Enawene Nawe language

Not to be confused with Salumá language.

Enawene Nawe (Enawené-Nawé, Enawenê-Nawê, Eneuene-Mare), also known as Salumã, is an Arawakan language of Brazil spoken by about 570 people living in the Juruena River basin area, and more specifically along the Iquê river in the state of Mato Grosso.

Enawene Nawe
Salumã
Region	Mato Grosso, Brazil
Ethnicity	Enawene Nawe people
Native speakers	570 (2014)^[1]
Language family	Arawakan Southern Paresi–Xingu ? Paresi–Enawene Nawe ? Enawene Nawe
Language codes
ISO 639-3	unk
Glottolog	enaw1238
ELP	Enawené-Nawé

Classification

Aikhenvald (1999) classifies Enawene Nawe as a South Arawak language together with Terena, Lapachu and Moxo.^[1] However, more recent works by both Fabre (2005) and Brandão & Facundes (2007) consider the language to form a subgroup with Paresi in the Paresi–Xingu branch of Arawakan languages.^[1]

Comparison of personal pronouns between Paresi and Enawene Nawe^[2]

Person	Paresi	Enawene Nawe
1SG	natyo	nato
2SG	hitso	hixo
3SG	eze	ere
1PL	witso	wixo
2PL	xitso	dexo
3PL	ezenae	erenaha

Comparison of numbers^[1][3]

Number	Paresi	Enawene Nawe
one	hatita	xoxola
two	hinama	initini
three	hanama	koytala
four	zalakakoa	noxi

Comparison of other vocabulary^[1][3]

Word	Paresi	Enawene Nawe
to fall	ezoa	edoa
itch	mare, mali	wera
drink	era, tera	wesera
corn	kozeto	korito
eye	zotse	edose
house	hati, hana	hakolo
vulture	oloho	olohõ
night	maka	mikya
stone	tsehali	sairi
uncle	koko	kokore
sour	katyala	katala
basket	koho	tohe
bathe	koaha	nakohã
arrive	kaoka	takwa

Phonology

Consonants

Enawene Nawe is described by Zorthêa (2006) as having 15 contrastive consonants.^[3]

Consonant inventory

		Labial	Alveolar	Post-alv./ Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Plosive	voiceless	kʷ ⟨kw⟩	t ⟨t⟩	kʲ ⟨ky⟩	k ⟨k⟩
	voiced		d ⟨d⟩
Nasal		m ⟨m⟩	n ⟨n⟩	ɲ ⟨ñ⟩
Flap			ɾ ⟨r⟩
Fricative			s ⟨s⟩	ʃ ⟨x⟩		h ⟨h⟩
Approximant		w ⟨w⟩	l ⟨l⟩	j ⟨y⟩

Among these, the following allophonic variations are reported:^[3][4]

Consonant variations

Type		Examples
⟨w⟩	varies between [w] and [b] in word-initial position before the front vowels /e/ and /i/	⟨wesera⟩ "to drink": [weseɾa~beseɾa] ⟨wera⟩ "itch": [weɾa~beɾa]
⟨m⟩	varies between [m] and [w]	⟨datamare⟩ "(mythical character)": [datamaɾe~datawaɾe] ⟨Alame⟩ "(proper noun)": [alame~alawe]
⟨d⟩	varies between [d], [s], [ɾ] and [l]	⟨datowa⟩ "tomorrow": [datowa~latowa] ⟨derohi⟩ "ritual step": [deɾohi~leɾohi] ⟨edoa⟩ "to fall": [edoa~eɾoa]
⟨r⟩	varies between [ɾ] and [l]	⟨Kawari⟩ "(proper noun)": [kawaɾi~kawali] ⟨korito⟩ "corn": [koɾito~kolito]
⟨k⟩	varies between [k] and [g] between vowels	⟨nawenekota⟩ "I think": [nawenekota~nawenegota]
⟨ky⟩	varies between [kʲ] and [gʲ] between vowels
⟨t⟩	varies between [t] and [d] between vowels	⟨atana⟩ "thunder": [atana~adana] ⟨meta⟩ "tickle": [meta~meda]

Vowels

Enawene Nawe is described by Zorthêa (2006) as having 4 oral vowels and 4 nasal vowels.^[3]

Oral

	Front	Back
Near-Close	i ⟨i⟩	o~u ⟨o⟩
Mid	e~ɪ ⟨e⟩
Open	a ⟨a⟩

Nasal

	Front	Back
Near-Close	ĩ ⟨ĩ⟩	õ~ũ ⟨õ⟩
Mid	ẽ~ĩ ⟨ẽ⟩
Open	ʌ̃ ⟨ã⟩

Grammar

Pronouns

Independent personal pronouns^[2]

Person	Singular	Plural
1st	nato	wixo
2nd	hixo	dexo
3rd	ere	erenaha

Numerals

The first eleven numbers in Enawene Nawe are as follows:^[3]

Number	Enawene Nawe
1	xoxola
2	initini
3	koytala
4	noxi
5	monarese, eswe
6	lolokwate
7	lolate
8	hoxiro
9	mamalakari
10	ketera
11	darayti

Zorthêa (2006) notes that all numbers except initini (2) and monarese (5) can be preceded and followed by affixes.^[3]

Affixes

Enawene Nawe makes use of a variety of suffixes and prefixes to derive different meanings from root words.

Gender suffixes

Zorthêa (2006) describes Enawene Nawe as having two suffixes to explicitly mark gender: -lo for the feminine gender and -re for the masculine.^[3] De Almeida (2015), however, notes four suffixes: -nero and -lo mark the feminine gender, while -nere and -li mark the masculine.^[4]

Examples from de Almeida (2015):^[4]

• Towalinero "a Towali woman"
• Towalinere "a Towali man"
• Iyakaloti "a female spirit"
• Iyakaliti "a male spirit"

Place suffix

The suffix -kwa is used to mark places and is commonly found in village names. For example, the name of the Enawene Nawe village Matokodakwa is ultimately derived from matokoda, meaning "container for transporting liquids", and -kwa "place".^[4]

References

1. Brandão, Ana Paula Barros (2014). "A reference grammar of Paresi-Haliti (Arawak)" (PDF). pp. 6–7. (PDF) from the original on 2020-11-30. Retrieved 2021-01-21.
2. Brandão, Ana Paula Barros (2018). "A documentação participativa: o caso das línguas Paresi-Haliti e Enawene Nawe" [The participatory documentation: the case of the Paresi-Haliti and Enawene Nawe languages] (in Portuguese). p. 101. from the original on 2019-04-30. Retrieved 2021-01-21.
3. Zorthêa, Kátia Silene (2006). "Daraiti Ahã: Escrita alfabética entre os Enawene Nawe" [Daraiti Ahã: Alphabetical writing among Enawene Nawe] (PDF) (in Portuguese). Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso. (PDF) from the original on 2015-05-12. Retrieved 2021-01-21.
4. de Almeida, Juliana (2015). "Enawene-Nawe Wixo: Diferença e convivialidade na gestão sociopolítica do cosmos" [Enawene-Nawe Wixo: Difference and user-friendliness in the socio-political management of the cosmos] (PDF) (in Portuguese). Universidade federal do Amazonas. (PDF) from the original on 2021-01-28. Retrieved 2021-01-21.