Tuyuka

Sounds

The consonants / ptkbd ɡ srwjh / and the vowels / i ɨ ueao / are represented in tuyuka .

Vowels

Consonants

Suprasegmented Units

The syllable nasalization and musical stress are represented in the language of tuyuk.

Voiced consonants / b, d, ɡ, r, w, j / in front of the nasal vowels change to nasal consonants / m, n, ŋ, ɳ, w̃, j̃ /, which has the same place of formation . The sound / j / can also change to / ɲ / in front of the high nasal vowel. The sound / h / in front of the nasal vowels also changes to the nasal version.

There is agreement: in the word, either all segments are nasal, or none. In this case, deaf consonants can occur in both cases.

Nasalization can be meaningful: / sĩã / means “kill”, / sia / - “tie”.

Two colors are distinguished in tuyuka: high and low. Each word contains exactly one syllable with a high tone.

Tuyuka, like other Tukan languages, is agglutinative .

Nouns

Nouns denoting animate objects vary by gender. As a rule, words ending in -i / -ɨ correspond to the masculine gender, to -o to the female gender ^{[s 1]} :

• pakɨ́ (father) - pakó (mother)
• baí (brother) - baijó (sister)

The suffix -a is usually used to indicate the plural ^{[s 1]} :

• juká (vulture) - jukáa (vultures)
• ãnã́ (viper) - ãnã́ã (viper)

However, in tuyuk, there are plural words requiring an additional suffix to denote a singular:

• waí (pieces) - waíwɨ̃ (piece)
• bũbĩã (grandmothers) - bũbĩãwɨ̃ (grandmother)

In addition to the three categories of animated nouns (feminine and masculine singular, as well as the plural), tuyuk language contains a developed system of classifiers of inanimate nouns. Each classifier is represented by the suffixes of the singular and plural, and the plural is used to describe more than three objects. ^{[s 2]}

Personal pronouns

Personal pronouns differ in persons (first, second, third) and numbers (singular and plural). In addition, the singular plural has an inclusive and exclusive form. The singular third person is divided into masculine and feminine. ^{[s 3]}

Numerals

In colloquial speech, the numerals 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 10 are most often used. Other numerals are usually transmitted either in Spanish or on the fingers. However, the language has designations for all numbers from 1 to 20. ^{[s 4]}

Verbs

A feature of verbs in the language of tuyuk is the presence of a category of evidentiality . A speaker in tuyuka must use verb suffixes that point to one of five possible sources of information ^{[s 5]} :

• visual evidence (the speaker saw it directly): díiga apé wi - he played football (I saw it);
• non-visual sensory evidence (the speaker, for example, heard this): díiga apé ti - he played football (I heard that there was a game and that he participated in it, but did not see it);
• inference-1 (the speaker draws a conclusion based on visible evidence): díiga apé ji - he played football (I saw evidence of this: fingerprints of his footprints on the football ground);
• retelling (the speaker transmits information received from another person): díiga apé jigɨ - he played football (they told me about this);
• inference-2 (the speaker makes a conclusion based on his own knowledge, mental activity): díiga apé hĩji (he always played football at this time, I think, this time too).

The following table shows the verb suffixes that indicate a particular source of information. Suffixes are presented for verbs of the present and past tense, respectively. Columns are sorted in descending order of priority. If the information is obtained from several sources, the suffix of the highest priority source is selected.

In the future tense, verbs have the following suffixes:

Each verb consists of at least a root and an evidential suffix characterizing the subject , the duration of the action, and the source of information. Between the root and the evidential suffix, markers of view , modality , doubt, movement and direction, and some others can be added. For example, the verb “he plays ( visual evidence )”, “ apewi ”, can be developed to “ apebosasɨgeriwi ” - “he did not start playing for someone ( visual evidence )”. There are more than 40 verb suffixes in the Tuyuk language, however, the use of more than four in a single word is unacceptable. The characteristics of the object do not affect the verb form ^{[s 5]} .

The Tuyuk language is characterized by the word order SOV ^{[s 6]} :

• Pokanga
• Tuyuka