Emerillon language
Emerillon (alternate names Emerilon, Emerion, Mereo, Melejo, Mereyo, Teco) is a Tupi–Guarani language spoken in French Guiana on the rivers Camopi and Tampok. The Emerillon people refer to their language as Teke and it is mutually intelligible to Wayampi a language indigenous to French Guiana and Brazil.[3]
| Emerillon | |
|---|---|
| Region | French Guiana |
| Ethnicity | Emerillon people |
Native speakers | 400 (2001)[1] |
Tupian
| |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | eme |
| Glottolog | emer1243 Teko |
| ELP | Emerillon[2] |
Emerillon is only used along the French Guiana borders with Surinam and Brazil. There are only four hundred Emerillon speakers in the world. Although there are a limited number of speakers, Emerillon is still taught as a first language to children.[3] Its name derives from mereñõ, a name given to members of the Emerillon tribe. They often refer to themselves as the Teko people which translates to "human being" in Wayãpi.[4]
Orthography
Emerillon is spelt phonetically based on the International Phonetic Alphabet, and not according the French orthography.[5] The spelling uses the letter ɨ for the close central unrounded vowel between i and u.[6] e is always pronounced é, vowels with a tilde are always nasal (ã, ẽ, ĩ, õ, ũ), ö is like the German O umlaut, and b is prenounced mb. All letters are pronounced.[6]
References
- Emerillon at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- Endangered Languages Project data for Emerillon.
- Gordon, Mathew; Rose, Franciose (Summer 2006). "Émérillon Stress: A Phonetic and Phonological Study". Anthropological Linguistics: 132–168. JSTOR 25132376.
- Dietrich, Wolf (1 January 2013). "Review of Grammaire de l'émérillon teko, une langue tupi-guarani de Guyane française, Françoise Rose". International Journal of American Linguistics. 79 (3): 441–443. doi:10.1086/670927. JSTOR 670927.
- Grenand & Grenand 2017, p. 18.
- Grenand & Grenand 2017, p. 20.
Bibliography
- Grenand, Pierre; Grenand, Françoise Grenand (2017). "Pour une histoire de la cartographie des territoires teko et wayãpi (Commune de Camopi, Guyane française)". Open Edition. Revue d’ethnoécologie (in French).