Sapé a.k.a. Kaliana is an extinct language recently spoken along the Paragua River and Karuna River. There were only about a few dozen speakers in the mid-1900s, and by the 2000s, only a few elderly speakers were found. Sapé may be a language isolate.
Documentation
Sape is one of the most poorly attested extant languages in
South America
South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the sout ...
, and there is no comprehensive linguistic description of the language other than scattered word lists.
Word lists have been collected by Armellada & Matallana (1942), Migliazza (1978), Walter Coppens, and Francia Medina.Medina, Francia. 2008. Los Sapé: notas sobre su situación presente y actualización bibliográfica. In Miguel Ángel Perera (ed.) ''Los aborígines de Venezuela'', 2nd edition, Volume 2, 739-746. Caracas: Ediciones IVIC, Monte Ávila Editores, ICAS, Fundación La Salle. There are unpublished field notebooks by
Fèlix Cardona i Puig
Fèlix Cardona i Puig (Malgrat de Mar, Maresme, February 3, 1903 – Caracas, December 5, 1982) was a Spanish explorer of the Venezuelan Guyana.
Perozo et al. (2008: 175-176) was also able to collect 44 words and 5 short phrases from semi-speakers living in the Ninam villages of Boca de Ichún and Kavamaikén and the
Pemon
The Pemon or Pemón (Pemong) are indigenous people living in areas of Venezuela, Brazil, and Guyana.See pp.112,113 and 178 of ''Venezuela: the Pemon'', in ''Condé Nast Traveler'', December 2008. They are also known as Arecuna, Aricuna Jaricuna, ...
village of Karunkén in Venezuela.Perozo, Laura, Ana Liz Flores, Abel Perozo, and Mercedes Aguinagalde. 2008. Escenario histórico y sociocultural del alto Paragua, Estado Bolívar, Venezuela. In Josefa Celsa Señaris, Carlos A. Lasso & Ana Liz Flores (eds.) ''Evaluación rápida de la biodiversidad de los ecosistemas acuáticos de la cuenca alta del río Paragua, Estado Bolívar, Venezuela'', 169-180, 302-308. Arlington, VA: Conservation International. Some of the Sapé semi-speakers have since moved to Yuwapí Merú, a village located on the Middle Paragua. There may also be semi-speakers of Sapé living in the Pemon village of Venevené (Benebené, Veneveken).
Loukotka (1968)
Loukotka (1968) lists the following basic vocabulary items for Kaliána.
:
Sociolinguistic situation
According to Rosés Labrada & Medina (2019), the last fluent speakers of Sapé were Elena Lezama, who died in 2004, and Ramón Quimillo Lezama, who died in November 2018. However, at least 2 semi-speakers remain.Jorge Emilio Rosés Labrada & Francia Medina (2019) Sapé (Venezuela) — Language Snapshot In Peter K. Austin (ed.) ''Language Documentation and Description'', vol 16. London: EL Publishing. pp. 169-175. Traditionally located along the Karún River and the Upper Paragua River, most Sapé have assimilated into
Pemon
The Pemon or Pemón (Pemong) are indigenous people living in areas of Venezuela, Brazil, and Guyana.See pp.112,113 and 178 of ''Venezuela: the Pemon'', in ''Condé Nast Traveler'', December 2008. They are also known as Arecuna, Aricuna Jaricuna, ...
-speaking villages.
Language contact
Jolkesky (2016) notes that there are lexical similarities with the Warao,
Chibchan
The Chibchan languages (also Chibchan, Chibchano) make up a language family indigenous to the Isthmo-Colombian Area, which extends from eastern Honduras to northern Colombia and includes populations of these countries as well as Nicaragua, Costa ...
Chibchan
The Chibchan languages (also Chibchan, Chibchano) make up a language family indigenous to the Isthmo-Colombian Area, which extends from eastern Honduras to northern Colombia and includes populations of these countries as well as Nicaragua, Costa ...