Saliba language

Short description: Indigenous language of South America

Not to be confused with Saliba language (Papua New Guinea).

This article contains too many or overly lengthy quotations for an encyclopedic entry. Please help improve the article by presenting facts as a neutrally-worded summary with appropriate citations. Consider transferring direct quotations to Wikiquote. (January 2025)

|

Saliba

Sáliva
Native to| Colombia and Venezuela
Ethnicity| Saliva

Native speakers

| (1,600 cited 1991–2008)[1]

Language family

Piaroa–Saliban

* Saliba

Writing system

| Latin
Language codes
ISO 639-3| `slc`
Glottolog| `sali1298`[2]

Saliba (Spanish: Sáliba, Sáliva) is an Indigenous language of Eastern Colombia and Venezuela.[3] Saliba was used by Jesuit missionaries in the 17th century to communicate with Indigenous peoples of the Meta, Orinoco, and Vichada valleys. An 1856 watercolor by Manuel María Paz is an early depiction of the Saliva people in Casanare Province.[4][relevant? - discuss]

## Contents

* 1 Use
* 2 Phonology
* 3 Writing system
* 4 Grammar
* 5 Related languages
* 6 References
* 6.1 Works cited
* 7 External links
* 7.1 Dictionaries and vocabulary
* 7.2 General works

## Use

"Saliba was spoken by an ethnic group that lived along the central reaches of the Orinoco River."[5]

"This language group was so isolated that the language was reported extinct in 1965."[6] It is not being passed on to many children, but that practice is being reconsidered. As of 2007, "Sáliva speakers now are almost all bilingual in Spanish, and Sáliva children are only learning Spanish instead of their ancestral language."[6]

As of 2007, "In the Orocué area the language is only conserved to a high degree among elderly women; others understand Sáliba but no longer express themselves in the language."[1] Native speakers have a literacy rate of 1-5%, and second-language speakers have a Sáliba literacy rate of 15-25%.

## Phonology

"Sáliba has a limited voicing distinction, and boasts six places of articulation for plosives. There are also two rhotics, and nasal counterparts for each of the five places of articulation for vowels."[3][7][8]

Consonants  | Bilabial  | Alveolar  | Palatal  | Velar  | Glottal

|
|
|
|
|

nor. | lab.
Stop  | Plain | p  | t  |  | k  | kʷ  | ʔ
Voiced | b  | d  |  | ɡ  | ɡʷ  |
Affricate  | Plain |  |  | t͡ʃ  |  |  |
Voiced |  |  | d͡ʒ  |  |  |
Fricative  | Plain | ɸ  | s  |  | x  |  | h
Voiced | β  |  |  |  |  |
Nasal  | m  | n  | ɲ  |  |  |
Rhotic  | Flap |  | ɾ  |  |  |  |
Trill |  | r  |  |  |  |
Approximant  | w  | l  | j  |  |  |
Vowels  | Front  | Central  | Back

|
|
|

Close  | i ĩ  |  | u ũ
Mid  | e ẽ  |  | o õ
Open  |  | a ã  |

## Writing system

Saliba is written with the Latin alphabet.

The Saliba-Spanish dictionary by Benaissa uses the following orthography:[9]

* Nasal vowels are indicated with a tilde <ã, ẽ, ĩ, õ, ũ>;
* Long vowels are indicated with a double letter <aa, ee, ii, oo, uu>;
* The consonants <c, ch, p, t> are pronounced as doubled sonorants when between two vowels;
* <f> is pronounced as a bilabial fricative;
* <j> represents a glottal fricative and <x> represents a velar fricative;
* <h> represents a glottal stop

Benaissa's alphabet (1991) [10] a | ã | b | c | ch  | d | e | f | g | h  | i | ĩ | j | l | ll  | m | n | ñ | o | õ  | p | q | r | s | t  | u | ũ | w

|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|

The Salibas of Orocué, Caño Mochuelo, and Santa Rosalía have used a different orthography since April 12 2002. This orthography is based in part on the phonetic realisation by María Claudia González Rátiva and Hortensia Estrada Ramírez, and can be considered as a phonological orthography that takes dialectal variation into account.[11]

Saliba alphabet (2002)[12] * [13] a | ã | aa | a’ | b  | ch | d | e | ẽ | ee  | e’ | f | fw | g | gw  | i | ĩ | ii | i’ | j  | jw | x

|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|

xw | k | kw  | l | m | n | ñ | o  | õ | oo | o’ | p | r  | rr | s | t | u | ũ  | uu | u’ | y

## Grammar

"Sáliba is an SOV language with noun classes and nominal classifiers. The language has a rich morphological system. In some cases, the realization of a verbal morpheme depends upon the form of the stem."[3]

## Related languages

The extinct Ature language, once spoken on the Orinoco River near the waterfalls of Atures, Venezuela, is unattested but was said to be 'little different' from Saliba, and so may have formed a Saliban branch.[14][15]

