Warekena Velha language

Not to be confused with Warekena, a dialect of Baniwa of Guainía.
Warekena Velha
Warekena do San Miguel
Walékhena
Native toVenezuela
Ethnicity513 Warekena (2001)
Native speakers
180 (2012)[1]
Arawakan
Language codes
ISO 639-3gae [a]
Glottologware1255
ELPGuarequena
Linguasphere82-AFE-aa

Warekena Velha (Guarequena Antiguo, Old Warekena, Guarequena: Walékhena[2] 'star people'[3]), also Warekena of San Miguel, is an endangered Arawakan language most closely related to Mandahuaca.[4][5]

History

According to Theodor Koch-Grunberg (1911), "Old" Warekena was once spoken on the Içana and Xie Rivers. Beginning in the late 18th century, the Warekena people were displaced from their territory "several times". They subsequently migrated to the upper Orinoco in Venezuela, as documented by Richard Spruce in 1854 and Moritz Richard Schomburgk in 1839. Interestingly, Koch-Grünberg (1911) neglects any mention of the Baniwa language of Guainia, or "modern" Warekena, indicating its speakers had migrated to the Xie river later. When they moved to Venezuela, most of the Warekena switched to the Baniwa language of Guainia after they migrated to Venezuela from the Xie river, though preserving the name "Warekena" and the story of their origins. Curt Nimuendajú (1982) reports the "Uarequéna" language was nearly extinct, as its speakers were dispersed around the area of Guzmán Blanco. Eduardo Galvão (1979) reports the "Warikena" language and tribe as extinct. Some of the Baniwa-speaking Warekena moved back to the Xie river in the 1920s.[3] The Ethnologue's 16th edition reports that the language was spoken by 340 people in Brazil as of 1983 in remote areas, and that its speakers had a positive attitide towards the language.[6]

Classification

This language is classified by Alexandra Aikhenvald (1998) as a member of the Içana-Vaupes subgroup of Northern Arawakan, and is closest linguisticaly to the Mandawaca language. It is hardly intelligible with the Baniwa language of Guainia.[3]

Notes

  1. ^ also applies to Baniwa of Guainía

References

  1. ^ Crevels, Mily (2012-01-13), Campbell, Lyle; Grondona, Verónica (eds.), "Language endangerment in South America: The clock is ticking", The Indigenous Languages of South America, DE GRUYTER, pp. 167–234, doi:10.1515/9783110258035.167, ISBN 978-3-11-025513-3, retrieved 2026-05-09{{citation}}: CS1 maint: work parameter with ISBN (link)
  2. ^ Ñáñez, Omar González (2017), "Los Warekena (Walékhena)", Los aborígenes de Venezuela V, Caracas: La Salle, pp. 451–520, ISBN 978-980-7090-19-3, retrieved 2026-05-10{{citation}}: CS1 maint: work parameter with ISBN (link)
  3. ^ a b c Aikhenvald, Alexandra Y. (1998). "Warekena". In Derbyshire, Desmond C.; Pullum, Geoffrey K. (eds.). Handbook of Amazonian Languages. Vol. 4. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. pp. 225–439. doi:10.1515/9783110822120. Cited in Bhat, D.N.S. 2004. Pronouns. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 25
  4. ^ Campbell, Lyle; Grondona, Verónica, eds. (2012-01-27). The Indigenous Languages of South America. De Gruyter Mouton. pp. 216–220. doi:10.1515/9783110258035. hdl:1887/70116. ISBN 978-3-11-025803-5.
  5. ^ González Ñáñez, Omar (1998). "Aproximación a una gramática tipológica relacional de una lengua amerindia: El caso del Warekena (Arawak)". Revista Montalbán (31). doi:10.62876/rm.v1i31.7008. ISSN 2790-5071.
  6. ^ Guarequena at Ethnologue (16th ed., 2009)
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