Vowels

Tariana has 6 vowels, all of which may occur nasalized, except for [ɨ], or long, except for [ɨ] and [ɵ].

Phonotactic Restrictions on the Occurrence of Vowels

¹ɨ occurs only in the augmentative enclitic =pɨ and in the onomatopoeic ɨhmeni "moan". It also occasionally appears as an allophone of i in the following words: marawati→marawatɨ "a type of snuff", hitísi→hitɨsi "tear", and -pití→pitɨ "chase away, kick". Its occurrence in Tariana has been ascribed to the influence of Tucano.^{[3]: 32–33 
2}õ occurs only in the following words: tõkẽ "firefly", siwirikõrena "tapiriri, Tapirira guianensis", nuitõ "daughter! (vocative)", and -tõreta "roll into a thin roll, like a cigarette". It also occurs word-initially in place names of Tucano origin (e.g. Õrõreana).^[3]: 33

Consonants

Tariana has 24 consonants:

The phoneme /ɡ/ occurs only in loanwords from Portuguese (e.g. the names Graciliano, Gabriel). A tendency to insert a glottal stop /ʔ/ after word-final /a/ has been noted among younger speakers. That has been ascribed to the influence of Tucano.

Phonotactic Restrictions on the Occurrence of Consonants

(+) indicates phoneme appears in a limited set of items.^{[3]: 31–32}

Syllable structure

Syllables in Tariana follow the pattern (C₁)V(C₂). Phoneme occurrence is also restricted by morphological context, with certain phonemes only in certain positions (initially and medially) or within certain types of morphemes. Vowels may be elided or reduced in rapid speech, rendering some syllables VC or CVC. For example, the word di-dusitá 'he goes back' becomes [didusta] in rapid speech, with the elision of the pre-tonic i. Similarly, the word di-pitá=kà=sità 'he bathes' becomes [dipitakaəsta], with the pre-tonic i being elided and a [ə] inserted at the clitic boundary before the s. (Hyphens mark affixes; equals signs mark clitics.)^{[3]: 34–35}

Stress

Tariana has both primary and secondary stress. Tariana is a pitch-accent language, with stressed syllables indicated by a higher pitch and a greater intensity in pronunciation. Unstressed syllables are undifferentiated from non-stressed syllables except in their intensity. Long vowels are always stressed as well as most nasal vowels. Otherwise, primary stress may fall on the last three syllables. Penultimate stress in most common in monomorphemic words (e.g. dúpu "a lizard"), but antepenultimate (e.g. képira "bird") and final stress (e.g. yapuratú "long flute used at ritual offering") also occurs. All roots have underlying stress. Prefixes are unstressed, and suffixes may be stressed or unstressed. Suffixes with underlying stress generally cause penultimate stress when they are attached to a root (e.g. máwi "hook"→mawípi "blowgun").^{[3]: 37–39}

Phonological processes

Vowel Reduction
In rapid speech, e, i, and a are reduced to ə in pre- and post-tonic syllables. Pre-tonic reduction occurs in the third syllable before the primary stress (e.g. yarumakási→yərumamkási "clothing") as well as in word-initial syllables (e.g. yakóreka→yəkóreka "door"). Vowels are also reduced in syllables preceding a secondary stress (e.g. makhà→məkhà "recent past non-visual"). Post-tonic reduction affects word-final syllables (e.g. yásene→yásenə "the Tucano").^[3]: 39

H-Metathesis
H-metathesis occurs if an h-initial root or suffix follows a prefix or a root, respectively. The process follows one of three patterns:

• CV- + hVX → ChVX → CʰVX, if C is a stop, nasal, or bilabial glide.

If there are multiple CV syllables preceding the h-initial root or suffix if the C is a stop, nasal, or bilabial glide, the h metathesizes to the first of them.

• V₁- + hV₂X → hV₁V₂X (→hV₂X if V₁=V₂)

• CV + VwhV → ChVwV → CʰVw, when C is a stop, nasal, or bilabial glide.

Vowel coalescence occurs, with the a+i resulting in an e, but that occurs only in the case of h-metathesis and not elsewhere.^{[3]: 46–47}

Nouns

Nominal words may include up to 16 structural positions, which are defined as follows (hyphens mark affixes; equals signs marks clitics):^[3]: 83

• Possessive, negative ma-, or relative ka- prefix
• Root
• Gender-sensitive derivational suffix
• Derivational classifier suffix
• Plural marker
• Pejorative =yana (plural -pe)
• Approximative =iha 'more or less'
• Diminutive =tuki (plural =tupe) or augmentative =pasi (plural =pe)
• Tense (past or future)
• Extralocality =wya and restrictivity =mia 'just, only'
• Oblique case =ne 'comitative-instrumental'
• Oblique case -se 'locative'
• Contrastive =se
• Coordinative =misini, =sini 'also'
• Focused A/S =ne/=nhe
• Topical non-subject =nuku

The following noun phrase includes 13 of the possible structural positions. Brackets indicate syntactic structure.

