Arutani language

Arutani
Uruak, Awake
Arutani
Native toBrazil, Venezuela
RegionRoraima (Brazil); Karum River area, Bolivar State (Venezuela)
Ethnicity20 Auaké
Native speakers
5–6 (2020)[1]
Dialects
  • Awaké[2]
  • Arutani
Language codes
ISO 639-3atx
Glottologarut1244
ELPArutani
Arutani is classified as Critically Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger

Arutani (Orotani, Urutani, also known as Awake, Auake, Auaqué, Aoaqui, Oewaku, Uruak) is a nearly extinct language spoken in Roraima, Brazil and in the Karum River area of Bolivar State, Venezuela. There are only five or six speakers left.[2][3]

Documentation

Arutani is one of the most poorly attested extant languages in South America.[4][5] The language is documented solely in a 1911 word list collected by Theodor Koch-Grünberg (1928: 308-313),[6] a 1940 word list by Armellada & Matallana (1942: 101-110),[7] and a 100-item Swadesh list by Migliazza (1978).[8] There is also an unpublished Swadesh list by Fèlix Cardona i Puig from the 1930s-1940s, as well as an unpublished 200-item Swadesh list by Walter Coppens from 1970.[9]

Classification

The language has been classified as a language isolate by most linguists.[10] However, it has been grouped with neighbouring Sapé in a familly termed the Arutani–Sape languages; this was first proposed by Morris Swadesh and Joseph Greenberg, but was expanded by Terrence Kaufman to include nearby Máku as well.[11]

Language contact

Marcelo Jolkesky (2016) identifies a number of similarities in vocabulary in Arutani with the Máku, Sape, Warao, Tikuna-Yuri, and Tukano language families. He ascribes these to language contact between them.[12] For instance, lexical similarities in Arutani with Tucanoan languages are mostly cultural loanwords. The Arutani and Tucanoan languages also have completely different pronominal systems, and sound correspondences are irregular. Thus, similarities between them can be attributed to contact with Eastern Tucanoan.[12]: 527 

Geographic distribution

Čestmír Loukotka (1968) reports that it was previously spoken on the southern banks of Maracá Island in the Roraima, but later moved to the Uraricapara River near the Brazil–Venezuela border.[13] Traditionally, Arutani was spoken along the Paragua River and Uraricaá River in southern Venezuela and the northern tip of Roraima, Brazil.[2] The remaining speakers of Arutani are found in the following Ninam villages:[2]

  • Saúba (in Brazil): 1 speaker born in Venezuela who has family in Kavaimakén
  • Kosoiba (in the Upper Paragua River valley of Venezuela): 3 speakers
  • Kavaimakén (in the Upper Paragua River valley of Venezuela): 1 speaker
  • Colibri (in the Upper Paragua River valley of Venezuela): 1 speaker reported

Sociolinguistic situation

Ethnic Arutani also speak Ninam (Shirián), since they now mostly live in Ninam villages.[2]

Phonology

Consonants

Labial Alveolar Post-alv./
Palatal 		Velar Glottal
Nasal m n
Stop p t k
Affricate ts
Fricative s ʃ h
Approximant j w
Tap ɾ
  • /ʃ/ has an allophone of [ʂ].
  • [ɲ] is an allophone of /j/.[2]

Vowels

Front Central Back
Close i u
Mid e o
Open a

Stress

Stres in Arutani typically falls on the final syllable, though it has also been recorded on the penultimate syllable.[2]

Tone

Arutani lacks lexical tone.[2]

Morphology

Arutani distinguishes inalienable and alienable possession, and has an instrumental/ergative case for nouns. It marks most grammatical categories via suffixes, enclitics, or particles at the end of clauses. However, person-marking on verbs and possessed nouns is expressed by prefixes instead.[2]

Syntax

The most common word order in Arutani is SV/AOV.[2]

References

  1. ^ Arutani at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Labrada, Jorge Emilio Rosés; Chacon, Thiago; Medina, Francia (2020-07-31). "Arutani (Venezuela and Brazil) – Language Snapshot". Language Documentation and Description. 17 (0). doi:10.25894/ldd108. ISSN 2756-1224.
  3. ^ "Arutani". Endangered Languages Project. Retrieved 20 September 2021.
  4. ^ Hammarström, Harald (2010). "The status of the least documented language families in the world" (PDF). Language Documentation & Conservation. 4: 183.
  5. ^ Dixon, R. M. W.; A. Y. Aikhenvald (1999). The Amazonian languages. Cambridge Language Surveys. Cambridge University Press Cambridge. p. 343.
  6. ^ Koch-Grunberg, Theodor (1928). Vom Roroima Zum Orinoco, Ergebnisse einer Reise in Nordbrasilien und Venezuela in den Jahren 1911-1913 (in German). Vol. 4. Berlin : Dietrich Reimer (Ernest Vohsen).
  7. ^ Armellada, Césareo de, and Baltazar de Matallana. 1942. Exploración Del Paragua. Boletín de La Sociedad Venezolana de Ciencias Naturales 53, 61-110.
  8. ^ Migliazza, Ernest C. 1978. Maku, Sape and Uruak languages current status and basic lexicon. Anthropological Linguistics 20(3), 133-140.
  9. ^ Coppens, Walter. 2008. Los Uruak (Arutani). In W. Coppens, M. Á. Perera, R. Lizarralde & H. Seijas (eds.) Los aborígenes de Venezuela. Volume 2, 747-770. Caracas: Fundación La Salle/Monte Avila Editores/Ediciones IVIC/Instituto Caribe de Antropología y Sociología.
  10. ^ Mason, J. Alden (1950), "The languages of South American Indians" (PDF), Physical anthropology, linguistics and cultural geography of South American Indians, Handbook of South American Indians, vol. 6, Smithsonian Institution, Washington: Washington: Smithsonian Institution, Washington: Bureau of American Ethnology, pp. 157–317, retrieved 2026-05-29
  11. ^ Moseley, Christopher; Asher, R. E.; Tait, Mary (1994), Atlas of the world's languages, London ; New York: Routledge, ISBN 978-0-415-01925-5
  12. ^ a b Jolkesky, Marcelo Pinho de Valhery (2016). Estudo arqueo-ecolinguístico das terras tropicais sul-americanas (Ph.D. dissertation) (2 ed.). Brasília: University of Brasília.
  13. ^ Loukotka, Čestmír (1968). Classification of South American Indian languages. Los Angeles: UCLA Latin American Center.
  • Alain Fabre, 2005. Diccionario etnolingüístico y guía bibliográfica de los pueblos indígenas sudamericanos: AWAKE
  • Portal Japiim (online dictionary)
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