Akwáwa language

Akwáwa is a Tupi–Guarani dialect cluster spoken in Pará in western Brazil.

Akwáwa
Native to	Brazil
Region	Pará
Ethnicity	Suruí do Pará, Asuriní, Parakanã
Native speakers	(700 (1999)^[1] to 1,500 cited 1995–2006)^[2]
Language family	Tupian Tupí–Guaraní Tenetehara Akwáwa
Language codes
ISO 639-3	Variously: asu – Asuriní mdz – Suruí pak – Parakanã
Glottolog	tupi1284
ELP	Asuriní do Tocantins Parakanã Suruí do Pará

Dialects

There are three distinct dialects:^[1]

• Asuriní (of Tocantins or Trocará), or Akwawa
• Suruí (of Tocantins or Pará), or Akewara
• Parakanã, Awaeté

Both the name Asuriní and Suruí are used for related peoples and their languages: Suruí of Jiparaná, Suruí of Rondônia, Asuriní of Xingú, etc.

Phonology

The following is the Parakanã dialect:^[3]

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i	ɨ
Mid	e		o
Open		a

• Vowel sounds are realized as nasalized when preceding nasal consonants.
• /e/ can also be heard as [ɛ] when in stressed position.
• /ɨ/ can also be heard as [ə] when preceding a vowel.
• /a/ can be heard as back [ʌ] when in word-final position. In its nasal form, it is heard as back [ʌ̃].
• /o/ can be heard as [u] when in unstressed position.

Consonants

	Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar		Glottal
				plain	lab.
Plosive	p	t	tʃ	k	kʷ	ʔ
Fricative	β					h
Nasal	m	n		ŋ
Tap		ɾ

• /β/ can also be heard as a glide [w].
• /tʃ/ can be realized as a glide [j] in final position, and as voiced [dʒ] in intervocalic positions.

Notes

1. Cheryl Jensen, 1999, "Tupí-Guaraní", in Dixon & Aikhenvald, The Amazonian Languages
2. Asuriní at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
   Suruí at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
   Parakanã at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
3. Souza e Silva, Auristéa Caetana (1999). Aspectos da referência alternada em Parakanã. Universidade Federal do Pará.