Typological Feature Template for Paunaka
By Lena Terhart
| Feature | Description |
| Genetic Affiliation | South-Arawakan |
| Location | Chiquitanía, Bolivia |
| Phonological Features | |
| Vowel inventory | Paunaka has 5 vowel phonemes:
/i/ high, front /ɨ/ high, central /u/ high, back /ɛ/ mid, front /a/ low, central |
| Consonant inventory | There are 11 consonants in Paunaka + 2 that occur only marginally:
Stops /p t k (ʔ)/ Affricates /ʧ/ Fricatives /β s h/ Nasals /m n (ɲ)/ Flaps /ɾ/ Approximants /j/ |
| Syllable Structure | The syllable structures are CV, CVV, V, and very rarely VV. However other syllable types can occur in loans. |
| Morpho-syntactic Features | Paunaka is a synthetic and head-marking language and it is mainly suffixing. There are remnants of classifiers cognate to the ones of Baure and Moxo, and some incorporation. Nouns are subcategorised for their possessability. Paunaka has accusative alignment, but a split S system, differentiating between verbal and non-verbal predicates. |
| Orthography | An orthography for Paunaka was established during the workshop "Iniciativas con la lengua paunaka entre los chiquitanos (2011 – 2013)", held on September 16 and 17, 2011 in Concepción de Chiquitos, Bolivia. It was elaborated by the linguists of the Paunaka Documentation Project in collaboration with the Paunaka speakers. It comprises the following graphemes:
a , b , ch , e , i , j , k , m , n , ny , p , r , s , t , u , y , ÿ, x , xh with: b = /β/; j = /h/; ny = /ɲ/; y = /j/; ÿ = /ɨ/; x = /ʂ/ (in loans from Chiquitano); xh = /ʃ/ (in loans from Chiquitano) |
| Short Bibliography |
Danielsen, Swintha & Lena Terhart (in press): "Paunaka" in: Muysken, Pieter & Mily Crevels (eds.): Las lenguas de Bolivia, Vol. 3. La Paz: Plural Editors |