Contents

Sanumá language

Sanumá
Kohoroxitari
Sanöma
Pronunciation	[ˈsɑnɨmɑ]
Native to	Venezuela, Brazil
Ethnicity	Sanumá
Native speakers	5,100 (2000–2006)[1]
Language family	Yanomaman Sanumá
Language codes
ISO 639-3	xsu
Glottolog	sanu1240
ELP	Sanumá
Yanomaman languages location   Yanomamö   Ninam   Yanomám   Sanumá   Ỹaroamë

Sanumá /ˈsænʊmə/^[2]orSanöma is a Yanomaman language spoken in Venezuela and Brazil. It is also known as Sanema, Sanima, Tsanuma, Guaika, Samatari, Samatali, Xamatari and Chirichano. Most of its speakers in Venezuela also speak Ye'kuana, also known as Maquiritare, the language of the Ye'kuana people the Sanumá live alongside in the Caura River basin.

History[edit]

Throughout the centuries, the Yanomami, originally from the Parima range, have spread up toward river valleys on the plains both to the south in Brazil, and to the north in Venezuela. The Sanumá speak one of the four known Yanomami languages. It is in the rainforests of north Brazil and south Venezuela that the groups have lived undisturbed until recently. In the last 40 years or so the western world has been knocking at their doorsteps wanting lumber and gold.^[3]

Dialects[edit]

Some linguists identify dialects such as Yanoma, Cobari, Caura, and Ervato-Ventuari in Venezuela and Auaris in Brazil. All the dialects are mutually intelligible. In Venezuela, Sanumá is spoken in the vicinity of the Caura and Ervato-Ventuari Rivers in Venezuela, while in Brazil, it is spoken in the Auari River region of Roraima.

There are three dialects spoken in Roraima, Brazil:^[4]

• Awaris (2,955 speakers)
• Aracaçá (29 speakers)
• Hokomawä (180 speakers)

Phonology[edit]

• The sound [j] has limited distribution as a phoneme.
• /k/ can be heard as [ɣ] and /t/ can be heard as a flap [ɾ], in intervocalic positions.
• /k/ becomes palatalized as [kʲ] when preceding /i/.
• /s/ becomes palatalized as [ʃ] when preceding /i/. In initial positions, /s/ can be heard as an affricate [ts], or as [tʃ] when palatalized, preceding /i/.
• /l/  becomes palatalized as [ʎ] when preceding sounds /i, e/.

• /a/ may be heard as [ʌ] after sounds [m, l, j].
• /o/ may be heard as [ɔ] in free variation.
• /e/ may be heard as [ɛ] after when a consonant is palatalized.^[5]

References[edit]

Further reading[edit]

• Alcida Ramos, Sanuma Memories: Yanomami Ethnography in Times of Crisis (University of Wisconsin Press, 1995)
• Bruce Parry, Tribe: Adventures in a Changing World (Michael Joseph Ltd, 2007)

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