Sanöma language
Sanöma language
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Sanöma language

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Sanöma language

Sanöma /ˈsænʊmə/ or Sanumá is a Yanomaman language spoken in Venezuela and Brazil. It is also known as Sanema, Sanima, Tsanuma, 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.

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.

There are three dialects spoken in Roraima, Brazil:

Voiceless plosives /p, t, k/ are in free variation with their voiced counterparts /b, d, g/; /t/ is also in free variation with [ɾ]. [j] has limited distribution. /k/ becomes [ɣ] between vowels. /k/ becomes palatalized to [kʲ] when preceding /i/, as does /s/ to [ʃ] when preceding /i/, though there is an exception in solosama [soloʃama] 'songthrush'. In initial positions, /s/ can be heard as an affricate [ts], or as [tʃ] when palatalized, preceding /i/. /l/  becomes palatalized to [ʎ] when preceding /i, e/.

/a/ has an allophone of [ʌ] after [m, l, j]. /o/ is in free variation with [ɔ]. /e/ is realized as [ɛ] after a palatalized consonant.

In Sanöma, the subject is placed before the verb or predicate in subordinate and independent clauses.

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