The Mamoré–Guaporé linguistic area is a

linguistic area A sprachbund (, from , 'language federation'), also known as a linguistic area, area of linguistic convergence, or diffusion area, is a group of languages that share areal features resulting from geographical proximity and language contact. The ...

that includes over a dozen South American language families and isolates of the Mamoré– Guaporé region of eastern lowland

Bolivia Bolivia, officially the Plurinational State of Bolivia, is a landlocked country located in central South America. The country features diverse geography, including vast Amazonian plains, tropical lowlands, mountains, the Gran Chaco Province, w ...

(the

Llanos de Moxos The Llanos de Moxos, also known as the Beni savanna or Moxos plains, is a tropical savanna ecoregion of the Beni Department of northern Bolivia. Setting The Llanos de Moxos covers an area of in the lowlands of northern Bolivia, with small por ...

and

Chiquitania Chiquitania ("Chiquitos" or "Gran Chiquitania") is a region of tropical savannas in the Santa Cruz Department in eastern Bolivia. Geography "Chiquitos" is the colonial name for what is now essentially five of the six provinces that make up the ...

regions) and Brazil (

Rondônia Rondônia () is one of the 26 states of Brazil, located in the northern subdivision of the country (central-western part). It is bordered by Acre (state), Acre in the west, Amazonas, Brazil, Amazonas in the north, Mato Grosso in the east, and Bo ...

and

Mato Grosso Mato Grosso ( – ) is one of the states of Brazil, the List of Brazilian states by area, third largest by area, located in the Central-West Region, Brazil, Central-West region. The state has 1.66% of the Brazilian population and is responsible ...

states).van der Voort, Hein (2008). ''Interethnic contact in the Guaporé region and its linguistic consequences''.

Lund University Lund University () is a Public university, public research university in Sweden and one of Northern Europe's oldest universities. The university is located in the city of Lund in the Swedish province of Scania. The university was officially foun ...

, 2008-06-03.

Languages

Crevels and van der Voort (2008) propose a Mamoré– Guaporé linguistic area in eastern lowland Bolivia (in

Beni Department Beni (), sometimes El Beni, is a northeastern Departments of Bolivia, department of Bolivia, in the lowlands region of the country. It is the second-largest department in the country (after Santa Cruz), covering 213,564 square kilometers (82,458 ...

and

Santa Cruz Department Santa Cruz () is the largest of the nine constituent departments of Bolivia, occupying about one-third (33.74%) of the country's territory. With an area of , it is slightly smaller than Japan or the US state of Montana. It is located in the ...

) and

and northwestern

, Brazil. In

, many of the languages were historically spoken at the

Jesuit Missions of Moxos The Jesuit Missions of Moxos are located in the Llanos de Moxos of Beni Department, Beni Departments of Bolivia, department in eastern Bolivia. Distinguished by a unique fusion of Culture of Europe, European and Amerindian cultural influences, the ...

and also the

Jesuit Missions of Chiquitos The Jesuit Missions of Chiquitos are located in the Santa Cruz Department (Bolivia), Santa Cruz Departments of Bolivia, department in eastern Bolivia. Six of these former missions (all now secular municipalities) collectively were designated as a ...

. Language families and branches in the linguistic area are as follows. *

Chapacuran languages The Chapacuran languages are a nearly extinct Native American language family of South America. Almost all Chapacuran languages are extinct, and the four that are extant are moribund, with the exception of Wari'. They are spoken in Rondônia in ...

Tacanan languages Tacanan is a family of languages spoken in Bolivia, with Ese’ejja also spoken in Peru. It may be related to the Panoan languages. Many of the languages are endangered. Family division *Tacanan ** Ese Ejja ( Ese’eha, Tiatinagua, Chama, H ...

*a few

Panoan languages Panoan (also Pánoan, Panoano, Panoana, Páno) is a family of languages spoken in western Brazil, eastern Peru, and northern Bolivia. It is possibly a branch of a larger Pano–Tacanan family. Genetic relations The Panoan family is generally bel ...

Nambikwaran languages The Nambikwaran languages are a language family of half a dozen languages, all spoken in the state of Mato Grosso in Brazil. They have traditionally been considered dialects of a single language, but at least three of them are mutually unintellig ...

*the

Arawakan languages Arawakan (''Arahuacan, Maipuran Arawakan, "mainstream" Arawakan, Arawakan proper''), also known as Maipurean (also ''Maipuran, Maipureano, Maipúre''), is a language family that developed among ancient Indigenous peoples in South America. Branc ...

Moxo, Bauré,

Paunaka The Pauna language (''Paunaca'', ''Paunaka'', 'our language') is an Arawakan language in South America. It is an extremely endangered language, which belongs to the southern branch of the Arawakan language family and it is spoken in the Bolivia ...

