Guajiboan (also Guahiban, Wahívoan, Guahiboan) is a

language family A language family is a group of languages related through descent from a common ''ancestral language'' or ''parental language'', called the proto-language of that family. The term "family" reflects the tree model of language origination in hist ...

spoken in the Orinoco River region in eastern

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 southwestern

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 ...

, a

savanna A savanna or savannah is a mixed woodland-grassland (i.e. grassy woodland) ecosystem characterised by the trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to reach the ground to ...

region known as the Llanos.

Family division

Guajiboan consists of 5 languages: * Macaguane (also known as Hitnü, Macaguán, Makawane, Agualinda, Agualinda Guahibo, Támude) * Southwest Guajiboan ** Guayabero (also known as Cunimía, Mítiwa, Mitúa, Mitu, Hiw, Jiw, Wayavero, Guaviare) ** Churuya (also known as Bisanigua, Guaigua) ''(†)'' * Central Guajiboan ** Guajibo (also known as Guahibo, Sikuani, Sicuani, Chiricoa, Hiwi, Jiwi, Jivi, Wahivo, Wahibo, Guaybo, Goahibo, Guaigua, Guayba, Goahiva) *** Waü (west) *** Newütjü (also known as Tigrero) *** Parawá (east) *** Hamorúa (also known as Amorúa, Jamorúa) *** Dome (also known as Playero, Cajaro) ** Cuiva (also known as Wamonae, Cuiba, Kuiba, Deja, Cuiba-Wámonae) *** Pimenepiwi (Meta river) *** Aitopiwi (Ariporo river) *** Yaraüraxi (Capanaparo river) *** Waüpiwi (also known as Wipiwi, Yomati) *** Siripuxi (also known as Tsiripu, Siripu) *** Mayaraxi (also known as Mariposo, Mayalero) Churuya is now

extinct Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...

. It was formerly spoken in Meta, Colombia. Macaguane is listed as a

dialect The term dialect (from Latin , , from the Ancient Greek word , 'discourse', from , 'through' and , 'I speak') can refer to either of two distinctly different types of Linguistics, linguistic phenomena: One usage refers to a variety (linguisti ...

of Guajibo in Kaufman (1994) and Campbell (1997). Gordon (2005) lists Playero (also Rio Arauca Guahibo), a dialect of Guajibo, as a separate language with a "low intelligibility of other Guahibo". Guajibo and Cuiva form a

dialect continuum A dialect continuum or dialect chain is a series of Variety (linguistics), language varieties spoken across some geographical area such that neighboring varieties are Mutual intelligibility, mutually intelligible, but the differences accumulat ...

. Guajibo has the most speakers (over 23,000) and is the largest indigenous group in eastern Colombia. Approximately 9,000 in Venezuela. Guayabero is the most divergent language of the family.

Genetic relations

Guajiboan has often been grouped together with

Arawakan Arawakan (''Arahuacan, Maipuran Arawakan, "mainstream" Arawakan, Arawakan proper''), also known as Maipurean (also ''Maipuran, Maipureano, Maipúre''), is a language family that developed among ancient indigenous peoples in South America. Branch ...

, Arauan, and

Candoshi Candoshi-Shapra (also known as Candoshi, Candoxi, Kandoshi, and Murato) is an indigenous American language isolate, spoken by several thousand people in western South America along the Chapuli, Huitoyacu, Pastaza, and Morona river valleys. Ther ...

by many classifiers. However, this now seems unlikely as the similarity between Guajiboan and Arawakan has been attributed to

language contact Language contact occurs when speakers of two or more languages or varieties interact and influence each other. The study of language contact is called contact linguistics. When speakers of different languages interact closely, it is typical for th ...

Language contact

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

Yanomami The Yanomami, also spelled Yąnomamö or Yanomama, are a group of approximately 35,000 indigenous people who live in some 200–250 villages in the Amazon rainforest on the border between Venezuela and Brazil. Etymology The ethnonym ''Yanomami ...

