Siona language


The Siona language is a Tucanoan language of Colombia and Ecuador.
As of 2013, Siona is spoken by about 550 people.
Teteté dialect is extinct.

Phonology

;Vowels
There are 6 oral vowels and six nasal vowels. Only nasal vowels occur next to a nasal consonant or.
BackCentralFront
Highi ĩɨ ɨ̃u ũ
Midɛ æ̃o õ
Lowa 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 tends to be aspirated, with a noisy transition to the vowel, while the 'lenis' series, 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.
bilabialalveolarprepalatalvelarlabio-velarglottal
voiceless plosivespʰt̪ʰtʃʰkʰkʷʰ
voiced plosivespˀ ~ bˀʈˀ ~ ɖˀ ~ ɾkˀ ~ ɡˀkʷˀ ~ ɡʷˀʔ
Fricatives ; sˀ ~ zˀh ; hʷ
Nasalmn
Semi-vowelj ~ ɲw

is realized as between vowels. is realized as 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.