Itene language

Not to be confused with Moré language or Mure language.

Itene (Moré) is a Chapacuran language of Bolivia. Itoreauhip is a dialect.

Itene
Moré
Native to	Bolivia
Region	Beni Department
Native speakers	45 (2012–2020)[1]
Language family	Chapacuran Moré languages Itene
Dialects	Itoreauhip
Official status
Official language in	Bolivia
Language codes
ISO 639-3	ite
Glottolog	iten1243
ELP	Itene

Phonology

Consonants

		Labial		Alveolar		Post- alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
		plain	lab.	plain	pal.
Nasal	voiced	m	mʷ	n			ɲ
	preglottal	ˀ͡ᵐ̥m	ˀ͡ᵐ̥ʷ̥mʷ	ˀ͡ⁿ̥n			ˀ͡ᶮ̥ɲ
	glottalized	mˀ͡ᵐ̥		nˀ͡ⁿ̥			ɲˀ͡ᶮ̥
Plosive	voiceless	p	pʷ̥	t	tʲ̥	t̠̻	(c)	k	ʔ
	preglottal	ˀ͡ᵖp	ˀ͡ᵖʷ̥pʷ̥	ˀ͡ᵗt	ˀ͡ᵗʲtʲ̥			ˀ͡ᵏk
Affricate				t͡ʙ̥
Fricative		β		s		ʒ̟			h
Approximant	voiced	w					j
	preglottal	ˀ͡ʷ̥w					ˀ͡ʲ̥j
	glottalized	wˀ͡ʷ̥					jˀ͡ʲ̥

• All plosive sounds are heard as unreleased [C̚] when in word-final position.
• /p/ is heard as [ɸ] in initial position before /u/.
• /t/ can be heard as a tap [ɾ] when in intervocalic positions.
• /k/ is heard as palatal [c] when following /i/, and as [cᶜ̧] when preceding /i/ in initial position.
• /k/ and /ˀ͡ᵏk/ are heard as [kˣ] and [ˀ͡ᵏkˣ] when in initial position in free variation.
• /tʲ̥/ and /ˀ͡ᵗʲtʲ̥/ are heard as post-fricativized [t̠ᶴ] and [ˀ͡ᵗt̠ᶴ] when in initial positions.
• /ʒ̟/ is heard as a lateral [ɮ] in word-final position.
• /w/ is heard as [β] when after /ɛ/.^[2]

Vowels

	Front	Back
High	i	u
Mid	ɛ	ɔ
Low	a

Phoneme/Phone	Allophones	Rules
/i/ [i]	[ɪ̆]	/__$ˈ
	[ʉ̞̆]	_Cʷ_
	[ʉ]	ˈ_Cʷ_
	[iː]	/ˈC__$
	[i]	elsewhere
/ɛ/ [ɛ]	[ə̆]	/__$ˈ
	[ə]	/__C$
	[əː]	/ˈC__$
	[ɵ]	_Cʷ_
	[ɛ̆]	/__$ˈC
	[ɛː]	/ˈʔ__$
	[ɛ]	elsewhere
/a/ [a]	[ɐ̆]	/__$ˈ
	[aː]	/ˈC__$
	[a]	elsewhere
/ɔ/ [ɔ]	[ɔ̆]	/__$ˈ
	[ɔː]	/ˈC__$
	[ɔ]	elsewhere
/u/ [u]	[ʊ̆]	/__$ˈ
	[uː]	/ˈC__$
	[u]	elsewhere

See also

• Wariʼ language, the only vibrant language in the same language family, spoken in Rondônia, Brazil

References

1. Itene at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)  
2. Angenot-de-Lima, Geralda (2002). Description Phonologique, Grammaticale et Lexicale du Moré, Langue Amazonienne de Bolivie et du Brésil. Rijksuniversiteit te Leiden dissertation.