Piaroa language

Piaroa (also called Guagua ~ Kuakua ~ Quaqua, Adole ~ Ature, Wo’tiheh) is an indigenous language of Colombia and Venezuela, native to the Piaroa people. Loukotka (1968) reports that it is spoken along the Sipapo River, Orinoco River, and Ventuari River.[4]

Piaroa
De'aruwa
Native toColombia and Venezuela
EthnicityPiaroa people
Native speakers
17,000 (2001–2002)[1]
Dialects
  • Wirö (Maco)
  • Ature?
Latin
Language codes
ISO 639-3Either:
pid – Piaroa
wpc – Wirö (Maco)
Glottologmaco1238  Wirö + Piaroa[2]
piar1243  Piaroa[3]

A Wirö language (commonly called Maco) is sometimes listed separately, or left unclassified. It is very poorly attested, but the few words which are known are enough to show it is a dialect of Piaroa, or at least very closely related (Hammarström 2010).[5]

The unattested extinct Ature language was once spoken on the Orinoco River near the waterfalls of Atures, Venezuela. It is not known whether Ature is related.[4]

Phonology
Consonants
Bilabial Dental Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
nor. lab.
Stop Plain p t k kʷ ʔ
Aspirated pʰ~ɸ tʰ kʰ hˣʷ hˣ
Ejective pʼ tʼ kʼ kʷʼ
Glottal ˀb ˀd
Affricate Plain t͡ʃ~t͡s
Aspirated t͡sʰ
Ejective t͡sʼ
Fricative s
Nasal m n
Flap/Lateral ɾ ʎ
Approximant w j~dʲ
Vowels
Front Central Back
Close i ɨ~ɯ u
Mid e ɤ~o
Open æ ɑ~ɒ

[6]

References
  1. Piaroa at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
    Wirö (Maco) at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
  2. Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Maco-Piaroa". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
  3. Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Piaroa". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
  4. Loukotka, Čestmír (1968). Classification of South American Indian languages. Los Angeles: UCLA Latin American Center.
  5. Harald Hammarström, 2010, 'The status of the least documented language families in the world'. In Language Documentation & Conservation, v 4, p 183
  6. Mosonyi, Esteban E. (2002). Elementos De Gramática Piaroa: Algunas Consideraciones Sobre Sus Clases Nominales (PDF).


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