Arutani
Uruak, Awake
Native toBrazil, Venezuela
RegionRoraima (Brazil); Karum River area, Bolivar State (Venezuela)
Ethnicity20 Auaké
Native speakers
6 (2020)[1]
Arutani–Sape ?
  • 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, ethnonym Uruak) is a nearly extinct language spoken in Roraima, Brazil and in the Karum River area of Bolivar State, Venezuela. There are only around 6 speakers left.[2][3]

Documentation

Arutani is one of the most poorly attested extant languages in South America, and may be a language isolate.[4][5]

Existing data is limited to a 1911 word list by 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list by Armellada & Matallana (1942: 101-110),[7] and a 100-item Swadesh list by Migliazza (1978).[8] There is also an unpublished Swadesh list by Fèlix Cardona i Puig from the 1930s-1940s, as well as an unpublished 200-item Swadesh list by Walter Coppens from 1970.[9]

Sociolinguistic situation

Traditionally, Arutani was spoken along the Paragua River and Uraricaá River in southern Venezuela and the northern tip of Roraima, Brazil.[2]

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

According to Loukotka (1968), it was once spoken on the southern banks of Maracá Island in the Rio Branco area.[10]

Language contact

Jolkesky (2016) notes that there are lexical similarities with the Máku, Sape, Warao, Tikuna-Yuri, and Tukano language families due to contact.[11]

Lexical similarities with Tucanoan languages are mostly cultural loanwords. 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.[11]: 527 

Vocabulary

Loukotka (1968) lists the following basic vocabulary items for Auaké.[10]

glossAuaké
onekiuaná
twokiuañéke
threeuatitimitilíake
headki-kakoáti
eyeki-gakoá
toothki-aké
manmadkié
waterokoá
fireané
sunnizyí
maniocmokiá
jaguarkaiyá
houseiméd

References

  1. ↑ Arutani at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022) Closed access icon
  2. 1 2 3 Rosés Labrada, Jorge Emilio, Thiago Chacon & Francia Medina. 2020. Arutani (Venezuela and Brazil) – Language Snapshot. In Peter K. Austin (ed.) Language Documentation and Description 17, 170-177. London: EL Publishing.
  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-Grünberg, Theodor. 1928. Vom Roroima Zum Orinoco, Ergebnisse einer Reise in Nordbrasilien und Venezuela in den Jahren 1911-1913. Vol. 4. Stuttgart: Strecker und Schröder.
  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. 1 2 Loukotka, Čestmír (1968). Classification of South American Indian languages. Los Angeles: UCLA Latin American Center.
  11. 1 2 Jolkesky, Marcelo Pinho de Valhery (2016). Estudo arqueo-ecolinguístico das terras tropicais sul-americanas (Ph.D. dissertation) (2 ed.). Brasília: University of Brasília.
  • Alain Fabre, 2005. Diccionario etnolingüístico y guía bibliográfica de los pueblos indígenas sudamericanos: AWAKE
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