Kashinawa language


Kashinawa, or Hantxa Kuin, is an indigenous American language of western South America which belongs to the Panoan language family. It is spoken by about 1,600 Kaxinawá in Peru, along the Curanja and the Purus Rivers, and in Brazil by 400 Kaxinawá in the state of Acre.
About five to ten percent of speakers have some Spanish language proficiency, while forty percent are literate and twenty to thirty percent are literate in Spanish as a second language.
Dialects are Brazilian Kashinawa, Peruvian Kashinawa, and the extinct Juruá Kapanawa and Paranawa.

Phonology

Vowels

A dictionary has been compiled and published since 1980.

Orthography

The Roman alphabet is used. Generatives come before nouns. There is an interrogative punctuation mark different from the question mark.

Morphology

Articles and adjectives are placed after nouns. There are seven prefixes and five suffixes.