Uwa language

The Uwa language, Uw Cuwa, commonly known as Tunebo, is a Chibchan language spoken by between 1,800 and 3,600 of the Uwa people of Colombia, out of a total population of about 7,000.[3]

Uwa
Tunebo
Uw Cuwa
Native toColombia, formerly in Venezuela
Regionthe largest groups live on the northern slopes of the Sierra Nevada del Cocuy, Boyacá Department
EthnicityU'wa
Native speakers
3,550 (2000)[1]
Chibchan
  • Chibcha–Motilon
    • Chibcha–Tunebo
      • Uwa
Language codes
ISO 639-3Variously:
tnd – Angosturas Tunebo/Bahiyakuwa
tbn – Barro Negro Tunebo (Eastern Tunebo/Yithkaya)
tuf – Central Tunebo (Cobaría/Kubaru'wa & Tegría/Tagrinuwa)
tnb – Western Tunebo (Aguas Blancas/Rikuwa)
Glottologtune1260
ELPTunebo[2]

Varieties

There are half a dozen known varieties. Communication between modern varieties can be difficult, so they are considered distinct languages.

Adelaar (2004) lists the living

Umaña (2012) lists Cobaría, Tegría, Agua Blanca, Barro Negro.

Berich lists the dialects Cobaría; Agua Blanca (= Uncasía, Tamarana, Sta Marta); Rinconada, Tegría, Bócota, & Báchira

Cassani lists Sínsiga, Tegría, Unkasía (= Margua), Pedraza, Manare, Dobokubí (= Motilón)

Osborn (1989) lists

  • Bethuwa (= Pedraza, extinct),
  • Rikuwa (Dukarúa, = Agua Blanca),
  • Tagrinuwa (Tegría),
  • Kubaruwa (Cobaría),
  • Kaibaká (= Bókota),
  • Yithkaya (= San Miguel / Barro Negro),
  • Bahiyakuwa (= Sínsiga),
  • Biribirá,
  • and Ruba,

the latter all extinct

Fabre (2005) lists:

  • Bontoca (perhaps the same as the Bókota = Kaibaká cited in Osborn), of the mountains of Guican
  • Cobaría, along the Cobaría River
  • Pedraza or Bethuwa [= Angosturas?], along the Venezuelan border; extinct
  • Sínsiga, in the Guican mountains, recorded from Chita, Boyaca in 1871
  • Tegría or Tagrinuwa, along the Cobaría River
  • Unkasia, along the Chitiga and Marga rivers (Telban 1988)

Additional names in Loukotka are Manare and Uncasica (presumably a spelling variant of Unkasía/Uncacía), as well as Morcote, of which nothing is known. Manare, at the source of the Casanare, is Eastern Tunebo.

Phonology

Vowel
Front Back
High i u
Mid e o
Low a

Consonants
Labial Alveolar Palatal Velar Labio-velar Glottal
Voiceless stop t k kʷ ʔ
Voiced Stop b
Fricative s ʃ h
Nasal m n
Vibrant r
Oral semi-vowel w j
Nasal semi-vowel w̃

Notes
  1. Angosturas Tunebo/Bahiyakuwa at Ethnologue (19th ed., 2016)
    Barro Negro Tunebo (Eastern Tunebo/Yithkaya) at Ethnologue (19th ed., 2016)
    Central Tunebo (Cobaría/Kubaru'wa & Tegría/Tagrinuwa) at Ethnologue (19th ed., 2016)
    Western Tunebo (Aguas Blancas/Rikuwa) at Ethnologue (19th ed., 2016)
  2. Endangered Languages Project data for Tunebo.
  3. Adelaar & Muysken (2004:109)

References
  • Adelaar, Willem F. H.; Muysken, Pieter C. (2004). The Languages of the Andes. Cambridge University Press.
  • Alain Fabre 2005. Diccionario etnolingüístico y guía bibliográfica de los pueblos indígenas sudamericanos.


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