| Piapoco | |
| Nativename: | Cháse |
| States: | Colombia, Venezuela |
| Date: | 2001–2007 |
| Ref: | e18 |
| Familycolor: | American |
| Fam1: | Arawakan |
| Fam2: | Northern |
| Fam3: | Upper Amazon |
| Fam4: | Western Nawiki |
| Fam5: | Piapoko languages |
| Iso3: | pio |
| Glotto: | piap1246 |
| Glottoname: | Piapoco |
| Glottorefname: | Piapoco |
| Glotto2: | pona1251 |
| Glottoname2: | Ponares – undemonstrated |
| Glottorefname2: | Ponares |
| Map: | Piapoco.png |
Piapoco is an Arawakan language of Colombia and Venezuela.
A "Ponares" language is inferred from surnames, and may have been Piapoco or Achagua.
Piapoco is a branch of the Arawak language, which also includes Achagua and Tariana.[1] Piapoco is considered a Northern Arawak language.[2] There are only about 3,000 Piapoco speakers left today. These people live in the Meta, Vichada, and Guaviare rivers in Colombia[3] Piapoco speakers also reside in Venezuela.[4] It is an endangered language.[4]
The Piapocos come from the larger tribe, the Piaroa, who are indigenous to the Amazon rain forest.[5] The Piapoco people originally lived in the midsection of Rio Guaviare, later moving in the 18th century to avoid settlers, missionaries, and others.[6]
A Piapoco-Spanish dictionary containing 2,500 words was written by Deloris Klumpp, in which botanical identification of plants were captured, although not all.[2] The Piapoco language follows the following grammatical rules: plural suffix -nai used for animates only, derivational suffixes masculine -iri, feminine -tua, suffix -mi 'late, defunct,' nominalizing -si, declarative mood marker -ka.[2] Piapoco is unique in that it seems to be a nominative-accusative language.[2] There are eighteen segmental phonemes, fourteen consonant and four vowels in the Piapoco language.[7]
| Labial | Dental | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||||
| Stop | voiceless | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||
| voiced | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||||
| Affricate | pronounced as /link/ | |||||||
| Fricative | pronounced as /link/ ~ pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||||
| Trill | pronounced as /link/ | |||||||
| Approximant | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||||
| Front | Back | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| High | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |
| Low | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ |
The word Piapoco is a Spanish nickname in reference to the toucan.[3] Most Piapoco also speak Spanish.[6] Speakers who have had less contact with Spanish speakers more often pronounce the phoneme "s" as a voiceless interdental fricative.[7] Younger speakers of the Piapoco language tend to eliminate the "h" more than older speakers due to their contact with the Spanish language.[7]
When a large portion of people come in contact with another language and are competent in it, their language gradually becomes more like the other.[9] This allows for a gradual convergence, where grammar and semantics of one language begin to replicate the other.[9]