Canichana, or Canesi, Joaquiniano, is a possible

language isolate Language isolates are languages that cannot be classified into larger language families. Korean and Basque are two of the most common examples. Other language isolates include Ainu in Asia, Sandawe in Africa, and Haida in North America. The num ...

Bolivia , image_flag = Bandera de Bolivia (Estado).svg , flag_alt = Horizontal tricolor (red, yellow, and green from top to bottom) with the coat of arms of Bolivia in the center , flag_alt2 = 7 × 7 square p ...

(

department of Beni Beni (), sometimes El Beni, is a northeastern department of Bolivia, in the lowlands region of the country. It is the second-largest department in the country (after Santa Cruz), covering 213,564 square kilometers (82,458 sq mi), and it was cre ...

). In 1991 there were 500

Canichana people The Canichana people are an ethnic group in the Beni Department of Bolivia. There were 899 of them in 2012. 1,253 people speak the Canichana language Canichana, or Canesi, Joaquiniano, is a possible language isolate of Bolivia ( department ...

, but only 20 spoke the Canichana language; by 2000 the ethnic population was 583, but the language had no L1 speakers left. It was spoken on the

Mamoré River The Mamoré is a large river in Brazil and Bolivia which unites with the Beni to form the Madeira, one of the largest tributaries of the Amazon. It rises on the northern slope of the Sierra de Cochabamba, east of the city of Cochabamba, and is k ...

and

Machupo River The Machupo River is a river in Beni Department, Bolivia, a tributary of the Amazon. It rises in the foothills of the Andes and flows east and northeast into the Guaporé River Guaporé River ( pt, Rio Guaporé, es, Río Iténez) is a river in w ...

Language contact

Jolkesky (2016) notes that there are lexical similarities with the

Mochica language Mochica (also Yunga, Yunca, Chimú, Muchic, Mochika, Muchik, Chimu) is an extinct language formerly spoken along the northwest coast of Peru and in an inland village. First documented in 1607, the language was widely spoken in the area during th ...

due to contact.

Vocabulary

Loukotka (1968) lists the following basic vocabulary items for Canichana. :

References

*Alain Fabre, 2005, ''Diccionario etnolingüístico y guía bibliográfica de los pueblos indígenas sudamericanos: KANICHANA'

*de Créqui-Montfort, G.; Rivet, P. (1913). Linguistique Bolivienne: La Langue Kaničana. Mémoires de la Société de Linguistique de Paris, 18:354-377.

Language contact

Vocabulary

See also

References

External links