Tinigua language
Encyclopedia
Tinigua is an endangered
language isolate
spoken in Colombia
. As of 2000, Tinigua had only two remaining speakers, both of whom were male. The remaining speakers live in Meta Department
, between the Upper Guayabero and Yari rivers. Tinigua used to form a small language family with the now extinct Pamigua language.
Endangered language
An endangered language is a language that is at risk of falling out of use. If it loses all its native speakers, it becomes a dead language. If eventually no one speaks the language at all it becomes an "extinct language"....
language isolate
Language isolate
A language isolate, in the absolute sense, is a natural language with no demonstrable genealogical relationship with other languages; that is, one that has not been demonstrated to descend from an ancestor common with any other language. They are in effect language families consisting of a single...
spoken in Colombia
Colombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...
. As of 2000, Tinigua had only two remaining speakers, both of whom were male. The remaining speakers live in Meta Department
Meta Department
Meta is a department of Colombia. It is close to the geographic center of the country, to the east of the Andean mountains. A large portion of the department, which is also crossed by the Meta River, is covered by a grassland plain known as the Llanos. Its capital is Villavicencio...
, between the Upper Guayabero and Yari rivers. Tinigua used to form a small language family with the now extinct Pamigua language.