Waiwai

Language code

waw

Location

0°41'53"S 57°58'26"W

Family

Carib

Consonants	Bilabial	Alveolar	Post- alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Stop/affricate		t	tʃ		k
Fricative	ɸ	s	ʃ			h
Nasal	m	n		ɲ
Approximant				j	w
Tap, flap		ɾ
Lateral		ɺ

Vowels	Front	Central	Back
High	i	ɨ	u
Mid	e		o
Low		a

Suprasegmental

None

Bibliography

Hawkins, Robert. 1998. Wai Wai. In Desmond Derbyshire and Geoffrey Pullum (eds.), Handbook of Handbook of Amazonian Languages, Vol. 4, pp. 25-224. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.

Derbyshire, Desmond. 1999. Carib. In R.M.W. Dixon and Alexandra Aikhenvald (eds.), The Amazonian Languages, pp. 23-61. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Notes

The segment given in the inventory as /ɺ/ is described by Hawkins (1998: 25) as an “/r/...formed with the blade of the tongue..an alveopalatal with popped lateral release”, and by Derbyshire (1999: 27) as “palatal ɹ with lateral release”.