Complex Consonants in the Indigenous Languages of Perú

 

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Dettagli Bibliografici
Autore: Lengua Bendezú, Christian Adrián
Natura: artículo original
Status:Versión publicada
Data di pubblicazione:2026
Descrizione:The phonological inventories of the world’s languages are diverse because each language uses different functional sounds for communication. A significant group within these phonological inventories consists of complex consonants, as defined by Sagey (1986), which are found in some indigenous Peruvian languages, but not in all. These consonants are not commonly found in the phonological inventories of the world’s languages. Therefore, the objective of this study is to describe the distribution of complex consonants in Peruvian languages, considering secondary articulation (labialized, palatalized, and labiopalatalized) and primary articulation (mode, place, and voicing). This study is quantitative in nature and has a descriptive and comparative scope; the data were obtained from the SAPhon database (Lev et al., 2024). Twenty-four Peruvian languages with complex consonants were identified, comprising seventeen different types. The Arabela and Bora languages have the highest number of complex consonants, while the Arawak and Záparo language families have the most languages with these sounds. The consonants /kʷ/ and /tʲ/ were the most common in inventories. Regarding secondary articulation, palatalized consonants were more frequent, whereas, about primary articulation, plosives, bilabials, and voiceless consonants predominate.
Stato:Portal de Revistas UCR
Istituzione:Universidad de Costa Rica
Repositorio:Portal de Revistas UCR
Lingua:Español
OAI Identifier:oai:portal.revistas.ucr.ac.cr:article/10985
Accesso online:https://revistas.ucr.ac.cr/index.php/rfilyling/article/view/10985
Keyword:Complex consonants
phonological typology
varieties of Peruvian indigenous languages
Consonantes complejas
tipología fonológica
variedades de lenguas originarias peruanas