Mawayana language


Mawayana, also known as Mapidian, is a moribund Arawakan language of Guyana.

Classification

lists Mawayana together with Wapishana under a Rio Branco branch of the Arawakan family. notes that Mawayana "is closely related to Wapishana" and according to they share at least 47% of their lexicon.

Phonology

Mawayana has, among its consonants, two implosives, and, and what has been described as a "retroflex fricativised rhotic", represented with, that it shares with Wapishana. The vowel systems contains four vowels, each of which has a nasalised counterpart.

Morphosyntax

Mawayana has a polysynthetic morphology, mainly head-marking and with suffixes, although there are pronominal prefixes. The verbal arguments are indexed on the verb through subject suffixes on intransitive verbs, while agent prefixes and object suffixes on transitive verbs.