Chaʼpalaa (also known as Chachi or Cayapa) is a Barbacoan language spoken in northern Ecuador by around 5,870 Chachi people.
Name "Chaʼpalaa" means "language of the Chachi people."
Documentation This language was described in part by the missionary P. Alberto Vittadello, who, by the time his description was published in Guayaquil, Ecuador in 1988, had lived for seven years among the tribe.
Phonology
Vowels Cha'palaa has four vowels: /a, e, i, u/.
Consonants Cha'palaa has 23 consonant phonemes. +Consonants Labial Alveolar Palatal Dorsal GlottalNasalStopvoicelessvoicedAffricateFricativeGlideLiquid
Writing system Chaʼpalaa is written using the Latin alphabet, making use of the following graphemes:
A, B, C, CH, D, DY, E, F, G, GU, HU, I, J, L, LL, M, N, Ñ, P, QU, R, S, SH, T, TS, TY, U, V, Y, and .
The writing system includes four simple vowels, and four double vowels:
Morphology Chaʼpalaa has agglutinative morphology, with a Subject-Object-Verb word order.
References
External links Native Languages on Cha'palaachi, with links Cayapa (Intercontinental Dictionary Series)