Ese Ejja (Ese'eha, Eseʼexa, Ese exa), also known as Tiatinagua (Tatinawa), is a

Tacanan language Tacanan is a family of languages spoken in Bolivia, with Ese’ejja also spoken in Peru. It may be related to the Panoan languages. Many of the languages are endangered. Family division * Ese Ejja (a.k.a. Ese’eha, Tiatinagua, Chama, Huara ...

of Bolivia and Peru. It is spoken by

Ese Ejja people The Ese Ejja are an indigenous peoples of the Americas, indigenous people of Bolivia and Peru, in the southwestern Amazon basin. 1,687 Ese Ejja live in Bolivia, in the Pando Department, Pando and Beni Departments, in the foothills along the Beni R ...

of all ages. Dialects are Guacanawa (Guarayo/Huarayo), Baguaja, Echoja, and possibly extinct Chama, Chuncho, Huanayo, Kinaki, and Mohino. Chunene is "similar" to Ese Ejja, though whether a dialect or a separate language is not clear. Ese Ejja has ejective consonants such as as well as voiceless implosives such as .

Historical, social and cultural characteristics

Ese Ejja is spoken in the La Paz,

Beni is a Japanese R&B singer, who debuted in 2004 under the Avex Trax label. In 2008, Arashiro left Avex Trax and transferred to Universal Music Japan where she started to perform as simply Beni (stylized as BENI). She was initially best known fo ...

, and Pando departments of Bolivia (in the provinces of Iturralde, Ballivián, Vaca Diez, and Madre de Dios) on the

and Madre de Dios rivers; and in the Madre de Dios and

Puno Puno (Aymara and qu, Punu) is a city in southeastern Peru, located on the shore of Lake Titicaca. It is the capital city of the Puno Region and the Puno Province with a population of approximately 140,839 (2015 estimate). The city was establish ...

departments of Peru. According to Alexiades & Peluso (2009), there are approximately 1,500 Ese Ejja, distributed among different communities in Peru and Bolivia. The Bolivian Ese Ejja are divided into two clans: the Quijati, around the Riberalta region; and the Hepahuatahe in the Rurenabaque region. Crevels & Muysken (2009:15) write that in Bolivia there were 518 Ese Ejja speakers (of four years of age and older), and therefore is an endangered language. Some names used to refer to the language are Ese'eha, Chama, and Warayo; Chama is a pejorative regional name, and Guarayo is also the name of a Tupí-Guaraní language. In Peru the Ese Ejja language (Guacanahua, Echoja, Chuncho) is spoken along the Madre de Dios and Tambopata rivers and at their sources in three locations: Sonene, Palma Real, and Infierno. Ese Ejja is also seriously threatened in Peru, with 840 speakers in an ethnic group of the same size.

Grammatical features

Notes

Bibliography

* **

External links

* ELAR archive o
Documentation of the Ese Ejja language of the Amazonian region of BoliviaEse Ejja
( Intercontinental Dictionary Series)
Ese Ejja (Huarayo)
( Intercontinental Dictionary Series) {{DEFAULTSORT:Ese Ejja Language Tacanan languages Languages of Bolivia Languages of Peru