Pronunciation [húpʔɨ̌d] Ethnicity Hupd'ëh, Yohup Language family Nadahup
Hup | Native to Brazil Native speakers 1,700 (2006–2007) | |
ISO 639-3 Either:
jup – Hup
yab – Yuhup (Yahup) | ||
The Hup language (also called Hupdë, Hupdá, Hupdé, Hupdá Makú, Jupdá, Macú, Makú-Hupdá, Macú De, Hupda, and Jupde) is one of the four Nadahup languages. It is spoken by the Hupda and Yohup, indigenous Amazonian peoples who live in Brazil and Colombia. There are at least three main dialects of Hupdë, of which Yohup (Yuhupde, Yahup) is so distinct that native speakers report limited mutual intelligibility. Hupdë is considered an inferior language by the neighbouring peoples of the Hupda. This has led to all adult Hupda becoming bilingual, speaking both Hupdë and Tucanoan. The bilingualism is one-sided, however, as native speakers of Tucanoan do not believe Hupdë to be a language worth learning. Hupdë is a nominative–accusative language, with a highly developed evidentiality system.
Contents
Consonants
Hup has glottalized consonants of both stops and approximants which can be seen in the chart below.This language also has nasal allophones of the voiced stops.
Vowels
While this language has nasal vowels, as well, they are not contrastive with the oral counterparts.