Nanti is an Arawakan language spoken by approximately 250 people in southeastern Peruvian Amazonia, principally in a number of small communities located near the headwaters of the Camisea and Timpía Rivers. It belongs to the Kampan branch of the Arawak family, and is most closely related to Matsigenka, with which it is partially mutually intelligible.

The language is also sometimes called Kogapakori (variants: Cogapacori, Kugapakori), a pejorative term of Matsigenka origin meaning 'violent person'.

Classification

Nanti is a member of the Arawakan language family, specifically in the Kampa branch. Despite the fact that the Kampa languages' internal classification is unclear, six language varieties are distinguished; Nanti, Asháninka, Ashéninka, Kakinte, Matsigenka, and Nomatsiguenga.

Phonology

Consonants

The phonemic inventory of Nanti is typical of the Kampa languages and of the Arawakan family as a whole, although there are some differences. Nanti's system of allophony is a distinguishing feature of the language.

LabialAlveolarAlveo- palatalVelarGlottalUnspecified
Stopvoicelesspttʲk
voicedbg
Affricatet͡st͡ʃ
Fricativesʃh
Flapɾɾʲ
NasalmnɲN
Glidej

Nanti exhibits a lack of symmetry in the stop series; while there is a voiceless /t/, there is no equivalent voiced /d/. This asymmetry is common among the Kampa languages.

Vowels

Nanti has a vowel inventory typical for the Arawakan languages except for the diphthong /ɯi̯/, which Michael argues is monomoraic.

FrontCentralBack
Highi iːɯi̯
Mide eːo oː
Lowa aː

Stress

Nanti stress is based on the sonority or prominence of a syllable nucleus, rather than on position, which is typologically very unusual.

Typology

Typologically, Nanti is a "highly" polysynthetic language and exhibits agglutinativity. Its verbal morphology is extremely complicated; in particular, its applicative suffixing system "has been described as one of the most complex of any human language", though the other word classes have much simpler morphology.

Bibliography

  • Crowhurst, Megan; Michael, Lev (2005). "Iterative footing and prominence-driven stress in Nanti (Kampa)". Language. 81 (1): 47–95.
  • Michael, Lev (2008). (PhD thesis). University of Texas at Austin. hdl:.
  • Michael, Lev (2012a). "Nanti self-quotation: Implications for the pragmatics of reported speech and evidentiality". Pragmatics and Society. 3 (2): 321–357.
  • Michael, Lev (2012b). "Possession in Nanti". In Aikhenvald, Alexandra; Dixon, R. M. W. (eds.). Possession and Ownership: A cross-linguistic typology. pp.149–166.
  • Michael, Lev (2005). "El estatus sintáctico de los marcadores de persona en el idioma Nanti (Campa, Arawak)". Lengua y Sociedad (in Spanish). 7 (2): 21–32.

External links