Arutani language
{{Short description|Near-extinct indigenous language of Brazil and Venezuela}}
{{Infobox language
| name = Arutani
| nativename = {{lang|atx|Uruak}}, {{lang|atx|Awake}}
| region = Roraima (Brazil);
Karum River area, Bolivar State (Venezuela)
| ethnicity = 20 Auaké
| speakers = 6
| date = 2020
| ref = e25
| familycolor = American
| fam1 = Arutani–Sape ?
| iso3 = atx
| glotto = arut1244
| glottorefname = Arutani
| map2 = Lang Status 20-CR.svg
| mapcaption2 = {{center|{{small|Arutani is classified as Critically Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger}}}}
| notice = IPA
}}
Arutani (Orotani, Urutani, also known as Awake, Auake, Auaqué, Aoaqui, Oewaku, ethnonym Uruak) is a nearly extinct language spoken in Roraima, Brazil and in the Karum River area of Bolivar State, Venezuela. There are only around 6 speakers left.{{cite web |title=Arutani |url=https://www.endangeredlanguages.com/lang/667 |website=Endangered Languages Project |access-date=20 September 2021}}
Documentation
Arutani is one of the most poorly attested extant languages in South America, and may be a language isolate.{{cite journal|last=Hammarström|first=Harald|title=The status of the least documented language families in the world|journal=Language Documentation & Conservation|year=2010|volume=4|pages=183|url=http://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/bitstream/handle/10125/4478/hammarstrom.pdf}}{{Cite book
| publisher = Cambridge University Press Cambridge
| last = Dixon
| first = R. M. W.
|author2=A. Y. Aikhenvald
| title = The Amazonian languages
| series = Cambridge Language Surveys
| date = 1999
| page = 343
}}
Existing data is limited to a 1911 word list by Koch-Grünberg (1928: 308-313),Koch-Grünberg, Theodor. 1928. Vom Roroima Zum Orinoco, Ergebnisse einer Reise in Nordbrasilien und Venezuela in den Jahren 1911-1913. Vol. 4. Stuttgart: Strecker und Schröder. a 1940 word list by Armellada & Matallana (1942: 101-110),Armellada, Césareo de, and Baltazar de Matallana. 1942. Exploración Del Paragua. Boletín de La Sociedad Venezolana de Ciencias Naturales 53, 61-110. and a 100-item Swadesh list by Migliazza (1978).Migliazza, Ernest C. 1978. Maku, Sape and Uruak languages current status and basic lexicon. Anthropological Linguistics 20(3), 133-140. There is also an unpublished Swadesh list by Fèlix Cardona i Puig from the 1930s-1940s, as well as an unpublished 200-item Swadesh list by Walter Coppens from 1970.Coppens, Walter. 2008. Los Uruak (Arutani). In W. Coppens, M. Á. Perera, R. Lizarralde & H. Seijas (eds.) Los aborígenes de Venezuela. Volume 2, 747-770. Caracas: Fundación La Salle/Monte Avila Editores/Ediciones IVIC/Instituto Caribe de Antropología y Sociología.
Sociolinguistic situation
Traditionally, Arutani was spoken along the Paragua River and Uraricaá River in southern Venezuela and the northern tip of Roraima, Brazil.
Ethnic Arutani also speak Ninam (Shirián), since they now mostly live in Ninam villages. The remaining speakers of Arutani are found in the following Ninam villages.Rosés Labrada, Jorge Emilio, Thiago Chacon & Francia Medina. 2020. [http://www.elpublishing.org/PID/193 Arutani (Venezuela and Brazil) – Language Snapshot]. In Peter K. Austin (ed.) Language Documentation and Description 17, 170-177. London: EL Publishing.
- Saúba (in Brazil): 1 speaker born in Venezuela who has family in Kavaimakén
- Kosoiba (in the Upper Paragua River valley of Venezuela): 3 speakers
- Kavaimakén (in the Upper Paragua River valley of Venezuela): 1 speaker
- Colibri (in the Upper Paragua River valley of Venezuela): 1 speaker reported
According to Loukotka (1968), it was once spoken on the southern banks of Maracá Island in the Rio Branco area.{{cite book |last=Loukotka |first=Čestmír |author-link=Čestmír Loukotka |title=Classification of South American Indian languages |url=https://archive.org/details/classificationof0007louk |url-access=registration |publisher=UCLA Latin American Center |year=1968 |location=Los Angeles}}
Language contact
Jolkesky (2016) notes that there are lexical similarities with the Máku, Sape, Warao, Tikuna-Yuri, and Tukano language families due to contact.{{cite thesis|last=Jolkesky |first=Marcelo Pinho de Valhery |date=2016 |url=http://www.etnolinguistica.org/tese:jolkesky-2016-arqueoecolinguistica |title=Estudo arqueo-ecolinguístico das terras tropicais sul-americanas |type=Ph.D. dissertation |location=Brasília |publisher=University of Brasília |edition=2}}
Lexical similarities with Tucanoan languages are mostly cultural loanwords. Arutani and Tucanoan languages also have completely different pronominal systems, and sound correspondences are irregular. Thus, similarities between them can be attributed to contact with Eastern Tucanoan.{{rp|527}}
Vocabulary
Loukotka (1968) lists the following basic vocabulary items for Auaké.
:
| class="wikitable sortable"
! gloss !! Auaké | |
| one | {{lang|atx|kiuaná}} |
| two | {{lang|atx|kiuañéke}} |
| three | {{lang|atx|uatitimitilíake}} |
| head | {{lang|atx|ki-kakoáti}} |
| eye | {{lang|atx|ki-gakoá}} |
| tooth | {{lang|atx|ki-aké}} |
| man | {{lang|atx|madkié}} |
| water | {{lang|atx|okoá}} |
| fire | {{lang|atx|ané}} |
| sun | {{lang|atx|nizyí}} |
| manioc | {{lang|atx|mokiá}} |
| jaguar | {{lang|atx|kaiyá}} |
| house | {{lang|atx|iméd}} |
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- Alain Fabre, 2005. Diccionario etnolingüístico y guía bibliográfica de los pueblos indígenas sudamericanos: [http://www.ling.fi/Entradas%20diccionario/Dic=Awake.pdf AWAKE]
- [https://japiim.linguasyanomami.com/ Portal Japiim] (online dictionary)
{{Languages of Brazil}}
{{Languages of Venezuela}}
{{South American languages}}
{{authority control}}
Category:Arutani–Sape languages
Category:Indigenous languages of South America
Category:Languages of Venezuela