Ethnicity Pemon | Dialects Camaracoto | |
Native speakers (6,000 cited 1990–2006) Language family CaribanVenezuelan CaribPemóng–PanarePemóngPemon | ||
The Pemon language, or Arekuna, is an indigenous language of the Cariban family spoken by some 30,000 Pemon people, in Venezuela's Southeast, particularly in the Canaima National Park, in the Roraima State of Brazil and in Guyana.
Contents
It is one of several closely related languages called Ingarikó and Kapong.
Camaracoto may be a distinct language.
Typology
The Pemon language's syntax type is SOV with alternation to OVS.
Writing
Pemon was an oral language until the 20th century. Then efforts were made to produce dictionaries and grammars, primarily by Catholic missionaries, specially Armellada and Gutiérrez Salazar. The Latin alphabet has been used, adding diacritic signs to represent some phonemes not existing in Spanish.
Vowels
Pemon has the following vowels:
There are still texts only using Spanish characters, without distinctive characters for /o/ or /ɵ/.
Consonants
b, ch, d, k, m, n, ñ, p, r, s, t, v, w, y
Grammar
Pronouns in Pemon are: