Wapixana | |
---|---|
Native to | Guyana, Brazil |
Ethnicity | Wapishana |
Native speakers | 13,000 (2000) [1] |
Arawakan
| |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | wap |
Glottolog | wapi1253 |
ELP | Wapixana |
Wapishana (Wapixana) is an Arawakan language of Guyana and Brazil. It is spoken by over 13,000 people on both sides of the Guyana-Brazil border. [2]
In Brazil the highest concentration of Wapishana speakers are in the municipalities of Cantá and Bonfim, the Serra da Lua region, where it has been recognized as an official language since 2014. [3]
External pressures have diminished the use of Wapishana among younger generations, and it wasn't until 1987 that Wapishana was used as the teaching language in Indigenous schools of the language community. In 2009, Roraima Federal University created an extension program for learning Wapishana. [3] In Guyana, there are organizations for language preservation, such as Wapichan Wadauniinao Ati'o [4]
Many plants and animals endemic to the region are only known in Wapishana, and the language has a distinct system of taxonomy. An example is the three classes of plants, karam’makau, wapaurib bau and wapananinau, which are indicative of the "cultivation criteria" of the indigenous people. Karam’makau represents plants collected in the wild, whereas wapaurib bau is the plants that have been domesticated and often bear names based on the location or farmer of origin. Cassava, a foodstuff of major importance to indigenous people of the region, has a "bewildering variety of names" in Wapishana. Wapananinau are plants with magical properties, and have important functions for shamans of the traditional beliefs. [3]
Kaufman (1994) considered Wapishana, Atorada, and Mapidian to be dialects. Aikhenvald (1999) separates Mawayana/Mapidian/Mawakwa (considered as a single language) from Wapishana, and she includes them in a Rio Branco branch. Ethnologue notes that Atorada has 50% lexical similarity with Wapishana and 20% with Mapidian, and that Wapishana and Mapidian share 10%. [1] Ramirez (2020) considers Atorai to be a dialect of Wapishana. [5] : 33
Wapishana and Pemon, a Cariban language, have borrowed heavily from each other due to intensive mutual contact. [5]
Labial | Alveolar | Retroflex | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Plosive | voiceless | p | t | k | ʔ | ||
voiced | b | ɖ | ɡ | ||||
Affricate | tʃ | ||||||
Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ||||
Fricative | s | ʐ | ʃ | ||||
Tap | ɽ | ||||||
Semivowel | w | j |
Front | Central | Back | |
---|---|---|---|
Close | i iː | ɨ ɨː | u uː |
Open | a aː |
singular | plural | |
---|---|---|
1st person | n-/m- -na | wa- -wi |
2st person | ɨ-/i- -i | ɨ- -wiko |
3st person | ɾ(ɨ/iʔ)- -sɨ | na- -nu |
3rd person refl. | a- |
thematic | -ta, -ɗa, -ɓa |
---|---|
present | -e |
reciprocal | -(a)ka |
adjectival | -ɾe, -ke |
Arawak, also known as Lokono, is an Arawakan language spoken by the Lokono (Arawak) people of South America in eastern Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana. It is the eponymous language of the Arawakan language family.
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 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.
The Wapishana or Wapichan are an indigenous group found in the Roraima area of northern Brazil and southern Guyana.
Terêna or Etelena is spoken by 15,000 Brazilians. The language has a dictionary and written grammar. Many Terena people have low Portuguese proficiency. It is spoken in Mato Grosso do Sul. About 20% are literate in their language, 80% literate in Portuguese.
Piro is a Maipurean language spoken in Peru. It belongs to the Piro group which also includes Iñapari (†) and Apurinã. The principal variety is Yine. The Manchineri who live in Brazil (Acre) and reportedly also in Bolivia speak what may be a dialect of Yine. A vocabulary labeled Canamaré is "so close to Piro [Yine] as to count as Piro", but has been a cause of confusion with the unrelated Kanamarí language.
Moxo is any of the Arawakan languages spoken by the Moxo people of the Llanos de Moxos in northeastern Bolivia. The two extant languages of the Moxo people, Trinitario and Ignaciano, are as distinct from one another as they are from neighboring Arawakan languages. The extinct Magiana was also distinct.
Taruma (Taruamá) is a divergent language of northeastern South America. It has been reported to be extinct several times since as far back as 1770, but Eithne Carlin discovered the last three speakers living in Maruranau among the Wapishana, and is documenting the language. The people and language are known as Saluma in Suriname.
The Piro languages, a.k.a. Purus, or in Aikhenvald South-Western Arawak, are Arawakan languages of the Peruvian and western Brazilian Amazon.
The Upper Amazon Maipurean languages, a.k.a. North Amazonian or Inland Northern Maipuran, are Arawakan languages of the northern Amazon in Colombia, Venezuela, Peru, and Brazil.
The Pauna language, Paunaka, is an Arawakan language in South America. It is an extremely endangered language, which belongs to the southern branch of the Arawakan language family and it is spoken in the Bolivian area of the Chiquitanía, near Santa Cruz and north of the Chaco region. The suffix -ka is a plural morpheme of the Chiquitano language, but has been assimilated into Pauna.
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.
Palikúr is an Arawakan language of Brazil and French Guiana. Knowledge of French and Portuguese is common, and French Guianese Creole is used as the common language among the tribes in the area and with the local population. Palikúr is considered endangered in French Guiana and vulnerable in Brazil.
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.
Piapoco is an Arawakan language of Colombia and Venezuela.
Barawana (Baré) is an Arawakan language of Venezuela and Brazil, where it is nearly extinct. It was spoken by the Baré people. Aikhenvald (1999) reports "just a few old speakers left" of Baré proper, and that the Guinau variety was extinct. Kaufman (1994) considers Baré proper, Guinau, and Marawá to be distinct languages; Aikhenvald, dialects of a single languages.
Atorada or Atoraí is a moribund Arawakan language of Brazil and Guyana. Henri Ramirez (2019) considers it to be a dialect of Wapishana.
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).
Indigenous peoples in Guyana, Native Guyanese or Amerindian Guyanese are Guyanese people who are of indigenous ancestry. They comprise approximately 9.16% of Guyana's population. Amerindians are credited with the invention of the canoe, as well as Cassava-based dishes and Guyanese pepperpot, the national dish of Guyana. Amerindian languages have also been incorporated in the lexicon of Guyanese Creole.
The Pidjanan languages are a subgroup of Arawakan languages of northern South America.