Yine [ˈjine] (previously known as Piro, ISO 639-3 = pib) is a Maipuran language (Payne Reference Payne, Derbyshire and Pullum1991, Campbell Reference Campbell1997, Solís Fonseca Reference Solís Fonseca2003). See Payne (Reference Payne, Derbyshire and Pullum1991) and Campbell (Reference Campbell1997) for discussion of the relationship of the Maipuran (or Maipurean) languages to the controversial Arawakan stock. There are approximately 3,000 speakers of Yine in the Peruvian Amazon. People in Brazil and Bolivia known as Manchineri (alternative spellings exist; ISO 639-3 = mpd) also speak a dialect of Yine (Urquía Sebastián Reference Urquía Sebastián and Marlett2006a).
The recordings for this description are of the primary author, a female speaker born in 1964, from the community of Miaría (on the lower Urubamba river), La Convención province, Cusco department, Peru. She also translated and recorded the North Wind text for this publication.
Previous primary studies of the phonology of Yine include Matteson (Reference Matteson1954), Matteson & Pike (Reference Matteson and Pike1958), and Matteson (Reference Matteson1965/1963). Nies (Reference Nies1986) also includes significant data about the language. Important secondary work on some aspects of Yine phonology includes Lin (Reference Lin1998) and Yanagisawa (Reference Yanagisawa2005).
Consonants
The consonants are presented in five positions in the word when possible: (a) at the beginning of a word, before a vowel; (b) between vowels; (c) at the beginning of a word, before a consonant; (d) in a syllable onset, after a voiceless consonant; and (e) at the beginning of a complex syllable onset between vowels. The palatal fricative does not appear before non-front vowels. The glottal fricative is nasalized.
Vowels
Long vowels occur in the language, although they are not frequent, as in /
aalipiiɾi/ ‘handsome’, /mkeeekatɯ/ ‘satisfied’, /çiiʧi/ ‘foot’ and /kapoooçɾɯ/ ‘dizzy’. Compare a pair of words such as /ʧalɯ/ ‘a fishing net’ and /kʦaalɯ/ ‘muddy’. These have been considered phonemic, and they have always been written in the practical orthography. Vowel length also indicates passive voice (Matteson Reference Matteson1965: 24); compare /ɾanika/ ‘he takes’ and /ɾaniika/ ‘he is taken’. Nevertheless, there are no sequences of non-identical vowels.
Stress
Stress normally falls on the penultimate syllable. According to Matteson (Reference Matteson1965), there are secondary and tertiary stresses. See also Parker (Reference Parker and Parker1989). We present here an example with secondary stress marked, which we perceive as higher pitch: /tapaˌlɯʃakanaˌwatimananɯmtanaˈtnaka/ ‘it is said that his canoe alone was going along again’ (Matteson Reference Matteson1965: 21, adapted to the speech of the primary author). Some secondary stresses are also marked in the transcription of the recorded text. We did not investigate the claims made regarding secondary and tertiary stresses.
Conventions
The consonant /w/ is an unrounded bilabial approximant before a close front vowel: /wiwi/ [ˈ
ii] ‘relative (vocative)’.
A vowel is nasalized after the nasalized glottal fricative and following a nasal consonant: /oto/ [ˈõto] ‘capinurí’ (a tree), /maʧaçi/ [mãˈʧaçi] ‘carachamita’ (a fish).
A resonant or fricative is slightly lengthened when it precedes a consonant in a word-initial onset; it is not fully syllabic, however: /j
alʧi/ [ˈjˑãlʧi] ‘eye’, /mkaʧɾi/ [ˈmˑkaʧɾi] ‘cloth’, /statʧi/ [ˈsˑtatʧi] ‘sternum’, /ʃte/ [ˈʃˑte] ‘younger sister’.
Word-initial consonant clusters that begin with a stop or affricate tend to be pronounced with a clear open transition between the consonants, especially before the lateral, the flap, or a stop: /tlipi/ [ˈtəlipi] ‘a vine’, /ʦɾɯɾɯ/ [ˈʦəɾɯɾɯ] ‘river’, /ktenʧi/ [ˈkətenʧi] ‘tear (of eye) (n.)’. (This is called a transition vocoid in Matteson & Pike (Reference Matteson and Pike1958) and Matteson (Reference Matteson1965/1963).) Word-internal clusters are analyzed structurally as tautosyllabic (see the section on syllable structure); nevertheless, phonetically the first consonant seems to syllabify as a coda of the preceding syllable. As evidence of this resyllabification, the open transition after the first consonant of a cluster and the slight lengthening of the initial resonant or fricative of a cluster do not happen in word-medial consonant clusters: /kaʦlɯ/ [ˈkaʦlɯ] ‘a bamboo’, /mkaʧɾi/ [ˈmˑkaʧɾi] ‘cloth’, /statʧi/ [ˈsˑtatʧi] ‘sternum’, /çiplɯ/ [ˈçiplɯ] ‘heartwood (of tree)’.
