The Carabayo (Caraballo) language is spoken by the

Carabayo people The Carabayo (who perhaps call themselves Yacumo) are an uncontacted people of Colombia living in at least three long houses, known as ''malokas'', along the Rio Puré (now the Río Puré National Park) in the southeastern corner of the country. ...

, also known as ''Yuri'' and ''Aroje'', an uncontacted Amazonian people of

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 ...

living in at least three long houses, one of several suspected uncontacted peoples living along the

Rio Puré Rio or Río is the Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, and Maltese word for "river". When spoken on its own, the word often means Rio de Janeiro, a major city in Brazil. Rio or Río may also refer to: Geography Brazil * Rio de Janeiro * Rio do Sul, a ...

(now the

Río Puré National Park Rio or Río is the Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, and Maltese word for "river". When spoken on its own, the word often means Rio de Janeiro, a major city in Brazil. Rio or Río may also refer to: Geography Brazil * Rio de Janeiro * Rio do Sul, a ...

) in the southeastern corner of the country. They are known as the ''Aroje'' to the Bora people. '' Maku'' and ''Macusa'' are pejorative

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 Greate ...

terms applied to many local languages, not anything specific to Carabayo. The name "Carabayo" is taken from a mock name, "

Bernardo Caraballo Bernardo Caraballo (1 January 1942 – 20 January 2022) was a Colombian boxer, and perennial world title contender, of the 1960s and 70s. He was born in Cartagena. His name ended up being used for the uncontacted Carabayo people of Amazonas.Seif ...

", given to a Carabayo man during his captivity in the Capuchin mission at La Pedrera in 1969. It has been reported that their self-designation is ''Yacumo''.

Classification

It is often assumed that the Carabayo language and people are a continuation of the Yuri language and people attested from the same area in the 19th century. Indeed, Colombian government publications speak of the "Yuri (Carabayo)", "Carabayo (Yuri)", or "Yuri, Aroje, or Carabayo" as a single people. However, the only information on the Carabayo language was obtained when a family was kidnapped during a violent encounter and held in a mission for several weeks. During this time, one of the priests wrote down words that he overheard, or that were used in exchanges with him, sometimes with a context that suggested their meaning. Fifty words were collected; excluding Spanish words like ''tabako'' that were picked up during captivity, and two words from the old lingua franca Nheengatu, ''kariba'' 'white man' and ''tupana'' 'God' (forms also shared with Yuri), there are 25 words recorded with a gloss or context. Several of these have good comparisons with Yuri or its sister language Ticuna:Seifart & Echeverri (2014) "Evidence for the Identification of Carabayo, the Language of an Uncontacted People of the Colombian Amazon, as Belonging to the Tikuna–Yurí Linguistic Family". ''PLoS ONE'' 9(4): e94814 According to Seifart & Echeverri (2014), the greater number of matches with Tikuna reflects the poverty of the data for Yuri, and the fact that Yuri speakers could not be interviewed to elicit matches, and they were able to do with Tikuna speakers. The fact that Tikuna speakers were able to recognize some of the Carabayo phrases suggests the languages are, or were once, part of a

dialect continuum A dialect continuum or dialect chain is a series of language varieties spoken across some geographical area such that neighboring varieties are mutually intelligible, but the differences accumulate over distance so that widely separated vari ...

. However, Carabayo matches Yuri in having initial where Tikuna has ('bring', 'yes', 'wait'), suggesting that Carabayo may be closer to Yuri (whether or not a direct descendant of Yuri) than to Tikuna. Seifart & Echeverri (2014) conclude that the Carabayo likely descended from the Yuri and voluntarily isolated themselves during the

Amazon rubber boom The Amazon rubber boom ( pt, Ciclo da borracha, ; es, Fiebre del caucho, , 1879 to 1912) was an important part of the economic and social history of Brazil and Amazonian regions of neighboring countries, being related to the extraction and com ...

at the turn of the 20th century, when atrocities were being committed against the local indigenous peoples on a massive scale.

References

{{Reflist Ticuna–Yuri languages Unclassified languages of South America