The Hodï (Jodï, Jotí, Hoti) language, also known as Yuwana (Yoana), Waruwaru (Waruwadu), or Chikano (Chicano), is a small unclassified language spoken by the Hodï people of Venezuela. Very little is known of it; its several hundred speakers are monolingual hunter-gatherers. The people call themselves ('the people') or , and their language .Jorge Emilio Rosés Labrada (2013) Reciprocal constructions in Mako. 6th Oklahoma Workshop in Native American Languages. The two communities with the most speakers are San José de Kayamá and Caño Iguana, with several hundred speakers total.
Sources are inconsistent with nasals, varying between e.g. and .Jorge Emilio Rosés Labrada (2019) 'Jodï-Sáliban: A linguistic family of the northwest Amazon. IJAL 85.3.
Classification No classification of Hodï has yet been established to the satisfaction of linguists.
Attempts have been made to link Hodï with the nearby Piaroa–Saliban languages. A recent proposal classifies Hodï and (Piaroa–)Saliban as the branches of a single Jodï–Saliban macrofamily.Labrada, Rosés; Emilio, Jorge (2015). "Jodi-Saliban". Glottolog 2.7. Jena: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History. However, similarities in vocabulary with the Piaroa–Saliban languages may in fact be due to sprachbunding: Henley, Mattéi-Müller and Reid (1996) argue that the apparent cognates between Hodï and Piaroa–Saliban are rather loanwords.
Henley et al., based on limited data, said that Hodï may be related to the Nadahup languages.Henley, Paul; Marie-Claude Mattéi-Müller y Howard Reid 1996. "Cultural and linguistic affinities of the foraging people of North Amazonia: a new perspective"; Antropológica 83: 3-37. Caracas. The only linguist to speak Hodï and Piaroa, Stanford Zent, has collected more reliable data and said that it is "probably" related to the Piaroa–Saliban languages.
Since 1985 a relationship to the Yanomaman languages has also been suggested, in part on the grounds that Hodï shares 20% of its vocabulary with this family.Migliazzi, Ernesto C. 1985. "Languages of the Orinoco-Amazon region"; H.M.Klein & L. Stark (eds.): South American Indian Languages: 17-139. Austin: University of Texas Press.
Phonology The first phonological analysis is Vilera Díaz (1985). She largely retains the vocalic description of earlier researchers, apart from finding vowel length is a product of emphasis, but does not state whether vowel nasalization is phonemic, and does not provide a minimal pair for vs .Vilera Díaz, Diana C. 1985. . Thesis in Anthropology. Caracas: Universidad Central de Venezuela.
Vowels +Vowels (Vilera Díaz 1985) oral nasalfrontcentralbackfrontcentralbackclose mid open ()
is an allophone of , is an allophone of , and are allophones of . Quatra (2008) maintains that and are distinct phonemes, but does not provide any minimal pairs to demonstrate that. He also maintains that and are only nasalized following nasal consonants.
Consonants +Consonants (Vilera Díaz 1985) Bil. Dent. Alv. Alv-pal Pal. Post-pal. Vel. Lab-vel Glot.Obstruentvoiceless ~ voiced (?) ~ fricative () Nasal Continuant
There is no minimal pair for , so it is not clear that it is a separate phoneme.
is before a velar. and are after a nasal and occasionally intervocalically. Intervocalic is . (perhaps ) is before . was written 'd' due to lack of typewriter support.
varies as , and varies as in all contexts, not just adjacent to nasal vowels.
Phonetic aspiration occurs at boundaries, often before voiceless consonants and always before .
+Consonants (Quatra 2008)BilabialAlveolarAlv-palVelarGlottalplainpreasp.plainpreasp.plainpreasp.plainpreasp.Obstruentvoiceless ) voiced Nasal () Continuant
The voiced stops are realized as nasals between nasal vowels. The 'aspirated' consonants are pre-aspirated.
Bibliography Guarisma P., V.; Coppens, W. (1978). . Antropológica, 49:3-27. Mattei-Müller, M. (1981). . (Manuscript).
References
External links Alain Fabre 2005. : HOTI Yuwana (Intercontinental Dictionary Series)