The Waorani (Huaorani) language, commonly known as Sabela (also Wao, Huao, Auishiri, Aushiri, Ssabela ; autonym: Wao Terero; pejorative: Auka, Auca) is a vulnerable language isolate spoken by the Huaorani people, an indigenous group living in the Amazon rainforest between the Napo and Curaray Rivers in Ecuador. A small number of speakers with so-called uncontacted groups may live in Peru.

Huaorani is considered endangered due to growing bilingualism in Quechua and Spanish and diminishing Huaorani usage among youth.[1][3]

Dialects

Huaorani has three dialects: Tiguacuna (Tiwakuna), Tuei (Tiwi Tuei, Tiwi), and Shiripuno.

Language relations

Sabela is not known to be related to any other language. However, it forms part of Terrence Kaufman's Yawan proposal.

Jolkesky (2016) also notes that there are lexical similarities with Yaruro.[4]

Phonology

Huaorani distinguishes nasal vowels from oral ones. Syllable structure is (C)V, with frequent vowel clusters. The allophones of /o/ range from [ɵ, o, ʊ, ɤ] and the allophones of /õ/ have a similar range, [ɵ̃, õ, ʊ̃, ɤ̃], and allophones of /e, ẽ/ can be heard as [ɪ, ɪ̃]. The alveolar tap [ɾ] is an allophone of /d/ and the palatal glide [j] is an allophone of /ɟ/.

Vocabulary

Loukotka (1968) lists the following basic vocabulary items for Sabela and Tiwituey.[5]

gloss	Sabela	Tiwituey
one	iríng	aruki
two		méa
head	u-kabu	u-kubo
eye	a-wínka	a-winga
woman	ohíña	unkia
fire	chúnga	tua
sun	nánki	neinghi
star		nemu
maize	kad'ínghu
house	húnku
white	kúri	mia

References

Bibliography

• Campbell, Lyle. (1997). American Indian Languages: The Historical Linguistics of Native America. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-509427-1.
• Greenberg, Joseph H. (1987). Language in the Americas. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
• Kaufman, Terrence. (1990). Language History in South America: What We Know and How to Know More. In D. L. Payne (Ed.), Amazonian Linguistics: Studies in Lowland South American languages (pp. 13–67). Austin: University of Texas Press. ISBN 0-292-70414-3.
• Kaufman, Terrence. (1994). The Native Languages of South America. In C. Mosley & R. E. Asher (Eds.), Atlas of the World's Languages (pp. 46–76). London: Routledge.
• Peeke, M. Catherine. (2003). A Bibliography of the Waorani of Ecuador. SIL International. Retrieved 2021 April 4 from https://www.sil.org/resources/archives/7801
• Pike, Evelyn G and Rachel Saint. 1988. Workpapers Concerning Waorani discourse features. Dallas, TX: SIL.
• Rival, Laura. Trekking through History: The Huaorani of Amazonian Ecuador, Columbia University Press, 2002.

External links

• Lengua Sabela
• Huaorani - The First To Spanish Dictionary
• Waorani language dictionary online from IDS (select simple or advanced browsing)
• Waorani (Intercontinental Dictionary Series)

На других языках

[es] Idioma huaorani

[fr] Huaorani (langue)

[ru] Ваорани (язык)