Siona language

Siona
Gantëya coca
Native to	Colombia, Ecuador
Region	Putumayo River
Ethnicity	Siona people, Teteté people
Native speakers	500 (2000–2008)
Language family	Tucanoan Western Napo Siona–Secoya Siona
Language codes
ISO 639-3	Either: snn – Siona teb – Teteté
Glottolog	sion1247

The Siona language (otherwise known as Sioni, Pioje, Pioche-Sioni, Ganteyabain, Ganteya, Ceona, Zeona, Koka, Kanú) is a Tucanoan language of Colombia and Ecuador.

As of 2013, Siona is spoken by about 550 people. Teteté dialect (Eteteguaje) is extinct.

Phonology

Vowels

There are 6 oral vowels and six nasal vowels. Only nasal vowels occur next to a nasal consonant /m/ or /n/.

	Back	Central	Front
High	i ĩ	ɨ ɨ̃	u ũ
Mid	ɛ æ̃		o õ
Low		a ã

Consonants

There are two series of obstruent consonant. Both often produce a noticeable delay before the onset of the following vowel: the 'fortis' series (written p t č k kw s h hw) tends to be aspirated, with a noisy transition to the vowel, while the 'lenis' series (written b d g gw ’ z), optionally voiced, is glottalized, with a silent transition to the vowel, which in turn tends to be laryngealized. The glottal stop is faint, and noticeable primarily in the laryngealizing effect it has on adjacent vowels.

	bilabial	alveolar	prepalatal	velar	labio-velar	glottal
voiceless plosives	pʰ	t̪ʰ	tʃʰ	kʰ	kʷʰ
voiced plosives	pˀ ~ bˀ	ʈˀ ~ ɖˀ ~ ɾ		kˀ ~ ɡˀ	kʷˀ ~ ɡʷˀ	ʔ
Fricative		s ; sˀ ~ zˀ				h ; hʷ
Nasal	m	n
Semi-vowel			j ~ ɲ		w

/ʈˀ/ is realized as [ɾ] between vowels. /j/ is realized as [ɲ] next to nasal vowels.

Stress

Stress is obligatory on all verb stems, root words, and some suffixes. It disappears when the syllable is not the nucleus of a phonological word. Some monosyllabic morphemes have both stressed and unstressed forms. Although the position of stress within a word is not contrastive, vocalic and consonantal allophony depends on whether a syllable is stressed. Initial stressed vowels followed by unstressed vowels are long and have a falling tone.

External links

• Wheeler, Alva. 1970. Grammar of the Siona language, Colombia, South America. Ph.D. thesis. University of California. 192 p.