Macro-Puinavean is a hypothetical proposal linking some very poorly attested languages to the Nadahup family. The

Puinave language Puinave, Waipunavi (Guaipunabi) or Wanse ( pui, Wãnsöhöt) is an indigenous language of Colombia and Venezuela. It is generally considered to be an unclassified language. Varieties Varieties listed by Mason (1950): *Puinave (Epined) **Western ...

is sometimes linked specifically with the Nadahup languages and

Nukak The Nukak people (also Nukak- Makú) live between the Guaviare and Inírida rivers, in the depths of the tropical humid forest, on the fringe of the Amazon basin, in Guaviare Department, Republic of Colombia. They are nomadic hunter-gatherers ...

- Kakwa group, as Puinave–Maku.

Paul Rivet Paul Rivet (7 May 1876, Wasigny, Ardennes – 21 March 1958) was a French ethnologist known for founding the Musée de l'Homme in 1937. In his professional work, Rivet is known for his theory that South America was originally populated in p ...

(1920) and other researchers proposed decades ago the hypothesis of a Puinave-Makú family. Later,

Joseph Greenberg Joseph Harold Greenberg (May 28, 1915 – May 7, 2001) was an American linguist, known mainly for his work concerning linguistic typology and the genetic classification of languages. Life Early life and education Joseph Greenberg was born on ...

(1987) grouped the Puinave-Makú languages, together with the Tucano family, the Katukinan, Waorani and Ticuna languages in the Macro-Tukano trunk. Punave-Maku and the

Máku language Máku , also spelled ''Mako'' (Spanish ''Macú''), and in the language itself Jukude, is an unclassified language and likely language isolate once spoken on the Brazil–Venezuela border in Roraima along the upper Uraricoera and lower Auari ...

(''Maku of Auari'') is sometimes connected to the

Arutani–Sape languages Arutani–Sape, also known as Awake–Kaliana or Kalianan, is a proposed language family that includes two of the most poorly documented languages in South America, both of which are now extinct. They are at best only distantly related. Kaufman ( ...

(yet again also known as ''Maku'') in a ''Kalianan'' branch, a connection which Kaufman (1990) finds "promising", but there is too little data on these languages to know for sure.

Hodï The Hodï or Jotï (from the Hodï word for "people") are a small group of indigenous people who live in the Amazon rainforest in Venezuela. The last census held in Venezuela, in 2011, registered 982 individuals identifying as Hodï; a 2016 estima ...

has been proposed specifically as a sister of Puinave–Maku too. Kaufman (1994: 60, 2007: 67–68) also adds Katukinan to the family.

Language contact

For the Puinave-Nadahup languages, Jolkesky (2016) notes that there are lexical similarities with the

Tupian The Tupi or Tupian language family comprises some 70 languages spoken in South America, of which the best known are Tupi proper and Guarani. Homeland and ''urheimat'' Rodrigues (2007) considers the Proto-Tupian urheimat to be somewhere between ...

, Harakmbet, Katukina-Katawixi,

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 Greater ...

, and Karaja language families due to contact, pointing to an origin of Proto-Puinave-Nadahup in the

Madeira River The Madeira River ( pt, Rio Madeira, link=no ) is a major waterway in South America. It is estimated to be in length, while the Madeira-Mamoré is estimated near or in length depending on the measuring party and their methods. The Madeira is ...

basin.

Criticism

Epps (2008)Patience Epps, 2008. ''A Grammar of Hup''. Mouton de Gruyter. criticizes the Puinave–Nadahup proposal for relying on inaccurate data, having no clear concept of basic vocabulary, and using an unsystematic mix of Nadahup languages in the comparison. The languages were originally linked simply because they are all called ''Maku'' "babble" by

Arawakans 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 Greater ...

; that is, because they are spoken by

hunter-gatherer A traditional hunter-gatherer or forager is a human living an ancestrally derived lifestyle in which most or all food is obtained by foraging, that is, by gathering food from local sources, especially edible wild plants but also insects, fungi, ...

s. Since then, some linguists have attempted to verify the connection by finding cognates. However, no convincing cognates have yet been found. For example, Rivet and Tastevin claim that the Hup pronoun ''am'' "I" corresponds to Puinave ''am'' "I", but the Hup pronoun ''’am'' means "you"; the Hup pronoun for "I" is ''’ãh''. Other "strikingly similar" pairs, such as Puinave ''ueyu'' "day" and Hup ''uerhó'' (') "sun", are not particularly convincing, and no regular sound correspondences have been detected. On other hand, Martins (1999 and 2005) argues that it is possible to relate "eastern Makú" languages with the Nukak-Kakwa group, but he does not find evidence of the relationship with Puinave. Girón (2008) postulates a genetic relationship of the piave with proto-maku, but also the existence of another phone substrate that is not yet known.Girón Higuita, Jesús Mario (2008) ''Una Gramática del Wãênsöjöt (Puinave)'' (Doctoral dissertation, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam). Utrecht: LOT. p. 439. .

References

Indigenous languages of South America Proposed language families {{na-lang-stub ru:Пуйнавские языки

Language contact

Criticism

See also

References