Chimané (Tsimaneʼ) is a South American language isolate. Some dialects are known as Mosetén (Mosetén of Santa Ana, Mosetén of Covendo). Chimane is a language of the western Bolivian lowlands spoken by the
Tsimane peoples along the
Beni River
The Beni River () is a river in the north of Bolivia.
It rises north of La Paz
La Paz, officially Nuestra Señora de La Paz (Aymara language, Aymara: Chuqi Yapu ), is the seat of government of the Bolivia, Plurinational State of Bolivia. Wit ...
and the region around
San Borja in the
Department of Beni
Department may refer to:
* Departmentalization, division of a larger organization into parts with specific responsibility
Government and military
*Department (administrative division), a geographical and administrative division within a country, ...
(Bolivia). Sakel (2004)
classifies them as two languages for a number of reasons, yet some of the variants of the language are mutually intelligible and they reportedly have no trouble communicating (''Ethnologue'' 16) and were evidently a single language separated recently through cultural contact (Campbell 2000).
Status
The dialects of Tsimaneʼ are in different sociolinguistic situations. Covendo Mosetén has around 600 speakers, while Santa Ana Mosetén only has around 150-200 speakers. Both of these dialects are fading quickly, and almost all speakers of these dialects are bilingual in Spanish. Only older speakers maintain use of the language without Spanish influence. Tsimaneʼ proper, on the other hand, has at least 4,000 speakers, and the number of speakers is growing. In addition, the majority of speakers of Tsimaneʼ proper are monolingual. The Mosetén were in contact with missions for almost 200 years, while the Tsimaneʼ have remained isolated for much longer, thus leading the Tsimaneʼ to preserve their customs and traditions, including language, much more than the Mosetén.
Classification
Mosetenan has no obvious relatives among the languages of South America. There is some lexicon shared with
Puquina and the
Uru–Chipaya languages
The Uru–Chipaya family is an indigenous language family of Bolivia.
The speakers were originally fishermen on the shores of Lake Titicaca, Lake Poopó, and the Desaguadero River.
Chipaya has over a thousand speakers and sees vigorous use in ...
, but these appear to be borrowings.
Morris Swadesh
Morris Swadesh ( ; January 22, 1909 – July 20, 1967) was an American linguist who specialized in comparative and historical linguistics, and developed his mature career at UNAM in Mexico. Swadesh was born in Massachusetts to Bessarabian Jewi ...
suggested a
Moseten–Chon relationship, which Suárez provided evidence for in the 1970s, and with which
Kaufman (1990) is sympathetic.
Dialects
Dialects listed by
Mason (1950):
*Chimane dialects
**Moseten
***Amo
***Aparono
***Cunana
***Chumpa
***Magdaleno
***Punnucana
***Rache
***Muchanes
***Tucupi
**Chimane
***Chimaniza
***Chumano
***Nawazi-Monlji
Tsimane’ /tsi'maneʔ/ and Mosetén /mose'ten/ are self-designations that refer to both the language and ethnic group. Chimanes also refer to their language as ''tsunsi’ĉan'' /tsɨnt'siʔkhan/ ‘in our (language)’, while Mosetenes also refer to their language as ''tsinsi’ mik'' /tsint'si mik/ ‘our language’. As a dialect continuum, dialects of Chimane-Mosetén include Covendo Mosetén (500–800 speakers), spoken in the village of Covendo; Santa Ana Mosetén (150–200 speakers); and Chimane (12,500–15,000 speakers). Covendo is a more remote village that is predominantly ethnic Mosetén, while Santa Ana Mosetén (located between Covendo Mosetén and Chimane) is spoken in Santa Ana, which has many Spanish speakers who have moved from other parts of Bolivia. Chimane is still vigorously spoken, while Mosetén is highly endangered.
Language contact
Jolkesky (2016) notes that there are lexical similarities with the
Uru-Chipaya,
Yurakare, and
Pano language families due to contact.
Phonology
Tsimaneʼ has 5 vowels:
Tsimaneʼ has 24 consonants:
Writing system
Chimane has been written since 1980 in a Spanish-based alphabet devised by Wayne Gill. It uses the additional letters ṕ, ć, q́u, tś, ćh, mʼ, nʼ, ä. It is widely used in publications and is taught in Chimane schools.
[Sakel, Jeanette, ''Gender Agreement in Mosetén'', with Crevels, Mily and Simon van de Kerke in Sérgio Meira, Hein van der Voort (Editors): Current Studies on South American Languages, Indigenous Languages of Latin America 3, Leyde, CNWS, 2002 ]
In 1996,
Colette Grinevald
Colette Grinevald (born 1947) is a French linguist. She is professor emeritus at the University of Lyon.
Career
Grinevald earned her PhD from Harvard University in 1975 and joined the newly created Linguistics department at the University of Or ...
created an alphabet for Moseten and Chimane which used only those letters found on a Spanish keyboard. It included the
multigraphs ph khdh ch chh tsh dh, and was adopted by the Moseten.
Bolivian Law 3603 of 2007 Jan 17 recognizes the rights of the Chimane and Moseten to their language in all aspects of life in Bolivia, including education, and Chimane translation of policy which concerns them, and that written Chimane must use the unique Chimane(-Moseten) alphabet. However, it does not clarify which alphabet this is.
Ley 3603 de Enero 17 de 2007, declara patrimonio cultural, intangible de la nacion la lengua tsimane (chimane-mostene)
Vocabulary
Loukotka (1968) lists the following basic vocabulary items for Mosetene and Chimane.
References
;Notes
;Sources
*
* Sakel, Jeanette (2009). Mosetén y Chimane (Tsimaneʼ). In: Mily Crevels and Pieter Muysken (eds.) ''Lenguas de Bolivia'', vol. I, 333–375. La Paz: Plural editores.
*
External links
ELAR archive of Chimane Documentation Project
Mosetén
(Intercontinental Dictionary Series
The Intercontinental Dictionary Series (commonly abbreviated as IDS) is a large database of topical vocabulary lists in various world languages. The general editor of the database is Bernard Comrie of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary An ...
)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chimane language
Language isolates of South America
Languages of Bolivia
Mamoré–Guaporé linguistic area