Hixkaryana language
E208123
Hixkaryana is an indigenous Cariban language of northern Brazil, noted for its rare object–verb–subject (OVS) basic word order.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Hixkaryana language canonical | 1 |
Statements (49)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
Cariban language
ⓘ
indigenous language ⓘ natural language ⓘ |
| alignment | ergative–absolutive features ⓘ |
| basicWordOrder | OVS ⓘ |
| belongsToMacroArea | South America ⓘ |
| country | Brazil ⓘ |
| documentedBy | Desmond C. Derbyshire ⓘ |
| endangerment | vulnerable to language shift ⓘ |
| family |
Carib
ⓘ
surface form:
Cariban
|
| geneticRelation |
Tiriyó language
ⓘ
surface form:
related to other Cariban languages such as Tiriyó
related to other Cariban languages such as Waiwai ⓘ |
| glottocode | hixk1239 ⓘ |
| hasAlternativeName |
Hixkariana
ⓘ
Hixkaryána ⓘ
surface form:
Hixkariyana
Hixkaryána ⓘ |
| hasGrammaticalFeature |
case-like marking through verbal agreement and particles
ⓘ
head‑final noun phrases ⓘ person marking on verbs ⓘ postpositions instead of prepositions ⓘ prefixes and suffixes on verbs ⓘ rich verbal morphology ⓘ |
| hasImportantPublication | Hixkaryana and Linguistic Typology (Derbyshire) ⓘ |
| hasImportantWork | Desmond C. Derbyshire’s grammar of Hixkaryana ⓘ |
| hasNumberOfSpeakers | a few hundred to around one thousand speakers (approximate, varying by source and year) ⓘ |
| hasPhonologicalFeature |
contrastive nasalization
ⓘ
oral and nasal vowels ⓘ relatively small consonant inventory ⓘ |
| ISO639-3 | hix ⓘ |
| knownFor |
being one of the first well-documented OVS basic word order languages
ⓘ
influencing typological theories of word order universals ⓘ |
| languageFamily |
Carib
ⓘ
surface form:
Cariban
|
| morphologicalType | agglutinative language ⓘ |
| region |
Nhamundá River region
ⓘ
Rio Nhamundá basin ⓘ |
| script | Latin script ⓘ |
| spokenBy | Hixkaryana people ⓘ |
| spokenIn |
Brazil
ⓘ
northern Brazil ⓘ Pará ⓘ
surface form:
state of Pará
|
| status | endangered ⓘ |
| subfamily | Río Branco branch of Cariban ⓘ |
| typologicalFeature |
SOV and OVS alternations in some contexts
ⓘ
object–verb–subject basic word order ⓘ postpositional language ⓘ |
| usedFor |
daily communication within Hixkaryana communities
ⓘ
ritual and cultural practices ⓘ traditional oral narratives ⓘ |
| writingSystem | Latin alphabet ⓘ |
Referenced by (1)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.