An alveolar nasal assimilates to the point of articulation of the following consonant: /kanka/ [ˈkaŋka] ‘cacao’.
The flap is sometimes slightly trilled at the beginning of a word: /ɾapa/ [ˈrapã] ‘stream’.
Syllable structure
In native vocabulary, the maximal syllable template has two consonants in the onset and either a short or long vowel as the nucleus; there are no diphthongs. The onset is obligatory, even in the first syllable of the word. Because of this template, we assume that all consonant sequences are phonologically tautosyllabic.
Extrametricality is exhibited when a consonant prefix occurs as in the following examples of three consonant sequences in word-initial position (Matteson Reference Matteson1965: 26): /nʦpatate/ ‘my guava’ (/n-/ is first person singular, /-te/ is a derivational suffix to form a possessable noun); /wʧkotɯte/ ‘our cebus monkey’ (/w-/ is first person plural); /p
ripite/ ‘your pedrito (a parrot)’ (/p-/ is second person singular).
Transcription of the recorded text
kannipaˈalɯ noɾtiˈsɾeta aˈjeɾɯ a wa ˈtkaʧi | epomsakakaˈnata
ˈwane ˈʧinna ‖ kaˈtɯkta ˈwia eˈpite iʧkopoˈtɯpa | ʧiniˈmatna ‖
ijaoˈtkani jemaˌnʃinikankakiˈmatna | iɾpaˈktani mɯʧiˈnanɯ
koˌʃpaksapowleˈtanɾɯ wa kjaapaˈkleɾɯ | waˈlepni wa iˈʧkolɯ
ʧinhiˈmatna ‖ ijaotˈkani kanniˈpalɯ jinɯˈwaka |
ɾajˌpokanniˌpaiˌtsɾɯkimanaˈnɯmta | sejni ima wa |
kjaapaˈkleɾɯ pnɯtpoˈtima sapwaˈknawa ‖ waneiˈmako
kaˌspɯklewamtjaˈnatka wa kanniˈpalni noɾtiˈsɾeta aˈjeɾɯ ‖
ijanimaˈtnaka tkaʧiˈtnakni | joˌʧpikemeɾeistɾɯkimaˈnata |
ijanimaˈtkani wa kjaapaˈkleɾɯ ijampotimaˈnɯko
koˌʃpaksapowleˈtana | waˈneklɯ ˈima wa kanniˈpalɯ ˈwane
ʧiˈnatka alikaˈkakta ˈpiçni wa iˈʧkolji ˈtkaʧi ʧiniˈmatlɯ ‖
Version in practical alphabet
Kannipgalu nortisreta gajeru ga wa tkachi, gepomsakakanata
wane chinna: katukta wixa gepite gichkopotupa, chingimatna.
Giyagotkani jemanshinikankakgimatna, girpaktani muchinanu
koshpaksapowletanru wa kyagapgakleru, walepni wa gichkolu
chingimatna. Giyagotkani kannipgalu yinuwaka,
rajpokannipgagitsrukgimananumta, seyni gima wa
kyagapgakleru pnutpotgima sapwaknawa. Wanegimako
kaspuklewamtyanatka wa kannipgalni nortisreta gajeru.
Giyangimatnaka tkachitnakni, yochpikgemeregistrukgimanata,
giyangimatkani wa kyagapgakleru giyampotgimanuko
koshpaksapowletana. Waneklu gima wa kannipgalu wane
chinatka galikakakta pixni wa gichkolyi tkachi chingimatlu.
Acknowledgments
This paper was completed as part of the Curso Superior en Lingüística Aplicada para Comunidades Indígenas offered at the Universidad Ricardo Palma (Lima, Peru) and sponsored by SIL International, under the direction of Stephen Marlett. It is translated and adapted slightly from a version published in Spanish (Urquía Sebastián Reference Urquía Sebastián and Marlett2006b). We thank three anonymous reviewers for their very helpful comments and suggestions.
