern Motilón, and Manso.
Río Casacará (Iroka) and Río Maracas are the main dialects, and different enough to possibly be considered separate languages. Also Caño Padilla–La Laguna. The Venezuelan dialects, Yrapa and Río Negro, are closer to Río Maracas than to Río Casacará.
Similarity to Japrería, the other Yupka language, is slight.
Phonology
Consonants
| Labial | Dental/ Alveolar |
Post- alveolar |
Retroflex | Palatal | Velar | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| plain | lab. | ||||||
| Stop | p | t̪ | k | kʷ | |||
| Affricate | tʃ | tʂ | |||||
| Fricative | s̪ | ʂ | |||||
| Nasal | m | n̪ | |||||
| Rhotic | ɾ | ||||||
| Approximant | w | j | |||||
- Labial /p, m/ are velarized as [pˠ, mˠ] in the Iroca dialect when before vowels /e, a/.
- /j/ is in free variation with [ʐ], and [ç] when before consonants.
- A retroflex [ɽ] may also occur in place of /tʂ/ or /ʂ/ in the Sokorpa dialect.
- In the La Paz and Menkwe dialects, retroflex consonants do not occur, so /ʂ/ is realized as [ʃ] in both dialects, and /tʂ/ is realized as [x] in the La Paz dialect, and [ts] in the Menkwe dialect.
- Nasals /m, n/ become voiceless [m̥, n̥] when preceding voiceless stops.[3]
Vowels
| Front | Central | Back | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| High | e ~ ɪ | ɯ | u | |
| Mid | o | |||
| Low | a | |||
- /e/ is realized between [ɪ, e] across dialects.[3]
References
- ^ a b Yukpa at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
- ^ "Glottolog 5.2 - Yukpa". glottolog.org. Retrieved October 3, 2025.
- ^ a b Largo, Wilson (2011). Una Gramática del Yukpa Colombia (PDF) (in Spanish). Fundación Para el Desarrollo de los Pueblos Marginados (FDPM).
External links
- Meira, Sérgio (October 27, 2005). Primeras observaciones sobre la lengua yukpa [First Observations on the Yukpa Language] (PDF). Archive of the Indigenous Languages of Latin America (Report) (in Spanish). University of Texas. Archived from the original on December 8, 2022.