Бразилия-Боливия шекарасындағы Чапакура тілі

Chapacuran language of Brazil and Bolivia

The Wariʼ language (also Orowari, Wari, Pacaá Novo, Pacaás Novos, Pakaa Nova, Pakaásnovos) is the sole remaining vibrant language of the Chapacuran language family of the Brazilian–Bolivian border region of the Amazon. It has about 2,700 speakers, also called Wariʼ, who live along tributaries of the Pacaas Novos river in Western Brazil. The word wariʼ means "we!" in the Wariʼ language and is the term given to the language and tribe by its speakers. Wariʼ is written in Latin script.

None of the segments described below only occur in borrowed words or only in specific word classes. There are some sounds not listed which are only used in onomatopoeia and can violate the usual phonotactic and phonological constraints.

/t͡ʃ/ can become , with a tendency to surface as [ʃ] more before unrounded vowels than rounded ones. xaxi' na 'he is thin' can be [t͡ʃaˈt͡ʃiʔ na] or [ʃaˈʃiʔ na]. [m] can become (a sequence of the bilabial nasal followed by the voiced bilabial stop) syllable initially, most frequently before /a/ but also before other vowels. The tendency to realise it as a sequence is greater if the syllable is stressed. homiri 'its filth' can be [homiˈɾi] or [homᵇiˈɾi]. [n] can become (a sequence of the voiced alveolar nasal followed the voiced alveolar stop) syllable initially, most frequently before /a/ but also before other vowels. The tendency to realise it as a sequence is greater if the syllable is stressed. wina 'my head' can be [wiˈna] or [wiˈnᵈa]. [j] can become before /i/. 'let's go!' can be [maˈji] or [maˈʒi]. [ʔj] can become [ʔd͡ʒ] word initially. jin' 'ina 'I am afraid' can be [ˈʔjinʔ ʔiˌna] or [ˈʔd͡ʒinʔ ʔiˌna].

The basic syllable in Wari' is CV(C), but suffixes can be of the form VC, VCVC or V. Only stops and nasals can occur in syllable codas. Consonant clusters are rare: /n/ is the only first segment found, and /t/, /k/ and /t͡ʃ/ are the only second segments found in non compound words. Wariʼ has words ending in the consonant clusters and These have been analysed as single sounds, but apparently only to avoid complicating syllable structure. If these are separate phonemes, these clusters only occur word finally. In the Oro Nao dialect, many consonants alternate with [ʔC] at the beginning of monosyllabic words, and always precedes word initial semivowels ( and ), including in polysyllabic words. There is a correlation between words that begin [ʔC] in Oro Nao and words that begin [ʔaC] in other dialects. For example, 'water' is [ʔkom] in Oro Nao and [ʔaˈkom] in other dialects. Loss of this initial syllable is a potential explanation of why these words have variants that break the phonotactic rules. However, these generalisations do not always hold; for instance 'thorn' [ʔpi] is pronounced the same in all dialects.

The final syllable of words in major lexical categories is stressed. The verb tends to take the primary stress, with secondary stress on the others. However, emphasis of a particular word can cause transfer of the primary stress.

Wariʼ is a largely analytic language, which has almost no verbal inflection but many derivational processes.

There is no affixation at all on verbs, but reduplication is used to mark aspect. Plural forms are derived by partial reduplication of the CV from the stressed syllable. This can either be a CV(CV) pattern, (where the second is optional) usually for transitive verbs: wac 'cut', wawac 'cut' (plural); cao' 'eat', cacacao' 'eat' (plural). A CVrV pattern is usually used for intransitive verbs: cat 'break' (intr), caracat 'break' (plural). About a third of plural forms are derived by each of these types of reduplication, and the final third by suppletion.

Reduplication of nouns can derive names or descriptive terms. Thus capija capija (mouth ) means 'talker', and towira towira (testicles ) means 'legendary character who has enlarged testicles'.

Wariʼ has both verbal and nominal inflectional clitics, which are analysed as such and not affixes for a few reasons. Verbal inflectional clitics can occur as whole utterances as responses, as the referent is clear from the previous statement. They also do not undergo the phonological processes that is expected if they were suffixes to the main verb, for instance they do not take the primary stress, which the possessive suffixes do when they attach to xiʼ nouns. Verbal inflectional clitics are inflected for person, number, tense, third person gender (only if tenseless), voice, and contain both the subject and the object of the verb. Where there is more than one object, the clitic represents one object based on the semantic roles present in the following hierarchy:
GOAL>CIRCUMSTANCE>THEME>BENEFACTIVE>COMITATIVE>LOCATION>TIME.

Basic constituent order in Wariʼ is deemed to be VOS, although it is uncommon to have multiple expressed constituents. Often arguments to the verb are indicated by the agreement affixes which form the verbal inflectional clitics, where the subject affix precedes the one for the object. A third person object or subject can either be overtly marked or just referenced in the inflectional clitic, first and second person can only be marked by the clitic. A verb can have up to four arguments, but it is uncommon to express more than one at a time. Instances of three or more arguments being expressed usually only come from elicited examples.

Wariʼ does not have a copula verb, so sentences that would use this instead have what would be the adjective become the verb.

Wariʼ does not have any articles. Definiteness or indefiniteness can be expressed by either the use of demonstratives or verbal inflectional clitics containing the object. However this latter option does not always distinguish definiteness, as indefinite objects can also be marked in the inflectional clitics.