"with this very person belonging to my bad little older sisters, too"^[3]: 84

Verbs

Predicates in Tariana may include up to nine affixes, which are defined as follows:^{[3]: 253–254}

• Cross-referencing prefixes or negative ma- or relative ka-
• Root
• Thematic syllable
• Causative -i, -ita
• Negative -(ka)de
• Reciprocal -kaka
• -ina 'almost, a little bit'
• Topic-advancing -ni, or passive -kana, or purposive non-visual -hyu or purposive visual -karu
• Verbal classifiers
• Benefactive -pena

Suffixes may be followed by a number of enclitics, as follows (note that ! marks a floating clitic):

• Intentional, 'be about to' =kasu
• Mood (imperative, declarative, frustrative -tha, conditional -buhta, apprehensive -da/-nhia, interrogative fused with evidentiality and tense)
• Aspect 'zone' I, includes habitual prescribed =hyuna 'what you do and what you ought to do, customary =kape, habitual repetitive -nipe, anterior =nhi
• a/b ! Evidentiality and tense (e.g. =mha=na 'non-visual-remote.past')
• Epistemic =da 'doubt', =pada 'isn't it true that'
• Aktionsart (manner or extent of associated action, e.g. 'split open', 'step on and feel pain', 'away')
•  ! Degree: augmentative 'indeed', diminutive, approximative, excessive
• Aspect 'zone' II, includes prolonged/ongoing =daka 'yet, still', perfective =sita 'already accomplished', ! repetitive =pita, =ta 'once again', ! completive =niki 'totally, completely'
• Switch reference and clause-chaining
•  ! Emphatic enclitics a/ya, wani; evidence sõ

The following verb construction includes 11 of the 20 possible structural positions:

"While (they) apparently did not break each other by splitting open totally in vain..."

Tense-evidentiality

Tariana has a system of obligatory tense-evidentiality markers, which take the form of clitics on verbs. There are four tenses: present, recent past, remote past, and future. In affirmative clauses, non-future tenses fuse with evidentials to designate visual, non-visual, inferred generic, inferred specific, and reported information. The inferred specific evidential is a recent innovation and has been ascribed to the influence of Tucano. It is a combination of the anterior aspect marker -nhi and non-present visual evidentials -ka and -na producing -nhika for recent past inferred specific and -nhina for remote past inferred specific.^{[3]: 287–289}

In interrogative clauses, the same three non-future tenses fuse with evidentials to designate visual, non-visual, and inferred information. Evidentiality, in interrogative clauses, indicates the speaker's assumptions about the addressee's source of information. Use of an inferred evidential, for example, implies that the speaker assumes the addressee not to have direct access to evidence on the subject at hand.^{[3]: 311–317} Note the remote past non-visual is rarely used except as a "conventionalized conversation sustainer," an interrogative repetition of a storyteller's predicates to indicate listeners' attention.^[3]: 319

Tense-Evidentiality in Interrogative Clauses

There are two future tense markers in Tariana, neither of which indicates evidentiality. The definite future marker -de is used only in the first person, but the indefinite future marker -mahde may be used for any person.^{[3]: 320–321}

Word order

Word order in Tariana is "pragmatically based" and is generally free except for a handful of specific contexts:^[3]: 561

• Complements of the positive copula alia must precede the copula.
• Interrogative words typically occur clause-initially.
• Clause and sentence connectors occur sentence-initially.
• Predicates occur clause-finally in dependent clauses.
• Subjects of imperative and apprehensive constructions follow the verb.
• In "double S-clauses," "References to emotional states and contain an inalienably possessed body part," the body part must precede the predicate.^{[3]: 568–571}

Noun phrases

Noun phrases comprise a head, which may be a noun, adjective, demonstrative, specifier article, quantifier, or deictic as well as one or more modifiers. Modifiers must agree with the head in animacy and in number if the head is animate. Specifier articles, demonstratives, and the quantifier kanapada 'how many, how much; this many, this much' always precede the head. All other modifiers may either precede or follow the head. In general, modifiers precede a definite or topical noun and follow an "indefinite, non-specific, or otherwise inconsequential nominal referent."^[3]: 476

Even though the noun 'tapir' has just been introduced, the fact that the adjective 'bad' precedes it indicates that it is well-known or topical.

Case

Tariana is essentially a nominative–accusative morphosyntactic alignment. Its core cases are broadly analyzed as falling into the categories of A/S 'subject' and non-A/S 'non-subject'.

A stands for a transitive subject, S for a subject of an intransitive verb, S for a subject of an active intransitive verb, Sₒfor a subject of a stative intransitive verb, and S for a subject of an intransitive verb with a non-canonically marked argument.

Case marking is determined by the discourse status of the noun (topical, non-topical, focused).

A noun in the A/S /Sₒcategory is considered focused if it meets one of the following conditions:

• A/Sₐ/S is a key participant in contrastive focus to another argument.
• A/Sₐ/Sₒis presented as a main participant in the discourse or is a newly introduced but already-known participant important for future discourse.
• A/Sₐ/Sₒmust be disambiguated.^{[3]: 141–142}

A noun in the non-A/Sₐ/Sₒis considered topical if it meets one of the following conditions:

• The noun is or will be the topic of the narrative.
• The noun is referential, specific, and/or definite.
• The noun is important but not necessarily contrastive.^[3]: 145

Tariana has two oblique cases: the locational and the instrumental/comitative, but only nouns may be marked for both. Pronouns are marked only for the instrumental/comitative.

Because oblique cases are inherently non-A/Sₐ/S, they may be double-marked if they serve as the topic of the sentence as well. The following example is from a hunter's narrative about improving his house, with 'house' being the topic of the narrative. In this sentence, 'house' is marked both as a topical non-A/Sₐ/S and locational.

Switch reference

Tariana switch reference enclitics indicate whether the action of a dependent clause is simultaneous with or prior to the action of the main clause and whether the subject of the dependent clause is the same or different from the subject of the main clause. In rapid speech, the enclitic -hyume often becomes -yuhme or even -yume. -Kayami can be ponounced -kañami or -kayãmi. Note that there are several different enclitics for simultaneous action categories. Each enclitic has various restrictions as to which other clitics and affixes it can combine with, and where it falls within a clause or sentence.^{[3]: 516–525}

Brackets indicate syntactic structure.^[3]: 516