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Cofán Language

While Cofán is an endangered language, it is classified as a developing language and a language isolate with 1400 to 2400 speakers . Speakers reside in the “eastern Andean foothills on both sides of the Ecuadorian and Columbian border”. There are two distinct types of Cofán, the Aguarico (Ecuador) and the San Miguel (primarily spoken in Colombia).  Because of intermarriage, some Siona and Secoya people have learned Cofán and teach the language to their offspring.

Use of Cofán in Ecuador is connected to the language in land property rights documents and in the bilingual access to the language in schools. In Colombia, Cofán is more endangered because of war, displacement, and intermarriage.

Cofán alphabet has 33 singular or compound letter and is in Roman script. Written Cofán has seven sentence types, five sentence margin tagmemes and specific paragraph types distinct to Cofán .

Classification

Cofán is a language isolate. Some scholars claim Cofán is not classified into a language family. However, the language exhibits some lexical similarities to Chibchan, a neighboring language. Evidence of the lexical influence Chibchan has on Cofán does not prove any genetic relationship between the two languages.

History of Cofan

Cofán oral history tells the migration of the Cofane (Cofán speakers) from Sierra to the “Oriente,” more specifically the land between the Aguarico and Chamabi Rivers,  which the Cofane have inhabited since the seventeenth century.

Cofanes were traditional hunters and farmers. The land the Cofane people occupied became a center for oil production led by the Tesco-Gulf Corporation and the Ecuadorian government. Quichuas from the lowlands of Ecuador, who had been pushed out of their land by white colonists and Mestizos, began migrating to take jobs with the oil company.

The migration of Quichuas along with the opening of a bilingual school in Dureno, put pressure on Cofán linguistic patterns.

Many Cofanes turned to different and less traditional forms of revenue production. The Cofane people began to make artifacts to sell to stores and tourists. The business exchange meant more and more Cofane people were speaking Spanish. However, the businesses saw the distinct culture of the Cofanes that they wanted to preserve to bring in more revenue. This helped preserve the Cofane culture and language.

M. B. Borman compiled twenty-six Cofán oral legends that analyze the linguistic thought process. The legends are broken into five types: old legends involving creation, pre conquest and pre ayahuasca legends, middle Cofán legends, post conquest legends  and post conquest legends with biblical influence. The movement through these legends is said to show adoption of language and culture over time via missionaries and christian influence.

Geographic distribution

Around 400 people speak Cofán on the border of Ecuador and Colombia. There is evidence linking Cofán to four locations in Ecuador:

• 20-25 people speak Cofán on the Rio Bermejo in Ecuador
• 60 people speak Cofán in Dovino along the Aguarico river. This community is described as isolationist.
• 42 people speak Cofán in Sinague inside the Reserva Ecologica Cayambe. However there have been efforts to have the Cofane on the reserve leave.
• 198 people speak Cofán at Dureno. This group of Cofán speakers is said to have a strong political force in protection of their culture and language.

Dialects/Varieties

There are two dialects of Cofán. The first exists in communities along the Aguarico River in Ecuador and the second dialect is among communities on the San Miguel, Guamuez and Putumayo Rivers in Colombia.

Sounds/Phonology

In Cofán, there are two degrees of phonemic stress. Segmental phonemes are broken into two categories: Twenty-seven consonant phonemes and ten vowel phonemes. Within suprasegmental phonemes there are two stress phonemes and three phonemes of juncture. Additionally, there are five oral and five nasal vowels.

Grammar

Paragraphs are a distinct and important structure in Cofán grammar. There are fifteen different paragraph types used in Cofán narrative discourse. The narrative paragraph and simultaneous paragraph “form the backbone of narrative discourse.” The coordinate descriptive paragraph and deictic paragraph are used to portray character or participant identity development and to outline situations. Reason, contrast, and antithetical paragraphs are used to foster relationships and tension between speakers and events. Amplification paragraphs, contraction paragraphs, negated antonym paragraphs and cyclic paragraphs are used in “paraphrasing” particular information. Lastly, comment paragraphs and quote and dialogue paragraphs are used to add detail to a narrative.

Writing system

There are 33 letters in the Cofán Alphabet. Some are simple letters, while others are compound.

Letters include: a, b, c, cc, ch, chh, d, dy, e, f, g, i, j, m, n, ñ, o, p, pp, q, qq, r, s, sh, t, tt, ts, tss, u, v, y, z.

Counting System

Cofán’s number system is a base-five system. Cofán use Spanish numerals to count.  

Bibliography

About: Cofán language. (n.d.). Retrieved March 10, 2017, from http://dbpedia.org/page/Cof%C3%A1n_language

Baldauf, R. B., Kaplan, R. B., King, K. A., & Haboud, M. (2007). Language planning and policy in Latin America: Language Planning and Policy in Ecuador (Vol. 1). Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.

Borman, M. B. (1962). Cofan phonemes. SIL International Publications in Linguistics, 7th ser., 45-59. Retrieved March 10, 2017, from https://www.sil.org/resources/archives/8877.

Borman, M. B. (1977). Cofan paragraph structure and function. SIL International Publications in Linguistics, 289-338. Retrieved March 10, 2017, from https://www.sil.org/resources/archives/8678.

Borman, M. B. (1990). Cofan cosmology and history as revealed in their legends: The Cofan Alphabet. Quito, Ecuador: Instituto Linguistico de Verano.

Criollo, E. (1991). "The old people told us..." Twenty-six Cofan legends as related by Enrique Criollo (M. B. Borman, Ed.). Quito, Ecuador: Instituto Linguistico de Verano.

Cofán. (n.d.). Retrieved March 10, 2017, from https://www.ethnologue.com/language/con

Gijn, E. V., Haude, K., & Muysken, P. (2011). Subordination in native South-American languages. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Pub. Co.

Klein, H. E., & Stark, L. R. (2011). South American Indian languages: retrospect and prospect. Austin: University of Texas Press.

Lewis, M., Simons, G. F., & Fennig, C. D. (2015). Ethnologue: Languages of Ecuador. 18, 11-21. Retrieved March 10, 2017, from http://www.linguisticsnetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/Ethnologue-18-Ecuador.pdf

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