Amonap, also known as Apalakiri, is a Cariban language spoken by the Kuikuro and Kalapalo peoples of Brazil, and formerly by the Matipu.
It is spoken in seven villages along the Culuene River in the Xingu Indigenous Park of Mato Grosso.
Like most of the Carib family, Kuikuro is an agglutinative language with a highly complex morphology that effects both verbs and nouns.
A sample sentence shows the S/O V structure, the morphological richness, and the ergativity of Kuikuro: katsogo-kodog-PLhekeERGkangamuke-kochild-PLkagine-nügüfrighten-PNCTkatsogo-ko heke kangamuke-ko kagine-nügüdog-PL ERG child-PL frighten-PNCT‘(the) dogs frightened (the) children’ [6]Kuikuro nouns can occur bare, with both number and definiteness being unmarked.
Like many other neutral number languages (Korean, for example) there is a morpheme which - when affixed to a noun - denotes it as plural and marked.
The following data is a minimal pair of readings that show the scope of /tuguhu/ and its usage as a pluralizer of [-animate] nouns.
Pronouns and pronominal expressions in Kuikuro are bound morphemes that can be prefixed onto nouns, verbs, and certain particles.
[10] u-ahetinhomba-tagü1.ABS-help-CONTi-heke3-ERGu-ahetinhomba-tagü i-heke1.ABS-help-CONT 3-ERG‘he is helping me’However, there is also data that suggests that there is an accusative element to the Kuikuro case system.
In these scenarios, the verb takes on additional morphology to show for a non-agentive reading on the initial argument.
But, there is no morphology on the argument itself and so it would be difficult to announce this as an accusative case rather than a different focus of the verb.
tilakothreeinkguge-tohocross-INSTRhügapeon.foottilako inkguge-toho hügapethree cross-INSTR on.foot‘Eighteen’In NP-modifying constructions, numerals can occur either before the NP to be modified or at the end of the sentence.
The counting of mass nouns hinges on the fact that Kuikuro is a number neutral language.