Cahuarano language

{{Short description|Extinct Zaparoan language of Peru}}

{{Expand language|topic=|langcode=fr|otherarticle=Cahuarano|date=February 2025}}

{{Infobox language

|name=Cahuarano

|map=Cawarano language.png

|mapcaption=Former Zaparoan language distribution, with Cahuarano pointed at

|nativename=

|states=Peru

|extinct={{circa|1990}}

|ref=e18

|familycolor=American

|fam1=Zaparoan

|fam2=Iquito–Cahuarano

|iso3=cah

|glotto=cahu1268

|glottorefname=Cahuarano

}}

Cahuarano is an extinct indigenous American language of the Zaparoan family, once spoken along the Nanay River in Peru. The last speaker died in the late 1980s or early 1990s. While considered a language by most scholars, it was considered by some to be a dialect of Iquito.{{cite journal |author=Mary Wise |date=2005|title=Apuntes sobre las lenguas Záparos- familia que se extingue|journal=Revista Latinoamericana de Estudios Etnolingüísticos|issue=55|pages=55–69}}

Its speakers, who were of the Moracano tribe, lived north of the Nanay River northwest of Iquitos. In 1930, {{ill|Günther Tessmann|de||es|Günter Tessmann}} estimated the language's number of speakers to be around 1,000,{{cite journal |author=Gunter Tessman|title=Die Indianer Nordost-Perus: grundlegende Forschungen für eine systematische Kulturkunde|journal=Veröffentlichung der Harvey-Bassler-Stiftung|issue=2 |pages=856}} while linguist Gustavo Solís gave the number 5 in 1987.{{cite journal |author=Gustavo Fonseca Solís|title= Perú: multilingüismo y extinción de lenguas|journal=América Indígena|volume=1987}}