Yuracaré language

Yuracaré (also Yurakaré, Yurakar, Yuracare, Yurucare, Yuracar, Yurakare, Yurujuré, Yurujare) is an endangered language isolate of central Bolivia in Cochabamba and Beni departments spoken by the Yuracaré people.

There are approximately 2,500 speakers. These numbers are in decline as the youngest generation does no longer learn the language. (See Language death.)

Yuracaré is documented with a grammar based on an old missionary manuscript by de la Cueva (Adam 1893). The language is currently being studied by Rik van Gijn. A Foundation for Endangered Languages grant was awarded for a Yuracaré-Spanish/Spanish-Yuracaré dictionary project in 2005.

Genealogical relations

Suárez (1977) suggests a relationship between Yuracaré and the Mosetenan, Pano-Tacanan, Arawakan, and Chon families. His earlier Macro-Panoan proposal is the same minus Arawakan (Suárez 1969).

Greenberg's (1987) Equatorial phylum includes Yuracaré with Arauan (Arawa), Cayubaba (Cayuvava), Chapacuran (Chapacura), Kamsá (Coche), Guajiboan (Guahibo), Guamo, Karirí (Kariri), Katembrí (Katembri), Maipurean (Maipuran), Otomacoan (Otomaco), Sálivan (Piaroa), Taruma, Timotean (Timote), Tiniguan (Tinigua), Trumai, Tupian (Tupi), Tuxá (Tusha), Chipaya-Uru (Uro), and his Jibaro-Kandoshi subgroup. His earlier even more speculative Equatorial-Andean proposal also several languages of his 1987 Andean and Macro-Tucanoan phylums.

Grammar

• V-initial
• agglutinating
• prefixes, suffixes
• reduplication

See also

• Yuracaré

References

External links

• Ethnologue: Yuracare
• Proel: Lengua Yurakare
• FEL Grants 2005 (Foundation for Endangered Languages)
• DoBeS : General presentation of the Yurakaré language and people

Bibliography

• Adam, Lucien. (1893). Principes et dictionnaire de la langue Yuracaré ou Yurujuré composés par le R. P. de la Cueva et publiés conformément au manuscrit de A. d’Orbigny. Bibliothèque linguistique américaine (No. 16). Paris: Maisonneuve.
• Adelaar, Willem F. H.; & Muysken, Pieter C. (2004). The languages of the Andes. Cambridge language surveys. Cambridge University Press.
• Campbell, Lyle. (1997). American Indian languages: The historical linguistics of Native America. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-509427-1.
• van Gijn, Rik. (2004). Number in the Yurakaré noun phrase. In L. Cornips & J. Doetjes (Eds.), Linguistics in the Netherlands 2004 (pp. 69–79). Linguistics in the Netherlands (No. 21). John Benjamins.
• van Gijn, Rik (2005). Head marking and dependent marking of grammatical relations in Yurakaré. In M. Amberber & H. de Hoop (eds.) Competition and variation in natural languages: the case for case. (pp. 41-72) Elsevier.
• van Gijn, Rik (2006) A grammar of Yurakaré. Ph.D. dissertation Radboud University Nijmegen.
• Gordon, Raymond G., Jr. (Ed.). (2005). Ethnologue: Languages of the world (15th ed.). Dallas, TX: SIL International. ISBN 1-55671-159-X. (Online version: http://www.ethnologue.com).
• Greenberg, Joseph H. (1960). General classification of Central and South American languages. In A. Wallace (Ed.), Men and cultures: Fifth international congress of anthropological and ethnological sciences (1956) (pp. 791-794). Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
• Greenberg, Joseph H. (1987). Language in the Americas. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
• Kaufman, Terrence. (1990). Language history in South America: What we know and how to know more. In D. L. Payne (Ed.), Amazonian linguistics: Studies in lowland South American languages (pp. 13-67). Austin: University of Texas Press. ISBN 0-2927-0414-3.
• 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.
• Suárez, Jorge. (1969). Moseten and Pano-Tacanan. Anthropological Linguistics, 11 (9), 255-266.
• Suárez, Jorge. (1977). La posición lingüística del pano-tacana y del arahuaco. Anales de Antropología, 14, 243-255.