Arawak The Arawak are a group of indigenous peoples of northern South America and of the Caribbean. Specifically, the term "Arawak" has been applied at various times to the Lokono of South America and the Taíno, who historically lived in the Great ...

, Nadahup, Puinave-Kak, Bora-Muinane, and Choko language families due to contact. Meléndez-Lozano (2014) has also noted that Guahiban has borrowed from

Arawakan languages Arawakan (''Arahuacan, Maipuran Arawakan, "mainstream" Arawakan, Arawakan proper''), also known as Maipurean (also ''Maipuran, Maipureano, Maipúre''), is a language family that developed among ancient indigenous peoples in South America. Branc ...

, especially the Achagua and

Piapoco Piapoco is an Arawakan language of Colombia and Venezuela. A "Ponares" language is inferred from surnames, and may have been Piapoco or Achagua. History Piapoco is a branch of the Arawak language, which also includes Achagua and Tariana. P ...

languages. An automated computational analysis (

ASJP The Automated Similarity Judgment Program (ASJP) is a collaborative project applying computational approaches to comparative linguistics using a database of word lists. The database is open access and consists of 40-item basic-vocabulary lists ...

4) by Müller et al. (2013)Müller, André, Viveka Velupillai, Søren Wichmann, Cecil H. Brown, Eric W. Holman, Sebastian Sauppe, Pamela Brown, Harald Hammarström, Oleg Belyaev, Johann-Mattis List, Dik Bakker, Dmitri Egorov, Matthias Urban, Robert Mailhammer, Matthew S. Dryer, Evgenia Korovina, David Beck, Helen Geyer, Pattie Epps, Anthony Grant, and Pilar Valenzuela. 2013.
ASJP World Language Trees of Lexical Similarity: Version 4 (October 2013)
'. found that there are apparent lexical similarities with

and Ticuna-Yuri. However, since the analysis was automatically generated, the similarities could be either due to mutual lexical borrowing, genetic inheritance, or chance resemblances.

Proto-language

Below are Proto-Guahiban reconstructions by Christian and Matteson (1972):Christian, Diana R., and Esther Matteson. 1972. Proto-Guahiban. In Esther Matteson (ed.),
Comparative Studies in Amerindian Languages
', 150-159. The Hague: Mouton.

References

Bibliography

* Adelaar, Willem F. H.; & Muysken, Pieter C. (2004). ''The languages of the Andes''. Cambridge language surveys. Cambridge University Press. *Berg, Marie L. and Isabel J. Kerr. (1973) ''The Cuiva language: Grammar''. Language Data, Amerindian Series, 1. Santa Ana, CA: Summer Institute of Linguistics. * Campbell, Lyle. (1997). ''American Indian languages: The historical linguistics of Native America''. New York: Oxford University Press. . * Greenberg, Joseph H. (1987). ''Language in the Americas''. Stanford: Stanford University Press. * Kaufman, Terrence. (1990). Language history in South America: What we know and how to know more. In D. L. Payne (Ed.), ''Amazonian linguistics: Studies in lowland South American languages'' (pp. 13–67). Austin: University of Texas Press. . * Kaufman, Terrence. (1994). The native languages of South America. In C. Mosley & R. E. Asher (Eds.), ''Atlas of the world's languages'' (pp. 46–76). London: Routledge. * Keels, Jack. (1985). "Guayabero: Phonology and morphophonemics." In Ruth M. Brend (ed.), ''From phonology to discourse: Studies in six Colombian languages'': 57-87. Language Data, Amerindian Series, 9. Dallas: Summer Institute of Linguistics. * Queixalós, Francisco. (1988). "Presentación"; ''Diccionario sikuani–español'': i-xiii. Bogotá: CCELA Universidad de los Andes. ISN 0121-0963. * Rivet, Paul (1948) "La famille linguistique Guahibo"; ''Journal de la Société des Américanistes'' XXXVII: 191-240. Paris.

External links

* Proel
Sub-Familia Guajiboana
{{South American languages Language families Indigenous languages of the South American Northeast Macro-Arawakan languages