A grammatical description of Kamsá, a language isolate of Colombia

Abstract

This dissertation presents a description of the grammar of Kamsá, an endangered language isolate spoken in the Putumayo department of southern Colombia. It is the first developed account of the language’s phonology, morphology, and syntax. Kamsá is highly endangered due to the displacement of speakers and language shift. A reference grammar of a previously under-described language offers a number of potential benefits to general linguistics, showing what is possible in human languages. In addition to typologists, comparative and historical linguists are always interested to see whether an assumed isolate may, in fact, be demonstrably related to a known language family. The increasing endangerment of Kamsá, heightened by the displacement of Kamsá speakers from their ancestral home, has made the need for documentation and description extremely urgent, and this grammar will perhaps be useful for the creation of pedagogical materials, as well.