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

Puinave language Puinave, Waipunavi (Guaipunabi) or Wanse ( ; ) is an indigenous language of Colombia and Venezuela. It is generally considered to be a language isolate. Demographics There are about 6,800 people in 32 communities along the banks of the Inírida ...

is sometimes linked specifically with the Nadahup languages and

Nukak The Nukak people (also Nukak-Maku people, Makú) live between the Guaviare River, Guaviare and Inírida River, Inírida rivers, in the depths of the tropical humid forest, on the fringe of the Amazon basin, in Guaviare Department, Republic of Co ...

- Kakwa group, as Puinave–Maku. Paul Rivet (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 M ...

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

(''Maku of Auari'') is sometimes connected to the Arutani–Sape languages (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 of the Americas, indigenous people who live in the Amazon rainforest in Venezuela. The last census held in Venezuela, in 2011, registered 982 individuals ...

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, Harakmbet, Katukina-Katawixi,

Arawak The Arawak are a group of Indigenous peoples of northern South America and of the Caribbean. The term "Arawak" has been applied at various times to different Indigenous groups, from the Lokono of South America to the Taíno (Island Arawaks), w ...

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

Madeira River The Madeira River ( ) 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 the biggest tributary of ...

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 the Americas, Indigenous peoples of northern South America and of the Caribbean. The term "Arawak" has been applied at various times to different Indigenous groups, from the Lokono of South Ameri ...

; that is, because they are spoken by

hunter-gatherer A hunter-gatherer or forager is a human living in a community, or according to an ancestrally derived Lifestyle, lifestyle, in which most or all food is obtained by foraging, that is, by gathering food from local naturally occurring sources, esp ...

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