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The Uru–Chipaya family is an indigenous
language family A language family is a group of languages related through descent from a common ancestor, called the proto-language of that family. The term ''family'' is a metaphor borrowed from biology, with the tree model used in historical linguistics ...
of
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 speakers were originally fishermen on the shores of
Lake Titicaca Lake Titicaca (; ; ) is a large freshwater lake in the Andes mountains on the border of Bolivia and Peru. It is often called the highest navigable lake in the world. Titicaca is the largest lake in South America, both in terms of the volume of ...
,
Lake Poopó Lake Poopó ( ) was a large saline lake in a shallow depression in the Altiplano in Oruro Department, Bolivia, at an altitude of approximately . Due to the lake's length and width (), it made up the eastern half of Oruro, known as a mining r ...
, and the Desaguadero River. Chipaya has over a thousand speakers and sees vigorous use in the native community, but all other
Uru Uru or URU may refer to: Language * Uru dialect of Central Kilimanjaro, a Bantu language of Tanzania * Uru language, the extinct language of the Uros, an Amerindian people * Urumi language, an extinct language of the Amazon region of Brazil * U ...
languages or dialects are extinct. Loukotka (1968) also lists the Chango language, once spoken on the coast of Chile from
Huasco Huasco () is a Chilean city and commune, in the Huasco Province, Atacama Region. It is the central town of a mining district dominated by medium-scale mining. The port city of Huasco is located 50 km west of Vallenar and close to the tow ...
to Cobija in Antofagasta Province. According to Loukotka that population would have been Araucanized at some point in history. More modern classifications leave it unclassified, as only proper names and placenames are known (Mason 1950).


Proposed external relationships

Stark (1972) proposed a Maya–Yunga–Chipayan macrofamily linking Mayan with Uru–Chipaya and Yunga (Mochica).


Language contact

Jolkesky (2016) notes that there are lexical similarities with the Kunza, Pukina, Pano, Jaqi, Kechua,
Mapudungun Mapuche ( , ; from 'land' and 'people', meaning 'the people of the land') or Mapudungun (from 'land' and 'speak, speech', meaning 'the speech of the land'; also spelled Mapuzugun and Mapudungu) is either a language isolate or member of the s ...
, and Moseten-Tsimane language families due to contact.


Vocabulary

Loukotka (1968) lists the following basic vocabulary items for Uro (Uru) and Chipaya. :


Bibliography

*Aguiló, F. (1986). El idioma de los Urus. Editora Centro Portales. *Cerrón-Palomino, R. (2011). Chipaya. Léxico y etnotaxonomía. Lima: PUCP. *Espinoza Soriano (1991). Proto-Takanan and Uru-Chipaya: genetic relationship or ancient loans? Comunicação apresentada em: Conferencia Internacional sobre Lenguaje, Política Oficial sobre el Lenguaje y Política Educativa en los Andes, 28–30 October 1991. Newark: University of Delaware. *Hannẞ, K. (2008). Uchumataqu: The lost language of the Urus of Bolivia. A grammatical description of the language as documented between 1894 and 1952 (ILLA, 7). Leiden: CNWS Publications. *Nimuendajú, K. (1928-1929). Wortliste der Šipáya-Indianer. Anthropos, 23:821-850, 24:863-896. *Snethlage, E. (1932). Chipaya- und Curuaya-Wörter. Anthropos, 27:65-93. *Vellard, J. A. (1949-1951). Contribution à l'étude des Indiens Uru ou Kot'suñs. Travaux de l'Institut Français d'études Andines, 1:145-209, 2:51-89, 3:3-39.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Uru-Chipaya languages Language families Uru Indigenous languages of the Andes Languages of Bolivia