Native speakers 1,200 (2003–2007) Glottolog cash1254 | Ethnicity Kaxinawá people ISO 639-3 cbs | |
Language family PanoanMainline PanoanNawaHeadwatersKashinawa |
Kashinawa (also spelled Kaxinawá, Kashinawa, Kaxynawa, Caxinawa, and Caxinawá), or Hantxa Kuin, Huni Kui, is an indigenous American language of western South America which belongs to the Panoan language family. It is spoken by about 1,600 Kaxinawá in Peru, along the Curanja and the Purus Rivers, and in Brazil by 400 Kaxinawá in the state of Acre.
Contents
About five to ten percent of speakers have some Spanish language proficiency, while forty percent are literate and twenty to thirty percent are literate in Spanish as a second language.
Dialects are Brazilian Kashinawa, Peruvian Kashinawa, and the extinct Juruá Kapanawa (Capanahua of the Juruá River) and Paranawa.
Vowels
Consonants
Dictionary
A dictionary has been compiled and published since 1980.
Orthogaphy
The Roman alphabet is used. Generatives come before nouns. There is an interrogative punctuation mark different from the question mark.
Morphology
Articles and adjectives are placed after nouns. There are seven prefixes and five suffixes.