Barí is a Chibchan language spoken in Northwestern South America by the Barí (Motilon), by 5,000 people. It is not endangered, as the language is still being taught to children, although the Bari have acculturated to the national culture.
Status The 18th edition of the Ethnologue, a catalogue of the world's languages, reports a total of 5,000 speakers between 2007 and 2008. As of 2004, 150 speakers of Bari, primarily elderly, were monolingual in the language, meaning they could only speak that language. Children learn Bari as their first language, meaning it is not endangered, although young men between the ages of 20 and 40 tend to use Spanish in their everyday conversation, only using Bari whenever there are strangers. However, the community has assimilated culturally to Venezuelan culture, though keeping a few of their traditional customs. Spanish is taught to the Bari in school.
Phonology
Vowels Barí has six vowels: /i, e, a, ɨ, o, u/. All vowels have nasalized forms as /ĩ, ẽ, ã, ɨ̃, õ, ũ/.
Consonants +ConsonantsBilabialAlveolarPalatalVelarGlottalPlosivevoicelessvoicedFricativeNasalTrill
Morphology
Nouns Nouns in Bari are composed of roots or nominalized derivations, the latter of which may be derived from a verb and the suffix , to express the "doer" of the action, or added to perception verbs to create nouns for appliances (e.g. 'see' to 'TV set'). Nouns are not marked for case. Excepting numerals, no distinction exists between mass and count nouns, as quantifiers may be used with both verbs.
Pronouns Personal pronouns in Bari distinguish both number and switch-reference, the latter being distinguished solely in the third person plural. +Bari personal pronounssingularplural1naychiji2baybiji3same subjectobãyobãyjidifferent subjectOrachji
Vocabulary +BaríSpanishEnglishonedostwo, tresthreehombremanmujerwomanperrodogsolsunlunamoonaguawatertierraearthmontañamountainrocíodew
References
Bruce Olson. Bruchko. Charisma House, 1977.
External links Bari language and the Bari indian tribe at native-languages.org