Cocama (Kokáma) is a

language Language is a structured system of communication. The structure of a language is its grammar and the free components are its vocabulary. Languages are the primary means by which humans communicate, and may be conveyed through a variety of ...

spoken by thousands of people in western

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the sout ...

. It is spoken along the banks of the Northeastern lower

Ucayali The Ucayali River ( es, Río Ucayali, ) is the main headstream of the Amazon River. It rises about north of Lake Titicaca, in the Arequipa region of Peru and becomes the Amazon at the confluence of the Marañón close to Nauta city. The city ...

, lower Marañón, and Huallaga rivers and in neighboring areas of

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

and an isolated area in Colombia. There are three dialects. The robust dialect is known as Cocama, Kokama, Kukama-Kukamiria, Ucayali, Xibitaoan, Huallaga, Pampadeque, and Pandequebo. By 1999, Cocamilla (Kokamíya) was moribund, being only spoken by people over 40. Out of a projected ethnic population of 15,000, the majority of Cocama speakers, 2,000, live in Perú. Remaining speakers live in Amazonas state in Brazil, where 50 out of 411 ethnic Chayahuitas speak it and it is known as Kokama or Kokamilla. Most speakers are trilingual and can also speak Portuguese and Spanish. Very few are monolingual. There are 20 ethnic groups in Colombia's Lower Putumayo area with an unknown number of Cocama-Cocamilla speakers. Most expected speakers would also be trilingual, but the language may be extinct in the region. Cocama speakers have a 3% literacy rate, compared with 50% for Spanish. Grammar rules have been developed and the language is written using the

Latin script The Latin script, also known as Roman script, is an alphabetic writing system based on the letters of the classical Latin alphabet, derived from a form of the Greek alphabet which was in use in the ancient Greek city of Cumae, in southern I ...

. Parts of the Bible have been translated into the language. Cocama is closely related to

Omagua Omagua or low jungle (''selva baja'' or partially '' tierra caliente'') is one of the eightPulgar Vidal, Javier: Geografía del Perú; Las Ocho Regiones Naturales del Perú. Edit. Universo S.A., Lima 1979. First Edition (his dissertation of 1940): ...

, a nearly extinct language spoken in Peru and Brazil.

Phonology

Consonants

Plosive sounds may also be realized as voiced.

Vowels

Phonetic realisations

Revitalization efforts

In 2013, residents of

Nauta Nauta is a town in the northeastern part of Loreto Province in the Peruvian Amazon, roughly south of Iquitos, the provincial capital. Nauta is located on the north bank of the Marañón River, a major tributary of the Upper Amazon, a few miles ...

Loreto Province The Loreto Province is one of the eight provinces in the Loreto Region of Peru. The capital of the province is the historic town of Nauta. This biologically and culturally diverse region includes the Pacaya–Samiria National Reservation, and is ...

, Peru created a children's rap video in the Kukama-Kukamiria dialect, in collaboration with Radio Ucamara. The local radio station has been involved in conserving the language for "a few years," and "started managing a school called Ikuar, with the goal of teaching the language through songs and traditional story telling."

References

Notes

Sources

External links

* *
OLAC resources in and about the Cocama-Cocamilla languageOLAC resources in and about the Omagua language
*ELAR archive o
The Kukama-Kukamiria Documentation Project
{{Tupian languages Languages of Peru Tupi–Guarani languages Languages of Colombia