Yuracaré language explained

Yuracaré
States:	Bolivia
Region:	Cochabamba Department
Ethnicity:	3,300 Yuracaré people (2004) 3,394 Yuracaré people (2012) (INE Census)
Date:	2004
Ref:	e18
Familycolor:	American
Family:	Language isolate
Iso3:	yuz
Glotto:	yura1255
Glottorefname:	Yuracaré

Yuracaré (also Yurakaré, Yurakar, Yuracare, Yurucare, Yuracar, Yurakare, Yurujuré, Yurújare) is an endangered language isolate of central Bolivia in Cochabamba and Beni departments spoken by the Yuracaré people.

Speakers refer to their own language as Yurújare [juˈɹ̟uhaɹ̟e].

Distribution

There are 2,000–3,000 Yurakaré speakers in the upper Mamoré River valley of eastern Bolivia. They live along the Chapare and Ichilo Rivers in Cochabamba Department, as well as along the Isiboro and Sécure Rivers in Isiboro-Sécure National Park.^[1]

Loukotka (1968) reported that Yuracaré was spoken at the sources of the Sécure River, and on the Chapare River and Chimoré River.^[2]

Dialects

Two dialects, now extinct, were:^[2]

• Western - Mansiño, Oromo
• Eastern - Mage, Soloto

Coni, Cuchi, and Enete are possible dialects (Brinton 1891).^[3]

Historical sources mention ethnic groups in the Orinoco Delta such as Siawani (Chaguanes), Veriotaus (Farautes), and Tiuitiuas (Tibitíbis) that spoke Warao or languages closely related to modern Warao. Other extinct groups include:^[4]

• Aricari and Pirao from Cayenne
• Guaiqueri from Margarita Island

Demographics

There are approximately 2,500 speakers. These numbers are in decline as the youngest generation no longer learns the language.^[5] (See Language death.)

Documentation

Yuracaré is documented with a grammar based on an old missionary manuscript by de la Cueva (Adam 1893). The language is currently being studied by Rik van Gijn. A Foundation for Endangered Languages grant was awarded for a Yuracaré–Spanish / Spanish–Yuracaré dictionary project in 2005.

Genealogical relations

Suárez (1977) suggests a relationship between Yuracaré and the Mosetenan, Pano–Tacanan, Arawakan, and Chon families. His earlier Macro-Panoan proposal is the same minus Arawakan (Suárez 1969).

Jolkesky (2016) also notes that there are lexical similarities with the Moseten-Tsimane languages.^[6]

Grammar

• Verb-initial
• agglutinating
• prefixes, suffixes
• reduplication

Vocabulary

Loukotka (1968) lists the following basic vocabulary items.^[7]

gloss	Yuracare
one	letha
two	läshie
three	lívui
tooth	sansa
tongue	erume
hand	té-banau
woman	señe
water	záma
fire	áima
moon	shúhui
maize	sil
jaguar	samo
house	siba

See also

• Yuracaré

Bibliography

• Adam, Lucien. (1893). Principes et dictionnaire de la langue Yuracaré ou Yurujuré composés par le R. P. de la Cueva et publiés conformément au manuscrit de A. d'Orbigny. Bibliothèque linguistique américaine (No. 16). Paris: Maisonneuve.
• Adelaar, Willem F. H.; & Muysken, Pieter C. (2004). The Languages of the Andes. Cambridge Language Surveys. Cambridge University Press.
• Campbell, Lyle. (1997). American Indian Languages: The Historical Linguistics of Native America. New York: Oxford University Press. .
• Kaufman, Terrence. (1990). Language History in South America: What We Know and How To Know More. In D. L. Payne (Ed.), Amazonian Linguistics: Studies in Lowland South American languages (pp. 13–67). Austin: University of Texas Press. .
• Kaufman, Terrence. (1994). The Native Languages of South America. In C. Mosley & R. E. Asher (Eds.), Atlas of the World's Languages (pp. 46–76). London: Routledge.
• Ribera, J.; Rivero, W.; Rocha, A. (1991). Vocabulario yuracaré-castellano, castellano-yuracaré. Trinidad: MISEREOR.
• Suárez, Jorge. (1969). Moseten and Pano–Tacanan. Anthropological Linguistics, 11 (9), 255-266.
• Suárez, Jorge. (1977). La posición lingüística del pano-tacana y del arahuaco. Anales de Antropología, 14, 243-255.
• van Gijn, Rik. (2004). Number in the Yurakaré Noun Phrase. In L. Cornips & J. Doetjes (Eds.), Linguistics in the Netherlands 2004 (pp. 69–79). Linguistics in the Netherlands (No. 21). John Benjamins.
• van Gijn, Rik (2005). Head Marking and Dependent Marking of Grammatical Relations in Yurakaré. In M. Amberber & H. de Hoop (eds.) Competition and Variation in Natural Languages: The Case for Case. (pp. 41–72) Elsevier.
• van Gijn, Rik (2006) A Grammar of Yurakaré. Ph.D. dissertation Radboud University Nijmegen.

External links

• Proel: Lengua Yurakare
• FEL Grants 2005 (Foundation for Endangered Languages)
• DoBeS : General presentation of the Yurakaré language and people
• Lenguas de Bolivia (online edition)
• Yurakaré DoReCo corpus compiled by Sonja Gipper and Jeremías Ballivián Torrico. Audio recordings of narrative texts, with transcriptions time-aligned at the phone level and translations.

Notes and References

1. Book: Epps . Patience . Michael . Lev . Amazonian Languages: Language Isolates. Volume II: Kanoé to Yurakaré . Walter de Gruyter . Berlin . 2023 . 978-3-11-043273-2.
2. Book: Loukotka, Čestmír . Čestmír Loukotka . Classification of South American Indian languages . registration . UCLA Latin American Center . 1968 . Los Angeles.
3. Brinton, Daniel G. 1891. The American race. New York: D. C. Hodges.
4. Book: Epps . Patience . Michael . Lev . Amazonian Languages: Language Isolates. Volume II: Kanoé to Yurakaré . Walter de Gruyter . Berlin . 2023 . 978-3-11-043273-2.
5. http://www.mpi.nl/DOBES/projects/yurakare Documentation of Endangered Languages
6. Jolkesky . Marcelo Pinho de Valhery . 2016 . Estudo arqueo-ecolinguístico das terras tropicais sul-americanas . Ph.D. dissertation . Brasília . University of Brasília . 2.
7. Book: Loukotka, Čestmír . Čestmír Loukotka . Classification of South American Indian languages . registration . UCLA Latin American Center . 1968 . Los Angeles.