, and other related varieties

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 ...

branches in the Mamoré–Guaporé linguistic area are: *

Ramarama languages The Ramarama languages of Rondônia, Brazil form a branch of the Tupian language family. They are Karo, or Ramarama, with 150 speakers, and the extinct Urumi. Varieties Below is a list of Itogapúc (Ramarama) language varieties listed by Louko ...

Puruborá language The Puruborá language of Brazil is one of the Tupian languages. It is also known as: Aurã, Cujubim, Burubora, Kuyubi, Migueleno, Miguelenho or Pumbora. Specifically it is spoken in the Brazilian state of Rondônia Rondônia () is one of the ...

Mondé languages The Monde languages of Brazil form a branch of the Tupian language family. Cinta Larga is a dialect cluster spoken by a thousand people. Other languages are Mondé, Aruáshi, Suruí, Zoro, and Gavião do Jiparaná. Classification Intern ...

Tupari languages The Tuparí languages of Brazil form a branch of the Tupian language family. Internal classification The Tupari languages are:Nikulin, Andrey; Fernando O. de Carvalho. 2019Estudos diacrônicos de línguas indígenas brasileiras: um panorama ''M ...

Arikem languages The Arikem languages of Brazil form a branch of the Tupian language family. They are Karitiâna and the extinct Kabixiana and Arikem. Varieties Below is a list of Arikém language varieties listed by Loukotka (1968), including names of unat ...

Guarayo languages The Guaráyu or Guaráyo languages (also known as Tupi–Guarani II) are a subgroup of the Tupi–Guarani language family.Dietrich, Wolf. O tronco tupi e as suas famílias de línguas. Classificação e esboço tipológico. In: NOLL, Volker. '' ...

(Tupi–Guarani group) *some

Guarani dialects The Guaraní language belongs to the Tupí-Guaraní branch of the Tupí linguistic family. There are three distinct groups within the Guaraní subgroup, they are: the Kaiowá, the Mbyá and the Ñandeva. In Latin America, the indigenous lan ...

(Tupi–Guarani group) Macro-Jê branches in the Mamoré–Guaporé linguistic area are: * Jabutian languages * Rikbaktsá language *

Chiquitano The Chiquitano or Chiquitos are an indigenous people of Bolivia, with a small number also living in Brazil. The Chiquitano primarily live in the Chiquitania tropical savanna of Santa Cruz Department, Bolivia, with a small number also living in ...

(sister branch of Macro-Jê)

Language isolates A language isolate is a language that has no demonstrable genetic relationship with any other languages. Basque in Europe, Ainu and Burushaski in Asia, Sandawe in Africa, Haida and Zuni in North America, Kanoê in South America, and Tiwi i ...

in the linguistic area are: * Cayuvava * Itonama * Movima * Chimane/Mosetén * Canichana * Yuracaré * Leco * Mure * Aikanã *

Kanoê The Kanoê (also as the Canoe, Kapixaná and Kapixanã) are an indigenous people of southern Rondônia, Brazil, near the Bolivian border. There are two major groups of Kanoê: one residing in the region of the Guaporé River and another in the R ...

* Kwazá * Irantxe * Arara

Linguistic features

Areal features include: * a high incidence of prefixes * evidentials * directionals * verbal number * lack of nominal number * lack of classifiers * inclusive/exclusive distinction

Pieter Muysken Pieter is a male given name, the Dutch form of Peter. The name has been one of the most common names in the Netherlands for centuries, but since the mid-twentieth century its popularity has dropped steadily, from almost 3000 per year in 1947 ...

et al. (2014) also performed a detailed statistical analysis of the Mamoré–Guaporé linguistic area.Muysken, Pieter; Hammarström, Harald; Birchall, Joshua; Van Gijn, Rik; Krasnoukhova, Olga; Müller, Neele (2014)
Linguistic areas: bottom-up or top-down? The case of the Guaporé-Mamoré
In: Comrie, Bernard; Golluscio, Lucia. ''Language Contact and Documentation / Contacto lingüístico y documentación''. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 205-238.

Reconstruction of Proto-Mamoré-Guaporé

Reconstruction of Proto-Mamoré-Guaporé language according to Jolkesky 2016:Jolkesky, Marcelo (2016)
Uma reconstrução do proto-mamoré-guaporé (família arawák)
''LIAMES: Línguas Indígenas Americanas'', 16(1), 7-37.

References

External links

Amazonian Languages of Rondônia and Bolivia
collection, Leiden University
Language diversity of the Guaporé region
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mamore-Guapore Linguistic Area Sprachbund

Languages

Linguistic features

Reconstruction of Proto-Mamoré-Guaporé

See also

Further reading

References

External links