Wirö language explained

Wirö
Nativename:Maco
States:Colombia and Venezuela
Speakers:2,500
Date:2002
Ref:e18
Familycolor:American
Fam1:Piaroa–Saliban
Fam2:Piaroan
Script:Latin
Iso3:wpc
Glotto:maco1239
Glottorefname:Maco

Wirö (also called Itoto, Wotuja, Jojod, or various forms of Maku) is an indigenous language of Colombia and Venezuela. Until it was documented in 2015, it was attested only by a list of 38 words collected ca. 1900, though even that was enough to show it was closely related to Piaroa. Speakers of the two understand each other, though not reliably, and consider them to be distinct languages.

Loukotka (1968) reports it as being spoken on the Ventuari River and Cunucunuma River.[1]

Maco is not a proper name but a label applied by Arawakan speakers for unintelligible languages. In the case of Wirö, the following forms are found in the literature: Maco, Mako, Maku, Makú, Sáliba-Maco, and Maco-Piaroa, the latter also for the combination of Wirö and Piaroa.

Further reading

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.