Yanomamö language

For other ethnic Yanomami languages, see Yanomaman languages.

Yanomamö
Yąnomamɨ
Native to	Venezuela, Brazil
Region	Orinoco–Mavaca; Amazonas
Ethnicity	Yanomami
Native speakers	(20,000 cited 2000–2006)[1]
Language family	Yanomam Yanomamö
Dialects	Cobari (Kobali)
Language codes
ISO 639-3	guu
Glottolog	yano1261
ELP	Yanomamö
Yanomaman languages location   Yanomamö   Ninam   Yanomám   Sanumá   Ỹaroamë

Yanomamö (Yąnomamɨ) is the most populous of several closely related languages spoken by the Yanomami people. Most speakers are monolingual. It has no natively-used writing system. For a grammatical description, see Yanomaman languages.

Phonology

Consonants

		Labial	Dental	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Plosive	plain	p	t			k	(ʔ)
	aspirated		tʰ
Fricative		f		s	ʃ		h
Flap				ɾ
Nasal		m		n
Approximant		w		(l)	j

/ɾ/ can also alternate to a lateral approximant [l] sound. A glottal stop sound [ʔ] can be heard intervocalically.[2]

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i, ĩ	ɨ, ɨ̃	u, ũ
Mid	e, ẽ	ə	o, õ
Open		a, ã

[3][4]

References

1. Yanomamö at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
2. Ferreira, Helder Perri (2017). Yanomama Clause Structure (PDF). Utrecht: LOT. ISBN 978-94-6093-258-8. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2021-04-18.
3. Aikhenvald, Alexandra Y.; Dixon, R.M.W. (1999). The Amazonian Languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521570213.
4. Lizot, Jacques (2004). Diccionario enciclopédico de la lengua yãnomãmī. Vicariato Apostólico de Puerto Ayacucho. ISBN 9789806800007. OCLC 61157955.

Further reading

• Ferreira, Helder Perri (2017). Yanomama Clause Structure: Proefschrift (PDF). ISBN 978-94-6093-260-1. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2023-11-05.