Arawá ( Aruá) was a

language Language is a structured system of communication that consists of grammar and vocabulary. It is the primary means by which humans convey meaning, both in spoken and signed language, signed forms, and may also be conveyed through writing syste ...

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

. Its last speaker died in 1877, before any significant documentation of the language could be completed. The only surviving documentation of the language is an 1869 word list. The language did, however, give its name to the

language family A language family is a group of languages related through descent from a common ancestor, called the proto-language of that family. The term ''family'' is a metaphor borrowed from biology, with the tree model used in historical linguistics ...

that it was a part of, which is now called the

Arawan languages Arawan (also Arahuan, Arauan, Arawán, Arawa, Arauán) is a family of languages spoken in western Brazil ( Amazonas, Acre) and Peru ( Ucayali). Language contact Jolkesky (2016) notes that there are lexical similarities with the Chapakura-Wañam ...

. This family covers the extant languages Kulina, Deni,

Jamamadi The Jamamadí, also called the Yamamadi, Kanamanti, Jeoromitxi, Kapaná, and Kapinamari, are an indigenous people who live in Acre and Amazonas, Brazil. They speak the Jamamadi language, part of the Arawá language family. Their territory is b ...

, Paumari, and Suruwahá, all found in Western Brazil and Peru.

References

Languages of Brazil Extinct languages of South America Languages extinct in the 1870s {{indigenousAmerican-lang-stub