Piaroa language

Piaroa
Piaroa
De'aruwa
Native to	Colombia and Venezuela
Ethnicity	Piaroa people
Native speakers	17,000 (2001–2002)
Language family	Piaroa–Saliban Piaroa;
Dialects	Wirö (Maco); Ature?;
Writing system	Latin
Language codes
ISO 639-3	Either:; pid – Piaroa; wpc – Wirö (Maco)
Glottolog	maco1238 Wirö + Piaroa; piar1243 Piaroa
ELP	Piaroa

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.^[2]

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).^[3]

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.^[2]

Phonology

Consonants
		Bilabial	Dental	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar		Glottal
		Bilabial	Dental	Alveolar	Palatal	nor.	lab.	Glottal
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

^[4]

References

^ Piaroa at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
Wirö (Maco) at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
^ ^a ^b Loukotka, Čestmír (1968). Classification of South American Indian languages. Los Angeles: UCLA Latin American Center.
^ Harald Hammarström, 2010, 'The status of the least documented language families in the world'. In Language Documentation & Conservation, v 4, p 183 [1]
^ Mosonyi, Esteban E. (2002). Elementos De Gramática Piaroa: Algunas Consideraciones Sobre Sus Clases Nominales (PDF).

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[e18-1] Piaroa at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
Wirö (Maco) at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

[Loukotka-2] Loukotka, Čestmír (1968). Classification of South American Indian languages. Los Angeles: UCLA Latin American Center.

[3] Harald Hammarström, 2010, 'The status of the least documented language families in the world'. In Language Documentation & Conservation, v 4, p 183 [1]

[4] Mosonyi, Esteban E. (2002). Elementos De Gramática Piaroa: Algunas Consideraciones Sobre Sus Clases Nominales (PDF).

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