Arhuaco language
Arhuaco, commonly known as Ikʉ, is an Indigenous American language of the Chibchan language family, spoken in South America by the Arhuaco people.
There are 8000 speakers, all in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta region of Colombia, 90% of whom are monolingual. Literacy is 1 to 5% in their native language. Some speak Spanish, and 15 to 25% are literate in that auxiliary language. The users have a very strong traditional culture and have vibrant use of their tongue.
It is also known as: Aruaco, Bintuk, Bíntukua, Bintucua, Ica, Ijca, Ijka, Ika, and Ike.
The language uses a subject–object–verb sentence structure.Phonology
;Vowels
| Back vowels | Central vowels | Front vowels |
| Open vowels | i i | ɨ ʉ | u u |
| Mid vowels | e e | ə y | o o |
| Close vowels | | a a | |
is raised to and merged with word finally.
;Consonants
This language registers 17 consonant phonemes:
| Labial | Alveolar | Alveolo-palatal | Velar | Glottal |
| occlusive | p p | t t | tʃ ch | k k | ʔ |
| occlusive | b b | d d | dʒ ɉ | ɡ g | |
| nasal | m m | n~ŋ n | | | |
| fricative | | s s | | | h j |
| fricative | β w | z z | ʒ zh | | |
| flap | | ɾ r | | | |
