Hixkaryana language

Hixkaryana /ˌhɪʃkæriˈɑːnə/^[2] is one of the Cariban languages, spoken by just over 500 people on the Nhamundá River, a tributary of the Amazon River in Brazil. It is one of around a dozen languages that are described as having object–verb–subject word order (initially by linguist Desmond C. Derbyshire).^[3]

Hixkaryana has the following consonant phonemes:

• /ɽˡ/ is a retroflex tap with a lateral release.

Hixkaryana has the following vowel phonemes:

In Hixkaryana, arguments are indexed on the verb by means of person prefixes. These prefixes form an inverse-like pattern in which the argument highest in the hierarchy 2nd > 1st > 3rd is indexed on the verb. If the object of a transitive verb outranks the subject according to this hierarchy, the appropriate O-prefix is used; otherwise, an A-prefix is used.

Intransitive verbs take prefixes mostly similar to the transitive prefixes given above, with an active–stative. The arguments' grammatical number is indexed on the verb by means of portmanteau suffixes that combine tense, aspect, mood, and number.

In most cases, the person prefixes unambiguously determine which of the arguments is the subject and which is the object. When both the subject and the object are third person, however, the person prefix is inadequate to fully determine the identity of the arguments. In these situations, therefore, word order is crucial in determining their identity. Hixkaryana may have an object–verb–subject word order. The example below, "toto yonoye kamara", cannot be given the AVO reading "the man ate the jaguar"; the OVA reading – "the jaguar ate the man" – is the only possible one.

Indirect objects, however, follow the subject:

Moreover, the word order in non-finite embedded clauses is SOV.^[4] Like most other languages with objects preceding the verb, it is postpositional.