Annotated Swadesh wordlists for the Maritime group (Arawak family).

Languages included: Lokono [mar-lok]; Añú [mar-anu].

DATA SOURCES

I. Lokono

Pet 2011 = Pet, Willem J. A. A Grammar Sketch and Lexicon of Arawak (Lokono Dian). SIL E-Books 30. // A grammar sketch of Lokono as spoken in Suriname (villages of Cassipora and Powakka) accompanied with a short dictionary.

Patte 2008 = Patte, Marie-France. Parlons Arawak. Une langue amérindienne dʼAmazonie. Paris: LʼHarmattan. // A didactic grammar of Lokono as spoken in French Guyana accompanied with a vocabulary.

Patte 2011 = Patte, Marie-France. La langue arawak de Guyane. Présentation historique et dictionnaires arawak-français et français-arawak. Marseille: IRD Éditions, Collection Didactiques. // A dictionary of Lokono.

II. Añú

Álvarez & Bravo 2008 = Álvares, José; Bravo, María. Diccionario básico de la lengua añú. Liuruchaa añunnükümoyatü. Maracaibo, Sinamaica, El Moján: Universidad del Zulia. // A dictionary of Añú accompanied with a grammar sketch.

Jahn 1914 = Jahn, Alfredo. Parauhanos und Guajiros und die Pfahlbauten am See von Maracaibo. In: Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, 46. Jahrg., H. 2/3: 267-283, 536. // An article on the Añú and Wayuunaiki peoples containing a short vocabulary and some notes on grammar.

Patte 1978 = Patte, Marie-France. Étude phonologique de la langue añun (paraujano) parlée dans la région de Sinamaica (Vénézuéla). In: Amerindia 3: 57-83. // A description of Añú phonology.

Patte 1981 = Patte, Marie-France. Les préfixes personnels en añún. In: Amerindia 6: 7-16. // A description of Añú possessive prefixes.

Wavrin & Rivet 1952 = Wavrin, Robert de; Rivet, Paul. Les Indiens Parawgwan. In: Journal de la Société des Américanistes, 41(2): 235-238. // A short article including some Añú data obtained by various researchers, including [Jahn 1914].

NOTES

I. Lokono

1. General.

Lokono is spoken throughout a vast area comprising Eastern Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana. Our main sources cover the dialects of Suriname and French Guiana. These dialects are very similar. The differences in phonology (or maybe rather in transcription) are as follows: FG ki = S kʰi, FG tʸi and či = S či, FG dʸi = S ǯi; FG = S V. We stick to the French Guianese system, since it is more distinctive. The dialect of Guyana seems to be somewhat divergent and displays certain archaic features. Its data are occasionally cited in [Patte 2011] after John Peter Bennett; in this case we adduce them in the comments section.

2. Transliteration.

In our transcription, allophonic palatalization of consonants is denoted. Syllable-final nasals (corresponding to a single archphoneme N) are written phonetically: m before labial stops, n before apical stops, ŋ before velar stops and word-finally, zero before continuants (in all cases the allophonic nasalization of preceding vowels is denoted). The phonetic principle is also applied to the vowels o/u and ǝ/ɨ (u and ɨ are written when there is an i in the next syllable, unless the preceding syllable contains an identical vowel).

Patte Pet UTS
p p p
b b b
f f ɸ
m m m
w w w
t t t
th th
d d d
s s s
ti thi tʸi
thi thi či
di di dʸi
shi si ši
ke, kê ke kʸe, kʸeː
l l l
rh lh ɽ
r r ɾ
y j y
n n n, -ŋ
kh kh
k k k
h h h
i, î i i, iː
e, ê e e, eː
u, û y ǝ/ɨ, ǝː/ɨː
o, ô o o/u, oː/uː
a, â a a, aː
iya ia iya

II. Añú

1. General.

Añú is a nearly extinct language formerly spoken in the area of the Maracaibo Lake (Venezuela). It was documented in the mid-20th century by Marie-France Patte; only one fully competent speaker remains today, but revitalization attempts are being undertaken. For this reason, the dictionary [Álvarez & Bravo 2008] contains a number of recently coined words (normally borrowed from Spanish or Wayuunaiki). Even though these loanwords did not arise through natural language development, they are still listed in this database: if the revitalization effort succeeds, they are likely to enter the spoken language in the absence of other equivalents. Since these words are marked as borrowings, their inclusion does not affect lexicostatistic calculations.

Words found in the list provided in [Jahn 1914] and [Wavrin & Rivet 1952] are provided in their original transcription systems (in italics in curled brackets) exclusively in the comments section, unless there is no inherited word quoted in other works, in which case the words from these sources are phonologized and included in the main section with the # sign. It has to be stressed that the data in these sources are not accurately morphologized, so that they often include possessive prefixes or suffixed articles.

2. Transliteration.

The correspondences between the orthography used in [Álvarez & Bravo] and UTS transcription are as follows.

Orthography UTS
p p
t t
k k
ch č
sh š
m m, m̩
n n, n̩
ɲ
r ɺ
l l
w w
y y
a a
aa
ü ɨ
üü ɨː
e e
ee eː, öː
i i
ii
o o
oo
u u
uu
aɨ̯
ai ai̯
au au̯
üi ɨi̯
ei ei̯
eu eu̯
oɨ̯
oi oi̯
ou ou̯

Database compiled and annotated by: André Nikulin (November 2016).