Related Research Articles
The Cariban languages are a family of languages indigenous to northeastern South America. They are widespread across northernmost South America, from the mouth of the Amazon River to the Colombian Andes, and they are also spoken in small pockets of central Brazil. The languages of the Cariban family are relatively closely related. There are about three dozen, but most are spoken only by a few hundred people. Macushi is the only language among them with numerous speakers, estimated at 30,000. The Cariban family is well known among linguists partly because one language in the family—Hixkaryana—has a default word order of object–verb–subject. Prior to their discovery of this, linguists believed that this order did not exist in any spoken natural language.
Arawan is a family of languages spoken in western Brazil and Peru (Ucayali).
Tacanan is a family of languages spoken in Bolivia, with Ese’ejja also spoken in Peru. It may be related to the Panoan languages. Many of the languages are endangered.
Arawakan, also known as Maipurean, is a language family that developed among ancient Branches migrated to] in the Caribbean and the Atlantic, including what is now the home to speakers of Arawakan languages, the exceptions Maipurean may be related to other language families in a hypothetical Macro-Arawakan stock.
Yuracaré is an endangered language isolate of central Bolivia in Cochabamba and Beni departments spoken by the Yuracaré people.
Itonama is a moribund or extinct language isolate once spoken by the Itonama people in the Amazonian lowlands of north-eastern Bolivia. It was spoken on the Itonomas River and Lake in Beni Department.
The Piaroa–Saliban, also known as Saliban, are a small proposed language family of the middle Orinoco Basin, which forms an independent island within an area of Venezuela and Colombia dominated by peoples of Carib and Arawakan affiliation.
Cashibo, Cacataibo, Cashibo-Cacataibo, Managua, or Hagueti is an indigenous language of Peru in the region of the Aguaytía, San Alejandro, and Súngaro rivers. It belongs to the Panoan language family.
Andoque are an indigenous people in Colombia. They live along the Aduche tributary of the Japurá River. The people refer to themselves as Pʌʌsiʌʌ́ hʌ, meaning ‘People of the Axe’.
Maipure, was a language once spoken along the Ventuari, Sipapo, and Autana rivers of Amazonas and, as a lingua franca, in the Upper Orinoco region. It became extinct around the end of the eighteenth century. Zamponi provided a grammatical sketch of the language and furnished a classified word list, based on all of its extant eighteenth century material. It is historically important in that it formed the cornerstone of the recognition of the Maipurean (Arawakan) language family.
Macro-Otomákoan is a proposal linking three small language families of the Amazon: The Harákmbut (Tuyoneri) family, the extinct Otomakoan languages, and the Trumai language isolate. It was proposed by Kaufman (1990) and slightly modified in Kaufman (2007).
Ticuna–Yuri is a small family, perhaps even a dialect continuum, consisting of at least two, and perhaps three, known languages of South America: the major western Amazonian language Ticuna, the poorly attested and extinct Yurí, and the scarcely known language of the largely uncontacted Carabayo. Kaufman also adds Munichi to the family.
Esmeralda–Yaruro or Takame–Jarúroan, is a proposed connection between two unclassified languages of Venezuela and Ecuador: Yaruro, 6000 speakers, and the extinct Esmeralda. They would be only distantly related, but Kaufman (1990) finds the connection convincing, and Campbell (2012) believes the connection is promising.
Wamo–Chapakúra is a proposed connection between the largely extinct Chapacuran language family and the otherwise unclassified language Wamo. Kaufman (1990) finds the connection convincing.
The Yaruro language is an indigenous language spoken by Yaruro people, along the Orinoco, Cinaruco, Meta, and Apure rivers of Venezuela. It is not well classified; it may be an isolate, or distantly related to the extinct Esmeralda language.
Betoi (Betoy) or Betoi-Jirara is an extinct language of Colombia and Venezuela, south of the Apure River near the modern border with Colombia. The names Betoi and Jirara are those of two of its peoples/dialects; the language proper has no known name. At contact, Betoi was a local lingua franca spoken between the Uribante and Sarare rivers and along the Arauca. Enough was recorded for a brief grammatical monograph to be written.
Resígaro is an Arawakan language spoken in the department of Loreto in Peru. It is believed to be nearly extinct as of 2017 with only one remaining speaker.
Cabre is an extinct Arawakan language of Colombia. Speakers lived along the Teviare and Zama rivers among speakers of Western Nawiki languages, but not enough is known to classify it well. Gilij cited:
Andoque–Urequena is a language family that consists of a pair of languages, Andoque and Urequena. The close relationship of Urequena to Andoque was first recognized by Marcelo Jolkesky.
The Jesuit Missions of Moxos are located in the Llanos de Moxos of Beni department in eastern Bolivia. Distinguished by a unique fusion of European and Amerindian cultural influences, the missions were founded as reductions or reducciones de indios by Jesuits in the 17th and 18th centuries to convert local tribes to Christianity.