A Preliminary Phonetic Analysis of Nasa Yuwe
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2014
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Swarthmore College. Dept. of Linguistics
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Abstract
This paper presents new field data and a phonetic analysis of Nasa Yuwe, also known
as Paez, an indigenous language in Colombia, South America. Within the rich sphere of
Colombian indigenous languages, Nasa Yuwe is estimated to have around 75 ,000 speakers, of
which a significantly smaller portion is monolingual, making it the second largest endangered
language in the country (Ethnologue). Despite acknowledgement of its endangered status for
the last three centuries, there has been minimal work done on the language until recently, and a
detailed phonetic analysis is missing from the current body of literature. This paper attempts to
fill that gap with a detailed overview of the vowel and consonant systems, with data supplied
by recent fieldwork on a speaker of the language. Special attention is devoted to vowels with
analysis including formant measurements, short and long contrastive measurements, devoicing,
and vowel frequency. Further attention is devoted to VOT analysis, stress in disyallbic words,
and the loan phonology of the language. Nasa Yuwe borrows and transform a variety of
Spanish lexical items. For example, the Spanish [sabado] "Saturday" undergoes transformation
into <sapatu> [ sapatu]. This transformation illustrates devoicing of intervocalic consonants
along with vowel raising. By analyzing the loan phonology in detail, the paper attempts to
better understand the historical relations between Spanish and Nasa Yuwe as well as the current
state of interaction between the two languages. This analysis, combined with the other phonetic
and phonological studies in this paper, will add to the existing literature a first step in
documenting and understanding in a scientific and quantitative context the overall consonant
and vowel structure of the language. To better contextualize Nasa Yuwe, this paper also
embeds sound files of the individual elicitations so as to help the reader gain a more intuitive
understanding that could not be conveyed through written word alone. It is hoped that this study
will be useful to indigenous efforts to preserve and propagate the language through social and
cultural activities in Colombia as well as serve as a contribution to the greater linguistic
community.