Warekena language
# Warekena language

Warekena (Guarequena), or more precisely Warekena of Xié, is an Arawakan language of Brazil and of Maroa Municipality in Venezuela, spoken near the Guainia River. It is one of several languages which go by the generic name Baré and Baniwa/Baniva – in this case, distinguished as Baniva de Maroa or Baniva de Guainía.

There may be 10 speakers in Brazil and 200 in Venezuela, per Aikhenvald (1999).

Kaufman (1994) classified it in a Warekena group of Western Nawiki Upper Amazonian, Aikhenvald (1999) in Eastern Nawiki.

Personal pronouns in Warekena are formed by adding an emphatic suffix -ya to the cross-referencing personal prefixes.

## Phonology

### Consonants

| | | Labial | Dental | Alveolar | Alveolar | Retroflex | Palatal | Velar |
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| | | Labial | Dental | cen. | lat. | Retroflex | Palatal | Velar |
| Nasal | Nasal | m | n | | | | | |
| Stop/ Affricate | voiceless | p | t | ts | ts | | | k |
| Stop/ Affricate | voiced | b | d | dz | dz | | | ɡ |
| Fricative | voiceless | | | | | ʂ | | |
| Fricative | voiced | | | | | ʐ | | |
| Rhotic | tap | | | ɾ | ɺ | | | |
| Rhotic | trill | | | r | r | | | |
| Approximant | Approximant | w | | | | | j | |

### Vowels

| | Front | Central | Back |
| - | - | - | - |
| High | i | | u |
| Mid | e | | |
| Low | | a | |

/u/ can also range to [o].

## Grammar

Unmarked constituent order is AVO, $VS_o,$ $S_aV,$ or $S_{io}V.$

wa-hã

then-PAUS

waʃi

jaguar

yutʃia-hã

kill-PAUS

ema

tapir

wa-hã waʃi yutʃia-hã ema

then-PAUS jaguar kill-PAUS tapir

"Then the jaguar killed the tapir" Unknown glossing abbreviation(s) (help);

ʃupe-hẽ

many-PAUS

ʃiani-pe

child-PL

ʃupe-hẽ ʃiani-pe

many-PAUS child-PL

"Children are many" Unknown glossing abbreviation(s) (help);

peya

one

nu-yaɺitua

1sg-brother

wiyua

die

peya nu-yaɺitua wiyua

one 1sg-brother die

"One of my brothers dies"

nu-yue

1sg-for

mawali

hungry

nu-yue mawali

1sg-for hungry

"I am hungry"

Indirect objects tend to be placed immediately after the predicate.

