Zaparoan languages
Encyclopedia
Zaparoan is an endangered
language family
of Peru
and Ecuador
with fewer than 100 speakers. Zaparoan speakers seem to have been very numerous before the arrival of the Europeans but their groups have been decimated by imported diseases and warfare and only a handful of them have survived.
Aushiri and Omurano are included by Stark (1985). Aushiri is generally accepted, but Omurano remains unclassified.
and consider the first person singular as the default person. A rare feature is the existence of two sets of personal pronouns with different syntactic values according to the nature of the sentence. Active pronouns are subject in independent clauses and object in dependent ones, while passive pronouns are subject in independent clauses and passive in dependent ones :
Thus
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 family
Language family
A language family is a group of languages related through descent from a common ancestor, called the proto-language of that family. The term 'family' comes from the tree model of language origination in historical linguistics, which makes use of a metaphor comparing languages to people in a...
of Peru
Peru
Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....
and Ecuador
Ecuador
Ecuador , officially the Republic of Ecuador is a representative democratic republic in South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and by the Pacific Ocean to the west. It is one of only two countries in South America, along with Chile, that do not have a border...
with fewer than 100 speakers. Zaparoan speakers seem to have been very numerous before the arrival of the Europeans but their groups have been decimated by imported diseases and warfare and only a handful of them have survived.
Languages
There were 39 Zaparoan-speaking tribes at the beginning of the 20th century, every one of them presumably using its own distinctive language or dialect. Most of them have become extinct before being recorded, however, and we have information only about nine of them.- Zaparo group
- Záparo–Conambo
- Záparo (a few speakers left)
- Conambo †
- Arabela–Andoa
- ArabelaArabela languageArabela is an indigenous American language of the Zaparoan family spoken in two Peruvian villages in tropical forest along the Napo tributary of the Arabela river....
(50 speakers) - Andoa †
- Arabela
- Záparo–Conambo
- Iquito–Cahuarano
- Iquito (35 speakers)
- Cahuarano †
- Unclassified
- AushiriAushiri languageAushiri is an extinct Zaparoan language formerly spoken in Peru. It was spoken in the area of the tributaries to the right bank of the Napo River, in the Escuelacocha region....
† - ? OmuranoOmurano languageOmurano is an unclassified extinct language from Peru. It is also known as Humurana, Roamaina, Numurana, Umurano, and Mayna.Tovar linked Omurano to Taushiro ; Kaufman finds the links reasonable, and tentatively proposes a Kandoshi–Omurano–Taushiro language family...
†
- Aushiri
Aushiri and Omurano are included by Stark (1985). Aushiri is generally accepted, but Omurano remains unclassified.
Genetic relations
The relationship of zaparoan languages with other language families of the area is uncertain. It is generally considered isolated. Links with other languages or families have been proposed but none has been widely accepted so far.- Payne (1984) and Kaufman (1994) suggest a relationship with the Yaguan family in a Sáparo–Yáwan stock, contrary to Greenberg's (1987) classification.
- SwadeshMorris SwadeshMorris Swadesh was an influential and controversial American linguist. In his work, he applied basic concepts in historical linguistics to the Indigenous languages of the Americas...
(1954) also groups Zaparoan with Yaguan within his Zaparo–Peba phylum.
- Greenberg (1987) places Zaparoan together with the CahuapananCahuapanan languagesThe Cahuapanan languages include two languages, Chayahuita and Jebero. They are spoken by more than 11,300 people in Peru. Chayahuita is spoken by most of that number, but Jebero is almost extinct....
family into a Kahuapana–Zaparo grouping within his larger Andean phylum, but this is generally rejected by historical linguists.
- Kaufman (1994) notes that Tovar (1984) includes the unclassified TaushiroTaushiro languageTaushiro, also known as Pinche or Pinchi, is a nearly extinct possible language isolate of the Peruvian Amazon near Ecuador. In 2000 SIL counted one speaker in an ethnic population of 20...
under Zaparoan following the tentative opinion of SSILA.
- Stark (1985) includes the extinct OmuranoOmurano languageOmurano is an unclassified extinct language from Peru. It is also known as Humurana, Roamaina, Numurana, Umurano, and Mayna.Tovar linked Omurano to Taushiro ; Kaufman finds the links reasonable, and tentatively proposes a Kandoshi–Omurano–Taushiro language family...
under Zaparoan. Gordon (2005) follows Stark.
Pronouns
Zaparoan languages distinguishes between inclusive and exclusive weClusivity
In linguistics, clusivity is a distinction between inclusive and exclusive first-person pronouns and verbal morphology, also called inclusive "we" and exclusive "we"...
and consider the first person singular as the default person. A rare feature is the existence of two sets of personal pronouns with different syntactic values according to the nature of the sentence. Active pronouns are subject in independent clauses and object in dependent ones, while passive pronouns are subject in independent clauses and passive in dependent ones :
Thus
-
- (arabella) Cuno maaji cua masuu-nuju-quiaa na mashaca cua ratu-nu-ra. (this woman is always inviting me to drink masato where cua is object in the main clause and subject in the subordinate one.
- (zaparo) /tʃa na itʌkwaha/ (you wil fall) cp /tajkwa ko pani tʃa tʃata ikwano/ (I don't want to go with you)
| Personal pronouns in Zaparoan languages | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1S | 2S | 3S | 1Pin | 1Pex | 2P | 3AP | |
| Zaparo | ko / kwi / k- | tʃa / tʃ- / k-/ ki | naw / no / n-ˑ | pa /p- | kana /kaʔno | kina / kiʔno | na |
| Arabela | janiya / -nijia / cua cuo- / cu- / qui |
quiajaniya / quiaa / quia / quio- -quia / cero |
nojuaja / na / ne- / no- -Vri / -quinio |
pajaniya / paa / pa / po- pue- / -pue |
canaa | niajaniya / niaa / nia / nio- | nojori / na / no- |
| Iquito | cu / quí / quíija | quia / quiáaja | anúu / anúuja | p'++ja | cana / canáaja | naá / nahuaáca | |
| Conambo | kwiɣia / ku | kyaχa | |||||
Numerals
| Gloss | | Zaparoan languages | | | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zaparo | | Andoa | | Arabela | | Iquito | ||
| 1 | nuquaqui | nikínjo | niquiriyatu | núquiica. | |
| 2 | namisciniqui | ishki | caapiqui | cuúmi | |
| 3 | haimuckumarachi | kímsa | jiuujianaraca | s++saramaj+táami | |
| 4 | ckaramaitacka | ||||