Otuke language explained

Otuke
Region:	Mato Grosso
Extinct:	Around 1920s
Ref:	e25
Familycolor:	American
Iso3:	otu
Glotto:	otuk1240
Glottorefname:	Otuke

Otuke (Otuque, Otuqui) is an extinct language of the Macro-Jê family, related to Bororo. Otuke territory included what is now the Otuquis National Park and Integrated Management Natural Area in eastern Bolivia.

Etymology

Combès (2012) suggests that -toki ~ -tuki ~ -tuke (also present in the ethynonym Gorgotoqui) is likely related to the Bororo animate plural suffix -doge (i.e., used to form plural nouns for ethnic groups). Hence, the name Otuqui (Otuke) was likely etymologically related to the name Gorgotoqui.^[1]

• Covareca - Santa Ana mission, Bolivia
• Curuminaca - Casalvasco mission, Bolivia
• Coraveca (Curave, Ecorabe) - Santo Corazón mission, Bolivia
• Curucaneca (Curucane, Carruacane) - San Rafael mission, Bolivia
• Tapii - Santiago de Chiquitos mission, Bolivia

Chiquitano speakers also lived in many of the missions.^[1]

(See Jesuit Missions of Chiquitos for locations.)

Mason (1950) says the first four are "separate and very different", but Loukotka (1968) notes that nothing is known of Curave or Curucane (or of Tapii), that only 14 words of Curumina and 19 of Covare have been preserved.^[3]

Mason (1950)

Mason (1950) lists the following varieties of Otuke:^[4]

Otuke

• Otuké
• Covareca
• Curuminaca
• Coraveca (?); Curavé (?)
• Curucaneca (?)
• Tapii (?)

Mason (1950) notes that Tapii may have been either Otukean or Zamucoan.

The following are listed as Bororo varieties by Mason (1950):

Bororo

• Eastern: Orarimugudoge
• Western: Cabasal; Campanya
• Acioné
• Aravira
• Biriuné
• Coroa (?)
• Coxipo (?)

Further reading

• de Créqui-Montfort, Georges and Paul Rivet. 1912. Linguistique Bolivienne: Le groupe Otuké. Journal de la Société des Américanistes IX: 317–352.
• de Créqui-Montfort, Georges and Paul Rivet. 1913. Linguistique Bolivienne: Les affinités des dialectes Otuké. Journal de la Société des Américanistes X: 369–377.

Notes and References

1. Book: Loukotka, Čestmír . Čestmír Loukotka

   . Čestmír Loukotka . Classification of South American Indian languages . registration . UCLA Latin American Center . 1968 . Los Angeles.

2. Combès, Isabelle. 2012. Susnik y los gorgotoquis. Efervescencia étnica en la Chiquitania (Oriente boliviano), p. 201–220. Indiana, v. 29. Berlín.

   Other varieties

   Loukotka (1968)

   Several attested extinct Bororoan varieties were either dialects of Otuke or closely related:^[1]

3. Book: Loukotka, Čestmír . Čestmír Loukotka

   . Čestmír Loukotka . Classification of South American Indian languages . registration . UCLA Latin American Center . 1968 . Los Angeles.

4. Book: Mason, John Alden . John Alden Mason

   . John Alden Mason . 1950 . The languages of South America . Julian . Steward . Handbook of South American Indians . 6 . 157–317 . Smithsonian Institution, Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 143 . Washington, D.C., Government Printing Office.