Waurá language explained

Waurá
States:	Brazil
Region:	Xingu Indigenous Park, Mato Grosso
Ethnicity:	Wauja
Speakers:	320
Date:	2006
Ref:	e18
Familycolor:	American
Fam2:	Southern ?
Fam3:	Paresí–Xingu
Fam4:	Waurá
Fam5:	Waura–Mehináku
Iso3:	wau
Glotto:	waur1244
Glottorefname:	Waurá
Linglist:	qdv
Lingname:	Waura–Mehináku

Waurá (Wauja) is an Arawakan language spoken in the Xingu Indigenous Park of Brazil by the Waujá people.^[1] It is "partially intelligible" with Mehináku. The entire population speaks the language.

Phonology

A glottal stop [ʔ] occurs phonetically before vowels in word-initial position, or after vowels in word-final position.
/p/ can be heard as aspirated [pʰ] or voiced [b] in free variation.
Stop sounds /t, k/ can be heard as aspirated [tʰ, kʰ] in free variation.
/w/ can also be heard as [β] in free variation, except when before /u/.
/s/ can be heard as voiced [z] when between vowels, or after initial vowels.
/ʐ/ can be heard as voiceless [ʂ] when between vowels, or after initial vowels.
/j/ can be heard as a palatal nasal [ɲ] when occurring before nasal vowels /ã, ẽ, ũ/.

	Front	Central	Back
High	pronounced as /ink/ pronounced as /ink/ pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/ pronounced as /ink/ pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/ pronounced as /ink/ pronounced as /ink/
Mid	pronounced as /ink/ pronounced as /ink/ pronounced as /ink/
Low		pronounced as /ink/ pronounced as /ink/ pronounced as /ink/

Sounds /i, u, ɨ, a/ can also be heard in lax form as [ɪ, ʊ, ə, ɐ].
Sounds /e, eː, ẽ/ can be heard as close-mid [e, eː, ẽ] or open-mid [ɛ, ɛː, ɛ̃] in free variation.^[2]

Seki, Lucy. 2011. Alto Xingu: uma área linguística? In: Franchetto, Bruna (ed.), Alto Xingu: uma sociedade multilíngue, p. 57-85. Rio de Janeiro: Museu do Índio/FUNAI.
Book: Postigo, Adriana Viana. Língua Wauja (Arawak): uma descrição fonológica e morfossintática. 2014.