Chapacuran languages

Endangered language family of indigenous South Americans

The Chapacuran languages are a nearly extinct Native American language family of South America. Almost all Chapacuran languages are extinct, and the four that are extant are moribund, with the exception of Wari'. They are spoken in Rondônia in the southern Amazon Basin of Brazil and in northern Bolivia.

According to Kaufman (1990),^[1] the Chapacuran family could be related to the extinct Wamo language.

Languages

Angenot (1997)

List of Chapacuran languages from Angenot (1997):^[2]

Birchall (2013)

Birchall et al. (2013) classify the dozen known Chapacuran languages as follows:^[3]

• Chapacuran
  • Kitemoka–Tapakura
    • Chapacura †
    • Quitemo †
  • Moreic–Waric
    • Moreic–Tor
      • Nuclear More
        • Itene (90 speakers)
        • Cumana (3 speakers)
      • Torá †
    • Waric
      • Urupa–Yaru:
        • Urupa †
        • Yaru †
      • Wanham–Wari–Oro Win
        • Wanham †
        • Wari–Oro Win
          • Oro Win (5 speakers)
          • Wari' (2,700 speakers)
  • (position unclear) Napeca (Nape) †
  • (position unclear) Rocorona (Ocorono) †

All languages are rather closely related.

Extinct languages for which Loukotka says 'nothing' is known, but which may have been Chapacuran, include Cujuna, Mataua, Urunumaca, and Herisobocono. Similarities with Mure appear to be loans.^[4]

Birchall, Dunn & Greenhill (2016) give the following phylogenetic tree of Chapacuran, based on a computational phylogenetic analysis.^[5]

Language contact

Jolkesky (2016) notes that there are lexical similarities with the Irantxe, Puinave-Kak, and Arawa language families due to contact.^[6]

Varieties

Below is a full list of Chapacuran language varieties listed by Loukotka (1968), including names of unattested varieties.^[7]

• Chapacura / Huachi / Tapacura - extinct language once spoken on the Blanco River and around Lake Chitiopa, Santa Cruz province, Bolivia.
• Irene / Moré - spoken on the Guaporé River, Azul River, and Mamoré River, Beni province, Bolivia.
• Itoreauhip - spoken between the Guaporé River and Azul River in Bolivia.
• Quitemo - once spoken on the Uruvaito River, Santa Cruz province, Bolivia.
• Nape - once spoken in the same country on Lake Chitiopa.
• Mure - once spoken on the San Martín River in Bolivia.
• Rocorona - once spoken on the San Martín River.
• Herisebocon - once spoken on the Rapulo River near the old mission of San Borja, Bolivia. (Unattested.)
• Wañám / Huanyam / Pawumwa - spoken between the São Miguel River and São Domingo River, territory of Rondônia, Brazil.
• Abitana - spoken as a dialect of the Wañám language at the sources of the São Miguel River, Brazil.
• Kumana / Cautario - spoken between the Guaporé River and Cautario River, Rondônia.
• Pacahanovo / Uari Wayõ - spoken on the Pacaás Novos River, Rondônia.
• Kabixi - spoken between the São Miguel River and Preto River, Rondônia, now perhaps extinct.
• Mataua - spoken in the western area of the Cautario River. (Unattested.)
• Urunamacan - spoken to the north of the Wañám tribe, Rondônia, Brazil. (Unattested.)
• Uómo / Miguelheno - spoken on the São Miguel River. (Unattested.)
• Tapoaya - spoken by an unknown tribe at the sources of the Cautario River. (Unattested.)
• Cujuna - spoken by a very little known tribe, now perhaps extinct, to the north of the Kumaná tribe. (Unattested.)
• Urupá / Ituarupa - spoken on the Urupá River, Rondônia.
• Yarú - spoken by a few families on the Jaru River.
• Yamarú - extinct language once spoken on the Jamari River. (Unattested.)
• Torá / Tura - formerly spoken on the Marmelos River and Paricá River, state of Amazonas; now by a few individuals on the Posta Cabeça d'anta, state of Amazonas.

Vocabulary

Loukotka (1968) lists the following basic vocabulary items for the Chapacuran languages.^[7]

Proto-language

Below are Proto-Chapacuran (Proto-Chapakura) reconstructions from the Diachronic Atlas of Comparative Linguistics (DiACL) online,^[8] cited from Angenot de Lima (1997).^[9] English glosses are from DiACL, and the original Portuguese glosses are from Angenot de Lima (1997). For the full list of original Portuguese glosses, see the corresponding Portuguese article.

Notes and references

1. Kaufman, Terrence (1990). "Language History in South America: What we know and how to know more". In David L. Payne (ed.). Amazonian Linguistics. Austin: University of Texas Press.
2. Angenot, Geralda de Lima (1997). Fonotática e Fonologia do Lexema Protochapacura Archived 2021-02-05 at the Wayback Machine. Dissertação do Mestrado, Universidade Federal de Rondônia.
3. Birchall, Joshua and Dunn, Michael and Greenhill, Simon (2013) An internal classification of the Chapacuran language family.
4. Hammarström, Harald; Forke, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin; Bank, Sebastian, eds. (2020). "Chapacuran". Glottolog 4.3.
5. Birchall, Joshua; Dunn, Michael; Greenhill, Simon J. (2016). "A Combined Comparative and Phylogenetic Analysis of the Chapacuran Language Family". International Journal of American Linguistics. 82 (3): 255–284. doi:10.1086/687383. hdl:2066/166431. ISSN 0020-7071.
6. Jolkesky, Marcelo Pinho de Valhery (2016). Estudo arqueo-ecolinguístico das terras tropicais sul-americanas (Ph.D. dissertation) (2 ed.). Brasília: University of Brasília.
7. Loukotka, Čestmír (1968). Classification of South American Indian languages. Los Angeles: UCLA Latin American Center.
8. "Proto-Chapacuran". Diachronic Atlas of Comparative Linguistics (DiACL). Retrieved 29 January 2020.
9. Angenot de Lima, Geralda (1997). Fonotática e Fonologia do Lexema Protochapacura. Master's dissertation, Universidade Federal de Rondônia.
10. Jirau is a kind of indigenous frame for grilling meat or fish.