Barí language
Encyclopedia
Barí is a Chibchan language spoken in Northwestern South America by the Baris
(Motilones). Motilones are sometimes called "dobocubi", but this is a pejorative term.
There were 850 speakers in Colombia in 1990 and 850 speakers in Venezuela in 2000.
The language is tonal
: bropba can mean "axe" or "banana" depending on tone, and Shkö yuo bainanai hĩ means "The animal went into the hole", "It is dead", or "I am lost".
Motilone Barí
The Motilone, or Bari are names of a Native American ethnic group, part of the Chibcha family, remnants of the Tairona Culture concentrated in northeastern Colombia and western Venezuela in the Catatumbo River basin, in the Colombian Department of Northern Santander in the Sierra Nevada de Santa...
(Motilones). Motilones are sometimes called "dobocubi", but this is a pejorative term.
There were 850 speakers in Colombia in 1990 and 850 speakers in Venezuela in 2000.
The language is tonal
Tone (linguistics)
Tone is the use of pitch in language to distinguish lexical or grammatical meaning—that is, to distinguish or inflect words. All verbal languages use pitch to express emotional and other paralinguistic information, and to convey emphasis, contrast, and other such features in what is called...
: bropba can mean "axe" or "banana" depending on tone, and Shkö yuo bainanai hĩ means "The animal went into the hole", "It is dead", or "I am lost".