Opón-Carare (Opone) is an extinct, unusually divergent Cariban language of Colombia. It is most closely related to Yukpa. It is known only from two wordlists, published in 1878 and 1958 respectively. The language was reported to be likely extinct by 1973.
Phonology
Giraldo and Fornaguera (1958) Marshall Durbin and Haydée Seijas derive the following phonology for Opón-Carare based on data published in 1958 from Giraldo and Fornaguera.
+ConsonantsBilabialAlveolarPostalveolarPalatalVelarGlottalPlosivevoicelessptk(ʔ)1voicedbdgFricativesʃhTrillrNasalmnɲApproximantwj [ʔ] may not be phonemic, it appears only at morpheme boundaries.
+VowelsFrontCentralBackshortlongshortlongshortlongCloseiiːuuːMideeːəooːOpenaaː While common in other Cariban languages, nasal vowels are not recorded in Opón-Carare.
Lengerke (1878) The following phonology is derived from the data in Lengerke (1878). +Consonant phonemes of OpónBilabialAlveolarPostalveolarPalatalVelarGlottalPlosivevoicelessptkvoicedbFricatives(ʃ)hAffricatetʃTrillrNasalmnApproximantwj The phonology is the same in Carare, with the exception that and are not present, and interpreted for the sequence . +VowelsFrontCentralBackCloseiuMide(ə)oOpena References
Further reading