Itonama language
Itonama is a moribund language isolate spoken by the Itonama people in the Amazonian lowlands of north-eastern Bolivia. Greenberg’s classification of Itonama as Paezan, a sub-branch of Macro-Chibchan, remains unsupported and Itonama continues to be considered an isolate or unclassified language.
It was spoken on the Itonomas River and Lake in Beni Department.Jolkesky notes that there are lexical similarities with the Nambikwaran languages due to contact.Phonology
Vowels
s:.Consonants
The postalveolar affricates have alveolar allophones. Variation occurs between speakers, and even within the speech of a single person.
The semivowel is realized as a bilabial fricative when preceded and followed by identical vowels.Morphology
Itonama is a polysynthetic, head-marking, verb-initial language with an accusative alignment system along with an inverse subsystem in independent clauses, and straightforward accusative alignment in dependent clauses.
Nominal morphology lacks case declension and adpositions and so is simpler than verbal morphology.Vocabulary
lists the following basic vocabulary items for Itonama.
