Northern Embera language
Northern Emberá, also known as West Embera and Cholo, is the largest Embera language. It is spoken largely in Colombia, but is also the principal language of the Darien Gap in Panama.The Emberá language is divided into two branches: Northern and Southern. Two prominent Northern groups are Emberá Darien and Katio. The Katio language is spoken by 10,000 - 20,000 people, whose literacy rate is at 1%. The Darien Emberá language is spoken by 9,000-10,000 people.
Classification
Northern Emberá is a dialect that comes from Embera which is part of the Chocó family. The Chocó family includes two languages, Waunana and the group of the Emberá dialects. The Emberá dialects form a dialectal continuum with two geographically defined subgroups: the Northern branch contains the Proper Northern Emberá and the Katío dialect.History
The Waunanas and Emberás are the last remnants of a larger group of Pre-Columbian ethnic groups, such as the Orominas, the Chancos, the Guarras, the Burrumías, that were diminished during the Colonial period. Genetic findings show that the speakers of Chocó languages are genetically differentiated from the Chibcha speaking tribes of Northern Colombia and cluster with the Orinoquian and Amazonian indigenous populations. Waunana and Emberá share a large number of cognates, which provide evidence for their common origin. However, there is no clear evidence in terms of a sufficient number of cognates for a common origin of Chocó with other South or Central American families.Geographic Distribution
The majority of the Katio language are found along the Upper Sinu, San Jorge, San Pedro and Murri Rivers of northwestern Colombia with a few living in Panama. The majority of Darien Embera speakers live in Panama with approximately 2,000 living in northwestern Colombia on the Atrato River.Phonology
Consonants
Vowels
Grammar
Phoneme Inventory
Katio's phoneme inventory contains 16 consonants and 6 vowels, both oral and nasal. Darien Embera's phoneme inventory contains 17 consonants and 6 vowels, oral and nasal.Syntax
The Chocó languages show the properties of head-final languages: OV order, postpositions, embedded verbs preceding matrix verbs. At the clausal level, the basic order is SOV with some flexibility used for discourse purposes.Noun phrase
The neutral order in the noun phrase is: A ] Q ]. Determiners precede the noun, while adjectives and quantifiers are postnominal in the neutral configuration. Determiners include demonstratives, some indexical elements, as well as the definite determiner. The definite article is also used for the nominalization of non-nominal constituents.Verbs
Verb clusters are linearized in a head-final pattern. The auxiliary follows the lexical verb, and the matrix verb follows the embedded verb. With non-verbal predicates, the auxiliary follows the predicative element. For example:Northern Emberá:
Ẽpẽrã-ra porekea b-ɯ-a.
person-ABS fat be-PRS-DECL
‘The man is fat.’
Reduplication
Reduplication is very productive and may be total, or partial. It is frequently used for the derivation of adjectives, and verbs. Verbs formed through reduplication have an iterative or durative interpretation. Reduplication is used to lessen the intensity of both verbs and adjectives.| p’ãwãrã ‘blue’ | → | p’ãwã~p’ãwãrã ‘greenish-blue’ |
| ip’ida ‘ laugh’ | → | ip’ida~ip’ida ‘ smile’ |
| pía ‘good’ | → | pi~ʔia ‘very well’ |