Waiwai (Uaiuai, Uaieue, Ouayeone) is a Cariban language of northern Brazil, with a couple hundred speakers across the border in southern Guyana and Suriname.
History The Waiwai people are composed of an amalgamation of eight distinct peoples, these being the , , , , the uncontacted , Sikiana, , and Parukoto. Two men of the Taruma people also lived among the Waiwai, but they died "several years" before 1998. A Waimiri-Atroari was also reported to live among them as of 1998, and a number of Tiriyó women had married into the Waiwai. The name "Waiwai" itself was originally applied to a now-extinct ninth group who spoke a language very similar to that of the Parukoto; the last original Waiwai died in the 1970s or earlier. All nine of these peoples had their own original languages or dialects. The Waiwai-Parukoto language subsequently became the lingua franca of these people, though some of the other languages were reported to still be used in the homes of the respective groups.
Official status Since 2023, Waiwai has been one of 17 official languages of Amazonas state in Brazil.
Phonology Equivalents in the Waiwai writing system are in .
Consonants LabialAlveolarPostalveolarDorsalGlottalOcclusive Continuant Consonants are part of the "tense" group, which are realized more tensely, and the "relaxed" group is composed of , which are pronounced more relaxedly.
Vowels FrontCentralBackHigh MidLow /o/ has an allophone of [ʌ] when following alveopalatal consonants /tʃ, ʃ/ (e.g. 'forest', 'my fingernail'). /a/ is realized as "less open and less low" [æ] when preceded by the consonants /j, tʃ/, and followed by /w, m, s/. Long vowels are written doubled.
Writing system As of 1998, 85% of Waiwai people, including "many" young people, were literate in their language.
Morphology Pronouns Personal prefixes are more common than free pronouns in Waiwai; the latter are typically used when the person is considered "special or distinctive from others of a group". +Waiwai pronounsPersonAnimateInanimateNon-collectiveCollective1owɨ1+2kɨɨwɨkɨwjam1+3amna2amoroamjamɺoAnaphoric3noroɲeʃamɺoeɺoDeictic3 remotemɨkɨ, mɨkromɨkjammɨnɨ3 not farmoɺo3 nearmosomoʃamon, tan Non-collective forms of a pronoun are used when "only the speaker and hearer are involved in an action", or as an indefinite pronoun; collective forms are used when there are multiple hearers.
Sample text
References
External links
Waiwai Collection of Niels Fock from the Archive of the Indigenous Languages of Latin America, containing audio recordings of ceremonial chants and photographs made in the 1950s. Wai Wai (Intercontinental Dictionary Series)