Rikbaktsa language

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Rikbaktsá
erigpaksá
Native to Brazil
Region Mato Grosso
Ethnicity Rikbaktsa people
Native speakers 910  (2001)[1]
Language family
Macro-Gê
  • Rikbaktsá
Language codes
ISO 639-3 rkb
Rikbaktsa language.png

The Rikbaktsa language, also spelled Aripaktsa, Erikbatsa, Erikpatsa and known ambiguously as Canoeiro, is a language spoken by the Rikbaktsa people of the Mato Grosso, Brazil, that forms its own branch of the Macro-Gê languages.

As in other languages of the area, word endings indicate the gender of the speaker.[2]

Most Rikbaktsa can speak both Rikbaktsa and Portuguese. Younger individuals tend to speak Portuguese more frequently and fluently than their elders, but older individuals generally struggle with Portuguese and use it only with non-indigenous Brazilians.[2]

References [edit]

  1. ^ Rikbaktsá at Ethnologue (16th ed., 2009)
  2. ^ a b Arruda, Rinaldo S.V. "Rikbaktsa: Language." In Encyclopedia of Indigenous Peoples in Brazil. Instituto Socioambiental (November 1998).