The Chicham languages, also known as Jivaroan (''Hívaro'', ''Jívaro'', ''Jibaro'') is a small

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 ...

of northern

Peru , image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg , image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg , other_symbol = Great Seal of the State , other_symbol_type = Seal (emblem), National seal , national_motto = "Fi ...

and eastern

Ecuador Ecuador ( ; ; Quechua: ''Ikwayur''; Shuar: ''Ecuador'' or ''Ekuatur''), officially the Republic of Ecuador ( es, República del Ecuador, which literally translates as "Republic of the Equator"; Quechua: ''Ikwadur Ripuwlika''; Shuar: ''Eku ...

Family division

Chicham consists of 4 languages: : 1.

Shuar The Shuar are an Indigenous people of Ecuador and Peru. They are members of the Jivaroan peoples, who are Amazonian tribes living at the headwaters of the Marañón River. Name Shuar, in the Shuar language, means "people". The people who speak ...

: 2.

Achuar-Shiwiar Shiwiar, also known as ''Achuar'', ''Jivaro'' and ''Maina'', is a Chicham language spoken along the Pastaza and Bobonaza rivers in Ecuador. Shiwiar is one of the thirteen indigenous languages of Ecuador. All of these indigenous languages are en ...

: 3. Awajun : 4. Huambisa This language family is spoken in Amazonas, Cajamarca, Loreto, and San Martin, Peru and the Oriente region of Ecuador.

Mason (1950)

Internal classification of the Chicham languages by Mason (1950):

Jolkesky (2016)

Internal classification by Jolkesky (2016):Jolkesky, Marcelo Pinho De Valhery. 2016.
Estudo arqueo-ecolinguístico das terras tropicais sul-americanas
'. Ph.D. dissertation,

University of Brasília The University of Brasília ( pt, Universidade de Brasília, UnB) is a federal public university in Brasília, the capital of Brazil. It was founded in 1960 and has since consistently been named among the top five Brazilian universities and the ...

. († = extinct) ;Jivaro *'' Aguaruna'' *'' Palta'' † *Jivaro, Nuclear **''

'' **'' Wambisa'' **''

Genetic relations

The extinct

Palta language The extinct Palta language of the Ecuadorian Amazon is attested by only a few words: ''yumé'' 'water', ''xeme'' 'maize', ''capal'' 'fire', ''let'' 'wood' (Jiménez de la Espada, 1586), and some toponyms. Based on this, Jacinto Jijón y Caamaño ...

was classified as Chicham by

Jacinto Jijón y Caamaño Jacinto Jijón y Caamaño (11 December 1890 – 17 August 1950) was an Ecuadorian historian, archeologist, and politician. He was the mayor of the city of Quito (the capital of Ecuador) from 1946 to 1948. He was a member of the Ecuadorian parlia ...

about 1940 and was followed by

Čestmír Loukotka Čestmír Loukotka (12 November 1895 – 13 April 1966) was a Czechoslovak linguist. His daughter was Jarmila Loukotková. Career Loukotka proposed a Classification of indigenous languages of the Americas#Loukotka (1968), classification for ...

. However, only a few words are known, and Kaufman (1994) states that there is "little resemblance". The most promising external connections are with the Cahuapanan languages and perhaps a few other language isolates in proposals variously called ''Jívaro-Cahuapana (Hívaro-Kawapánan)'' ( Jorge Suárez and others) or ''

Macro-Jibaro The Macro-Jibaro proposal, also known as ''(Macro-)Andean'', is a language proposal of Morris Swadesh and other historical linguists. The two families, Jivaroan and Cahuapanan are most frequently linked, the isolates less often. Documentation ...

'' or ''Macro-Andean'' (

Morris Swadesh Morris Swadesh (; January 22, 1909 – July 20, 1967) was an American linguist who specialized in comparative and historical linguistics. Swadesh was born in Massachusetts to Bessarabian Jewish immigrant parents. He completed bachelor's and mas ...

and others, with Cahuapanan,

Urarina The Urarina are an indigenous people of the Peruvian Amazon Basin ( Loreto) who inhabit the valleys of the Chambira, Urituyacu, and Corrientes Rivers. According to both archaeological and historical sources, they have resided in the Chambira Basi ...

, Puelche, and maybe

Huarpe The Huarpes or Warpes are an indigenous people of Argentina, living in the Cuyo region. Some scholars assume that in the Huarpe language, this word means "sandy ground," but according to ''Arte y Vocabulario de la lengua general del Reino de Chi ...

). The

unclassified Classified information is material that a government body deems to be sensitive information that must be protected. Access is restricted by law or regulation to particular groups of people with the necessary security clearance and need to know, ...

language

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 ...

has also been linked to Chicham, as David Payne (1981) provides reconstructions for Proto-Shuar as well as Proto-Shuar-Candoshi. However, more recently, linguists have searched elsewhere for Candoshi's relatives.

Language contact

Jolkesky (2016) notes that there are lexical similarities with the Kechua, Kwaza, Taruma,

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 ...

, Katukina-Katawixi, Kandoshi, Tupi, and Arawa language families due to contact. This suggests that Chicham had originated further downstream in the Central Amazon region.

Vocabulary

Loukotka (1968) lists the following basic vocabulary items for the Chicham languages.

Proto-language

Payne's (1981) Proto-Shuar reconstruction is based on data from Shuar, Achuar, Aguaruna, and Huambisa, while his Proto-Shuar-Candoshi reconstruction also integrates data from Candoshi and Shapra. For reconstructions of Proto-Shuar and Proto-Shuar-Candoshi by Payne (1981), see the corresponding Spanish article.

References

Bibliography

* Campbell, Lyle (1997). ''American Indian languages: The historical linguistics of Native America''. New York: Oxford University Press. . * Dean, Bartholomew (1990). ''The State and the Aguaruna: Frontier Expansion in the Upper Amazon, 1541-1990''. M.A. thesis in the Anthropology of Social Change and Development, Harvard University. * Greenberg, Joseph H. (1987). ''Language in the Americas''. Stanford: Stanford University Press. * Greene, Landon Shane (2004). ''Paths to a Visionary Politics''. PhD dissertation. University of Chicago. * 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. * Payne, David L. (1981). "Bosquejo fonológico del Proto-Shuar-Candoshi: evidencias para una relación genética." ''Revista del Museo Nacional'' 45. 323-377. * Solís Fonseca, Gustavo (2003). ''Lenguas en la amazonía peruana''. Lima: edición por demanda.

External links

* Proel
Familia Jibaroana
*

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

{{Authority control Chicham languages, Language families Indigenous languages of the South American Northern Foothills