Login
Login

Waorani language

{{Short description|Language isolate spoken by the Huaorani people of the Amazon}}

{{Distinguish|Aushiri language|Warao language}}

{{Infobox language

| name = Sabela

| altname = Waorani / Huaorani

| nativename = {{lang|auc|Wao Terero}}

| states = Ecuador, Peru

| region = Oriente or Ecuadorian Amazon

| ethnicity = 1,800 Waorani people (2012)

| speakers = 2,000

| date = 2004

| ref = {{Cite web|url=http://www.unesco.org/languages-atlas/en/atlasmap/language-id-758.html|title=Waorani|website=UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in danger|publisher=UNESCO|language=en|access-date=2018-01-23}}

| familycolor = american

| family = Language isolate

| nation = Ecuador: indigenous languages official in own territories

| iso3 = auc

| glotto = waor1240

| glottorefname = Waorani

| dia2 = Tiwituey (Tuei)

| dia3 = Shiripuno

| dia1 = Tiwakuna

}}

The Waorani (Huaorani) language, commonly known as Sabela (also Wao, Huao, Auishiri, Aushiri, Ssabela ; autonym: Wao Terero; pejorative: Auka, Auca) is a vulnerable language isolate spoken by the Waorani people, an indigenous group living in the Amazon rainforest between the Napo and Curaray Rivers in Ecuador. A small number of speakers with so-called uncontacted groups may live in Peru.

Classification

Sabela is not known to be related to any other language. However, it forms part of Terrence Kaufman's Yawan proposal.

Jolkesky (2016) also notes that there are lexical similarities with Yaruro.{{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}}

Geographical distribution

Waorani is primarily spoken in Waorani Ethnic Reserve, which is the largest indigenous reserve in Ecuador. Other areas where it is spoken include Pastaza and Napo provinces (including the towns of Puyo and Coca), Yasuní National Park, and the Taromenani Tagaeri Intangible Zone.{{cite book |editor-last=Epps |editor-first=Patience |editor-last2=Michael |editor-first2=Lev |title=Amazonian Languages: Language Isolates. Volume II: Kanoé to Yurakaré |publisher=Walter de Gruyter |location=Berlin |date=2023 |isbn=978-3-11-043273-2}}{{rp|1191}} Waorani is considered endangered due to growing bilingualism in Quechua and Spanish and diminishing Waorani usage among youth.{{E18|auc|Sabela}}{{cite web|title=Documenting Language, Culture, and Cognition: Language and Space among the Waorani|url=https://www.swarthmore.edu/sites/default/files/assets/documents/linguistics/2012_Fawcett.pdf|first=Alexia Zandra|last=Fawcett|publisher=Anthropology and Linguistic Department, Bryn Mawr College|date=May 2012|access-date=21 September 2017}}

Dialects

Waorani has three dialects: Tiguacuna (Tiwakuna), Tuei (Tiwi Tuei, Tiwi), and Shiripuno.

Phonology

Waorani distinguishes nasal vowels from oral ones. Syllable structure is (C)V, with frequent vowel clusters. The allophones of {{IPA|/o/}} range from {{IPA|[ɵ, o, ʊ, ɤ]}} and the allophones of {{IPA|/õ/}} have a similar range, {{IPA|[ɵ̃, õ, ʊ̃, ɤ̃]}}, and allophones of {{IPA|/e, ẽ/}} can be heard as {{IPA|[ɪ, ɪ̃]}}. The alveolar tap {{IPA|[ɾ]}} is an allophone of {{IPA|/d/}} and the palatal glide {{IPA|[j]}} is an allophone of {{IPA|/ɟ/}}.

class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"

!colspan=2|

!Bilabial

!Alveolar

!Palatal

!Velar

colspan=2|Nasal

|{{IPAlink|m}}

|{{IPAlink|n}}

|{{IPAlink|ɲ}}

|{{IPAlink|ŋ}}

rowspan=2|Plosive

!Voiceless

|{{IPAlink|p}}

|{{IPAlink|t}}

|

|{{IPAlink|k}}

Voiced

|{{IPAlink|b}}

|rowspan=2|{{IPAlink|d}}~{{IPAlink|ɾ}}

|rowspan=2|{{IPAlink|ɟ}}~{{IPAlink|j}}

|{{IPAlink|ɡ}}

colspan=2|Continuant

|

|{{IPAlink|w}}

class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"
rowspan=2|

!colspan=2|Front

colspan=2| Back
OralNasalOralNasal
Close

| {{IPAlink|i}} || {{IPA link|ĩ}} || ||

Mid

| {{IPAlink|e}} || {{IPA link|ẽ}} || {{IPAlink|o}} || {{IPA link|õ}}

Open

| {{IPAlink|æ}} || {{IPA link|æ̃}} || {{IPAlink|a}} || {{IPA link|ã}}

Vocabulary

Loukotka (1968) lists the following basic vocabulary items for Sabela and Tiwituey.{{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}}

:

class="wikitable sortable"

! gloss !! Sabela !! Tiwituey

one

| {{Lang|auc|iríng}} || {{Lang|auc|aruki}}

two

| || {{Lang|auc|méa}}

head

| {{Lang|auc|u-kabu}} || {{Lang|auc|u-kubo}}

eye

| {{Lang|auc|a-wínka}} || {{Lang|auc|a-winga}}

woman

| {{Lang|auc|ohíña}} || {{Lang|auc|unkia}}

fire

| {{Lang|auc|chúnga}} || {{Lang|auc|tua}}

sun

| {{Lang|auc|nánki}} || {{Lang|auc|neinghi}}

star

| || {{Lang|auc|nemu}}

maize

| {{Lang|auc|kad'ínghu}} ||

house

| {{Lang|auc|húnku}} ||

white

| {{Lang|auc|kúri}} || {{Lang|auc|mia}}

References

{{Reflist}}

Bibliography

  • Campbell, Lyle. (1997). American Indian Languages: The Historical Linguistics of Native America. New York: Oxford University Press. {{ISBN|0-19-509427-1}}.
  • Greenberg, Joseph H. (1987). Language in the Americas. Stanford: Stanford 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. {{ISBN|0-292-70414-3}}.
  • 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.
  • Peeke, M. Catherine. (2003). A Bibliography of the Waorani of Ecuador. SIL International. Retrieved 2021 April 4 from https://www.sil.org/resources/archives/7801
  • Pike, Evelyn G and Rachel Saint. 1988. Workpapers Concerning Waorani discourse features. Dallas, TX: SIL.
  • Rival, Laura. Trekking through History: The Huaorani of Amazonian Ecuador, Columbia University Press, 2002.

External links

  • [http://www.proel.org/index.php?pagina=mundo/aisladas/sabela Lengua Sabela]
  • [http://www.waorani.com/dictionary_WAO2.html Huaorani - The First To Spanish Dictionary]
  • [http://ids.clld.org/contributions/255 Waorani language dictionary online from IDS] (select simple or advanced browsing)
  • [https://ids.clld.org/contributions/255 Waorani] (Intercontinental Dictionary Series)

{{Languages of Ecuador}}

{{language families}}

{{South American languages}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:Language isolates of South America

Category:Languages of Ecuador

Category:Indigenous languages of the South American Northern Foothills

Category:Endangered Indigenous languages of the Americas

Category:Endangered language isolates

Category:Huaorani