Saparo–Yawan (Zaparo–Yaguan, Zaparo–Peba) is a language family proposal uniting two small language families of the western
Amazon
Amazon most often refers to:
* Amazon River, in South America
* Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin
* Amazon (company), an American multinational technology company
* Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek myth ...
. It was first proposed by Swadesh (1954), and continues through Payne (1984) and Kaufman (1994).
[Kaufman, Terrence. (1994). The native languages of South America. In C. Mosley & R. E. Asher (Eds.), ''Atlas of the world's languages'' (pp. 46–76). London: Routledge.]
Links
There are also four
language isolate
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 ...
s and otherwise
unclassified language
An unclassified language is a language whose genetic affiliation to other languages has not been established. Languages can be unclassified for a variety of reasons, mostly due to a lack of reliable data but sometimes due to the confounding inf ...
s which have been indirectly linked to Saparo–Yawan, and for convenience they are included here. Tovar (1984) proposed a connection between Zaparoan and the otherwise unclassified Taushiro; Stark (1985) and Gordon (2005) see a connection with the extinct Omurano language. The extinct Awishiri and the Candoshi isolate have lexical similarities with Taushiro, Omurano, and each other; however, the four languages also have lexical similarities with Zaparoan,
Jivaroan, and
Arawakan
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. Branch ...
. These six languages and families in the table at right have ''not'' been linked in any coherent fashion. Given that Candoshi is well described, this is something that may be resolved relatively soon.
Proposed classification
This forms part of Kaufman's
Macro-Andean proposal:
*Sáparo–Yawan (Kaufman 2007)
**
Sáparo (Zaparoan)
**Yawan
***
Peva–Yawan (Peba–Yaguan)
***
Sabela (Huaorani)
***
Taushiro, almost extinct
***
Omurano
See also
*
Indigenous languages of South America
The indigenous languages of South America are those whose origin dates back to the pre-Columbian era. The subcontinent has great linguistic diversity, but, as the number of speakers of indigenous languages is diminishing, it is estimated that it ...
References
Proposed language families
Indigenous languages of the Americas
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