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Saliba at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
2. ↑ Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds (2017). "Sáliba". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History. http://glottolog.org/resource/languoid/id/sali1298.
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 "E-MELD School of Best Practice: About Sáliba". E-MELD. 2005. http://emeld.org/school/case/saliba/about.html.
4. ↑ Paz, Manuel María. "Saliva Indian Women Making Cassava Bread, Province of Casanare". World Digital Library. http://www.wdl.org/en/item/9017.
5. ↑ "A Study of the Saliba Language". World Digital Library. http://www.wdl.org/en/item/8992/.
6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Anderson, Gregory; K. David Harrison (2007). "Language Hotspots - Northern South and Central America". Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages. http://www.swarthmore.edu/SocSci/langhotspots/hotspots/NSA/.
7. ↑ Alexandra Y. Aikhenvlad & R. M. Dixon (1999).
8. ↑ Benaïssa (1979)
9. ↑ Benaissa et al. 1991, p. vii-viii.
10. ↑ Benaissa et al. 1991.
11. ↑ Rosés Labrada & Estrada Ramírez 2020, p. 223-224.
12. ↑ Rosés Labrada & Estrada Ramírez 2020, p. 224.
13. ↑ Heríquez Guarín 2018.
14. ↑ Loukotka, Čestmír (1968). Classification of South American Indian languages. Los Angeles: UCLA Latin American Center. https://archive.org/details/classificationof0007louk.
15. ↑ Zamponi, Raoul (2017). Betoi-Jirara, Sáliban, and Hodɨ: Relationships among Three Linguistic Lineages of the Mid-Orinoco Region. Anthropological Linguistics, Volume 59, Number 3, Fall 2017, pp. 263-321.

### Works cited

* Heríquez Guarín, María Clara (2018). "Manual del diccionario" (in es). https://saliba.caroycuervo.gov.co/index.php/Manual_del_diccionario/Extenso.
* Rosés Labrada, Jorge Emilio; Estrada Ramírez, Hortensia (December 2020). "Sáliba (Colombia y Venezuela) – Contextos de lenguas" (in es). Language Documentation and Description 19: 197–239. http://www.elpublishing.org/docs/1/19/ldd19_18.pdf.

## External links

* "OLAC resources in and about the Sáliba language". http://www.language-archives.org/language/slc.

### Dictionaries and vocabulary

* "Sáliba wordlist with audio". http://www-01.sil.org/~simonsg/Saliba/presentation/SLC_wordlist.htm.
* Benaissa, Taik (1991). Vocabulario sáliba-español, español-sáliba. Editorial Alberto Lleras Camargo. http://www-01.sil.org/americas/colombia/pubs/27582.pdf. Retrieved 2013-05-23.
* "Arte de la lengua sáliba". World Digital Library. Orocué, Colombia. 1790. http://www.wdl.org/en/item/8992/.
* Huber, Randall Q.; Reed, Robert B.; Vocabulario comparativo. Palabras selectas de lenguas indígenas de Colombia, Bogota, Instituto Lingüístico de Verano, 1992. ISBN 958-21-0037-0

### General works

* Frank, Paul S.; Nancy L. Morse (1997). Lo más importante es vivir en paz: Los sálibas de los Llanos Orientales de Colombia. Bogotá: Editorial Alberto Lleras Camargo. http://www-01.sil.org/americas/colombia/pubs/Vivir_en_paz.pdf. Retrieved 2013-05-24.
* Benaissa, Taik (24 January 2013). "Fonología del sáliba". Sistemas fonológicos de idiomas colombianos 4. SIL International. pp. 89–98. http://www.sil.org/resources/archives/19036. Retrieved 2013-05-24.
* Jiputena pucuea ãxu tiño sehwaha ipu. Lomalinda: Instituto Lingüístico de Verano.. 1974. http://www-01.sil.org/americas/colombia/pubs/Jiputena_17121-web.pdf. Retrieved 2013-05-23.
* Jotana oxelluhwahgahdu pajĩtu - Algunos peces de los ríos: Libro de lectura en sáliba. [Bogotá]: Ministerio de Gobierno. 1974. http://www.sil.org/resources/archives/19662.
* Jotana cããdehgahdu omaĩhdu - Algunos animales de la sabana: Libro de lectura en sáliba. [Bogotá]: Ministerio de Gobierno. 1974. http://www.sil.org/resources/archives/20015.
* Tubojaha tõjagihdihgã (No olividemos el idioma: cartilla de transición) (Edición provisional ed.). Colombia: Asocsáliba Morichito Casanare. 1992. http://www.sil.org/resources/archives/19846. Retrieved 2013-05-24.

* v
* t
* e

Languages of Colombia

Official languages|

* Spanish

Indigenous
languages|

| Arawakan|

* Achawa
* Cabiyari
* Piapoco
* Wayuu
* Yucuna

|

Barbacoan|

* Awa Pit
* Kokonuco
* Misak
* Mwelyama
* Pasto
* Totoró

Bora–Witoto|

* Andoque
* Bora
* Minica Huitoto
* Muinane
* Murui Huitoto
* Ocaina

Chibchan|

* Arhuaco
* Barí
* Chimila
* Kogi
* Kuna
* Uwa
* Wiwa

Chocoan|

* Baudo
* Catio
* Chami
* Eperara
* Northern Embera

Guajiboan|

* Guahibo
* Guayabero
* Macaguán

Tucanoan|

* Barasana-Eduria
* Carapana
* Cubeo
* Cuiba
* Desano
* Koreguaje
* Macaguaje
* Macuna
* Pisamira
* Siona
* Siriano
* Tanimuca-Retuarã
* Tatuyo
* Tuyuca
* Waimajã
* Wajiara
* Wanano
* Yauna

Other|

* Carijona
* Cocama
* Cofán
* Inga Kichwa
* Kakwa
* Kichwa
* Nheengatu
* Nukak
* Páez
* Ticuna
* Yukpa

Creoles/Other|

* Llanero
* Palenquero
* San Andrés–Providencia
* Romani

Sign languages|

* Colombian Sign Language
* Providence Island Sign Language

Template:Languages of Venezuela

0.00

(0 votes)

Original source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saliba language. Read more

|

Retrieved from "https://handwiki.org/wiki/index.php?title=Social:Saliba_language&oldid=4236210"
*[v]: View this template
*[t]: Discuss this template
*[e]: Edit this template