Murui Huitoto language

Murui Huitoto
Spoken in	Colombia, Perú
Native speakers	2,900  (1995)
Language family	Bora–Witoto Witoto–Ocaina Witoto Mɨnɨca–Murai Murui Huitoto
Language codes
ISO 639-3	huu
This page contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters.

Murui Huitoto - or simply Murui (also known as Bue and Witoto) is an indigenous American Huitoto language of the Witotoan family spoken by 2,900 of indigenous people in western South America alongside the Ampiyacu, Putumayo, and Napo rivers.^[1]

Though approximately 95% of Murui-speakers under the age of 40 are literate, and between 20 and 25% read and write in Spanish, fewer than 1% read and write in Murui.

Approximately 1,000 Peruvians use Murui in both its written and oral forms. The language is accorded official status and is used in schools. It is also used in churches. There are no Murui-an monolinguals in Peru: speakers of the language who do not also use another language.

The language has 1,900 speakers in southwestern Colombia where it has higher social utility and standing.^[1]

It was formerly spoken in Brazil as well, but is now extinct in that country.^[1]

When written it uses the Roman Script. A dictionary and grammar rules have been developed.^[1]

Phonology

Constonants

The orthographic representation is to the left, the IPA to the right.

Note that before i and e, c is written qu.

		Bilabial	Dental	Aveolar	Postaveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Plosive	Unvoiced			t /t/			c /k/
	Voiced	b /b/		d /d/			g /ɡ/
Fricative or Affricate	Unvoiced	f /ɸ/	s /θ/		ch /tʃ/			j /h/
	Voiced	v /β/				ll /ʝ/
Nasal		m /m/		n /n/		ñ /ɲ/
Trill				r /r/

Vowels

Orthography	IPA
a	/a/
e	/e/
i	/i/
o	/ɒ/
u	/u/
ɨ	/ɯ/

Notes

1. ^ ^{a b c d} Ethnologue report for language code:huu

External links

• Ethnologue

Sources

Burtch, Shirley, comp. Diccionario Huitoto Murui.