Maipure (Maypure, Mejepure) is an extinct language once spoken along the
Ventuari,
Sipapo, and
Autana rivers of
Amazonas and, as a
lingua franca
A lingua franca (; ; for plurals see ), also known as a bridge language, common language, trade language, auxiliary language, link language or language of wider communication (LWC), is a Natural language, language systematically used to make co ...
, in the Upper
Orinoco region. It became extinct around the end of the eighteenth century. Zamponi provided a grammatical sketch of the language and furnished a classified word list, based on all of its extant eighteenth century material (mainly from the Italian missionary
Filippo S. Gilij). It is historically important in that it formed the cornerstone of the recognition of the
Maipurean (Arawakan) language family.
Kaufman (1994) gives its closest relatives as
Yavitero and other languages of the Orinoco branch of
Upper Amazon Arawakan. Aikhenvald places it instead in the Western Nawiki branch.
Notes and references
Arawakan languages
Indigenous languages of the South American Northeast
{{Arawakan-lang-stub