Itonama is a moribund language isolate once spoken by the Itonama people in the Amazonian lowlands of north-eastern Bolivia. It was spoken on the Itonomas River and Lake in Beni Department. In Magdalena town on the western bank of the Itonama River (a tributary of the Iténez River), located in Iténez Province, only a few elderly people remember a few words and phrases.

Language contact

Jolkesky (2016) notes that there are lexical similarities with the Nambikwaran languages due to contact. An automated computational analysis (ASJP 4) by Müller et al. (2013) found lexical similarities between Itonama and Movima, likely due to contact.

Phonology

Vowels

Diphthongs: ⟨ay aw⟩.

Consonants

The postalveolar affricates have alveolar allophones. Variation occurs between speakers, and even within the speech of a single person. The semivowel is realized as a bilabial fricative when preceded and followed by identical vowels.

Morphology

Itonama is a polysynthetic, head-marking, verb-initial language with an accusative alignment system along with an inverse subsystem in independent clauses, and straightforward accusative alignment in dependent clauses. Nominal morphology lacks case declension and adpositions and so is simpler than verbal morphology (which has body-part and location incorporation, directionals, evidentials, verbal classifiers, among others).

Vocabulary

Loukotka (1968) lists the following basic vocabulary items for Itonama. They are shown here alongside the forms cited in the Intercontinental Dictionary Series (IDS). ! gloss !! Itonama (Loukotka) !! Itonama (IDS)