Arutani language

Arutani
	Uruak, Awake
Native to	Brazil, Venezuela
Region	Roraima (Brazil); Karum River area, Bolivar State (Venezuela)
Ethnicity	Auaké
Native speakers	(42 cited 1986–2001)[1]
Language family	Arutani–Sape ? Arutani;
Language codes
ISO 639-3	atx
Glottolog	arut1244[2]

Arutani (Orotani, Urutani, also known as Awake, Auake, Auaqué, Aoaqui, Oewaku, ethnonym Uruak) is a nearly extinct language spoken by only 17 individuals in Roraima, Brazil and two others in the Karum River area of Bolivar State, Venezuela. It was once spoken on the southern banks of Maracá Island in the Rio Branco area.[3]

It is one of the most poorly attested extant languages in South America, and may be a language isolate. There is, however, no linguistic data on the language.[4][5] Ethnic Arutani also speak Ninam.

Language contact

Jolkesky (2016) notes that there are lexical similarities with the Maku, Sape, Warao, Tikuna-Yuri, and Tukano language families due to contact.[6]

Lexical similarities with Tucanoan languages are mostly cultural loanwords. Arutani and Tucanoan languages also have completely different pronominal systems, and sound correspondences are irregular. Thus, similarities between them can be attributed to contact with Eastern Tucanoan.[6]^:527

Vocabulary

Loukotka (1968) lists the following basic vocabulary items for Auaké.[3]

gloss	Auaké
one	kiuaná
two	kiuañéke
three	uatitimitilíake
head	ki-kakoáti
eye	ki-gakoá
tooth	ki-aké
man	madkié
water	okoá
fire	ané
sun	nizyí
manioc	mokiá
jaguar	kaiyá
house	iméd

References

Arutani at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Arutani". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
Loukotka, Čestmír (1968). Classification of South American Indian languages. Los Angeles: UCLA Latin American Center.
Hammarström, Harald (2010). "The status of the least documented language families in the world" (PDF). Language Documentation & Conservation. 4: 183.
Dixon, R. M. W.; A. Y. Aikhenvald (1999). The Amazonian languages. Cambridge Language Surveys. Cambridge University Press Cambridge. p. 343.
Jolkesky, Marcelo Pinho de Valhery (2016). Estudo arqueo-ecolinguístico das terras tropicais sul-americanas (Ph.D. dissertation) (2 ed.). Brasília: University of Brasília.

External links

Alain Fabre, 2005. Diccionario etnolingüístico y guía bibliográfica de los pueblos indígenas sudamericanos: AWAKE

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[e18-1] Arutani at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)

[Glottolog-2] Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Arutani". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.

[Loukotka-3] Loukotka, Čestmír (1968). Classification of South American Indian languages. Los Angeles: UCLA Latin American Center.

[4] Hammarström, Harald (2010). "The status of the least documented language families in the world" (PDF). Language Documentation & Conservation. 4: 183.

[5] Dixon, R. M. W.; A. Y. Aikhenvald (1999). The Amazonian languages. Cambridge Language Surveys. Cambridge University Press Cambridge. p. 343.

[Jolkesky-2016-6] Jolkesky, Marcelo Pinho de Valhery (2016). Estudo arqueo-ecolinguístico das terras tropicais sul-americanas (Ph.D. dissertation) (2 ed.). Brasília: University of Brasília.