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Shiriana, or Bahuana (Bahwana), is an unclassified Upper Amazon Arawakan language once spoken by the Shiriana people of Roraima, Brazil. It had an active–stative syntax.
Arawakan, also known as Maipurean, is a language family that developed among ancient indigenous peoples in South America. Branches migrated to Central America and the Greater Antilles and Smaller Antilles in the Caribbean and the Atlantic, including what is now the Bahamas. Almost all present-day South American countries are known to have been home to speakers of Arawakan languages, the exceptions being Ecuador, Uruguay, and Chile. Maipurean may be related to other language families in a hypothetical Macro-Arawakan stock.
Guajiboan is a language family spoken in the Orinoco River region in eastern Colombia and southwestern Venezuela, a savanna region known as the Llanos.
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.
Amazonian languages is the term used to refer to the indigenous languages of "Greater Amazonia." This area is significantly larger than the Amazon and extends from the Atlantic coast all the way to the Andes, while its southern border is usually said to be the Paraná. The region is inhabited by societies that share many cultural traits but whose languages are characterized by great diversity. There are about 330 extant languages in Greater Amazonia, almost half of which have fewer than 500 speakers. Meanwhile, only Wayuu has greater than 100,000 speakers. Of the 330 total languages, about fifty are isolates, while the remaining ones belong to about 25 different families. Most of the posited families have few members. It is this distribution of many small and historically unrelated speech communities that makes Amazonia one of the most linguistically diverse regions in the world. The precise reasons for this unusual diversity have not yet been conclusively determined, but Amazonian languages seem to have had fewer than 10,000 native speakers even before the invasion of European colonists wrought havoc on the societies by which they were spoken. Despite the large-scale diversity, the long-term contact among many of the languages of Greater Amazonia has created similarities between many neighboring languages that are not genetically related. Most indigenous Amazonian people today are bilingual or even monolingual in English, Spanish, Portuguese, French or Dutch and many Amazonian languages are endangered as a result.
Piedra del Cocuy is a natural monument in Venezuela, located near the triple border of the country with Brazil and Colombia in the limits of the Amazon and the Orinoco Basins. Piedra del Cocuy is an inselberg made of granitic rock, its peak stands at c. 450 m a.s.l.
Karu, one of several languages called Baniwa (Baniva), or in older sources Itayaine (Iyaine), is an Arawakan language spoken in Guainía, Colombia, Venezuela, and Amazonas, Brazil. It forms a subgroup with the Tariana, Piapoco, Resígaro and Guarequena languages. There are 10,000 speakers.
Mawayana (Mahuayana), also known as Mapidian (Maopidyán), is a moribund Arawakan language of northern South America. It used to be spoken by Mawayana people living in ethnic Wai-wai and Tiriyó villages in Brazil, Guyana and Suriname. As of 2015, the last two speakers of the language are living in Kwamalasamutu.
Yucuna (Jukuna), also known as Matapi, Yucuna-Matapi, and Yukunais, is an Arawakan language spoken in several communities along the Mirití-Paraná River in Colombia. Extinct Guarú (Garú) was either a dialect or a closely related language. Yucuna is a polysynthetic language, and it uses SVO word order.
Mandahuaca (Mandawaka) is an Arawakan language of Venezuela and formerly of Brazil. The number of speakers is not known; the most recent data was published in 1975. It is one of several languages which goes by the generic name Baré.
Piapoco is an Arawakan language of Colombia and Venezuela.
Cawishana is an Arawakan language, presumably extinct, of Brazil. A few speakers were reported in the 1950s, and today only one person can speak it.
Warekena (Guarequena), or more precisely Warekena of Xié, is an Arawakan language of Brazil and of Maroa Municipality in Venezuela, spoken near the Guainia River. It is one of several languages which go by the generic name Baré and Baniwa/Baniva – in this case, distinguished as Baniva de Maroa or Baniva de Guainía.
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.
Wainumá and Mariaté are an extinct, poorly attested, and unclassified Arawakan language. Kaufman (1994) placed them in his Wainumá branch, but this is not followed in Aikhenvald (1999).
Yumana is an extinct, poorly attested, and unclassified Arawakan language. Kaufman (1994) placed it in his Río Negro branch, but this is not followed in Aikhenvald (1999).
Kariaí (Cariyai) is an extinct, poorly attested, and unclassified Arawakan language. Kaufman (1994) placed it in his Manao branch, but this is not followed in Aikhenvald (1999).
The Tariana or Taliaseri are an indigenous people of the Vaupés or Uaupés River in the Amazon region of Brazil and Colombia. Starting in the 19th century missionaries tried to persuade them to abandon their traditional beliefs and practices, with some level of success. The government made efforts to convert them to a "colony" system in exchange for health, education and economic benefits starting in the 1980s. They are now relatively autonomous within several indigenous territories.
The Alto Rio Negro Indigenous Territory is an indigenous territory in the northwest of the state of Amazonas, Brazil. It is in the Amazon biome, and is mostly covered in forest. A number of different ethnic groups live in the territory, often related through marriage, with a total population of over 25,000. There is a long history of colonial exploitation and effective slavery of the indigenous people, and then of attempts to suppress their culture and "civilize" them. The campaign to gain autonomy culminated in creation of the reserve in 1998. The people are generally literate, but health infrastructure is poor and there are very limited economic opportunities.
References
- ↑ Aikhenvald, Alexandra Y. (1999). "The Arawak language family". In Dixon, Robert Malcolm Ward; Aikhenvald, Alexandra Y. (eds.). The Amazonian languages. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-57021-3.
- Ramirez, Henri. 2001. Línguas Arawak da Amazônia Setentrional. Manaus: EDUA. 745pp.