Waiwai language

Waiwai (Uaiuai, Uaieue, Ouayeone) is a Cariban language of northern Brazil, with a couple hundred speakers across the border in southern Guyana and Suriname.

Katawiana, or Parukuto, is a dialect; Karafawyana is unattested and uncontacted but may be the same.

Phonology

Consonants

Vowels

• /o/ can be heard as [ʌ] when following palatal consonants /tʃ, ʃ/.
• /a/ can be heard as [æ] when preceded by sounds /j, tʃ/, and followed by sounds /w, m, s/.

References

External links

• Waiwai Collection of Niels Fock from the Archive of the Indigenous Languages of Latin America, containing audio recordings of ceremonial chants and photographs made in the 1950s.
• Wai Wai (Intercontinental Dictionary Series)