Cuiba or Cuiva is a
Guahiban language that is spoken by about 2,300 people in
Colombia
Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...
and additional 650 in
Venezuela
Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...
. More than half of Cuiba speakers are monolingual, and in Colombia there is a 45% literacy rate. Cuiva is also referred to as Cuiba, Cuiba-Wámonae, Kuiva, Chiricoa, Hiwi, and Maiben. In Colombia, Cuiva is spoken among those who live and who are born surrounding the Colombian rivers,
Meta Casanare and
Capanaparo. The
Cuiba ethnic group
Cuiba or Cuiva is a Guahiban language that is spoken by about 2,300 people in Colombia and additional 650 in Venezuela. More than half of Cuiba speakers are monolingual, and in Colombia there is a 45% literacy rate. Cuiva is also referred to ...
is often found in the
Casanare Department
Casanare Department (, es, Departamento de Casanare) is a department in the central eastern region of Colombia.
Its capital is Yopal, which is also the episcopal seat of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Yopal.
It contains oil fields and an 800 ...
. In Venezuela the language is spoken in the state of
Apure, one of the state border with Colombia, which is found alongside the Capanaparo river.
History of Cuiba
The term Cuiba is usually used to describe the ethnic group itself, although they do not refer to themselves as Cuiba. Most of those who speak the Cuiba language are monolingual, which is why the language is threatened seeing as the ethnic population itself is only approximately 2,950 and continues to decrease. The Cuiba ethnic group are characterized as being
hunter-gatherer
A traditional hunter-gatherer or forager is a human living an ancestrally derived lifestyle in which most or all food is obtained by foraging, that is, by gathering food from local sources, especially edible wild plants but also insects, fungi, ...
s, who live a nomadic lifestyle in small bands along the borders of Colombia and Venezuela. Before 1967, the Cuiba were spread across the
Meta River
The Meta River is a major left tributary of the Orinoco River in eastern Colombia and southern Venezuela, South America. The Meta originates in the Eastern Ranges of the Andes and flows through the Meta Department, Colombia as the confluence of ...
tributaries: Casanare,
Agua Clara,
Ariporo,
Unchadia,
Arauca, and Capanaparo. For the most part although the groups of Cuiba today are much smaller, they continue to occupy what is left of the areas around the rivers.
The banks of the Casanare, Agua Clara, Ariporo, Unchadia, Arauca, and Capanaparo are for the most part known as Cuiba territory and there has been no evidence stating that the Cuiba have occupied other territory but their own. The Cuiba have gone through many wars and invasions, which have slightly influenced Cuiba political and cultural practices at some point. Although the Europeans have left, some
Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries
**Spanish cuisine
Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Cana ...
words survived. There is no evidence showing where the Spanish words were originated. There have been many attempts after
1533 invasion
__NOTOC__
Year 1533 ( MDXXXIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.
Events
January–June
* January 25 – King Henry VIII of England formally but secretly marries ...
attempting to remove the Cuiba from their territory, but although the Cuiba have a small population their culture has largely remained unchanged.
Dialect/varieties
There are 8 dialects in Colombia and Venezuela known as:
*Chiricoa
*Masiware (Masiguare)
*Chiripo (Siripu, Wapiwi)
*Yara huuraxi-Capanapara
*Mayayero
*Monchuelo-Casanare-Cuiba
*Tampiwi (Mariposas)
*Amarawa (Amorua)
Examples
*. People j.: There are people.
* : A story j the buzzard: This is a story about the buzzard.
Bibliography
* Berg, M. L. (1978). Aspecto de la Cultura Material de Grupos Etnicos de Colombia. Retrieved May 1, 2016, fro
* Berg, M. L., & Kerr, I. J. (1973). The Cuiva Language: Grammar. Retrieved May 2, 2016, fro
The Cuiva Language* Menz, A. (n.d.). Cuiba. Retrieved May 1, 2016, fro
* Promotora Española de Lingüística. (n.d.). Retrieved May 1, 2016, fro
Promotora Española de Lingüística
References
{{Languages of Venezuela
Languages of Colombia
Languages of Venezuela
Guajiboan languages
Endangered indigenous languages of the Americas