Peba–Yaguan languages

Peba–Yaguan
	Yawan, Peban
Geographic; distribution	western Amazon
Linguistic classification	Saparo–Yawan ? Peba–Yaguan;
Glottolog	peba1241[1]

The Peba–Yaguan language family (also Yaguan, Peban, Yáwan) is located in the northwestern Amazon, but today Yagua is the only remaining spoken language of the family.

Internal structure

The linguist Paul Rivet suggested that the Peba–Yaguan family divided into two branches, with Yameo in one branch, and Peba and Yagua in the other. There is extremely little documentation of Yameo and Peba, both of which are now extinct, though the town Pebas on the Amazon River clearly takes its name from this group of people. The available documentation is largely due to the efforts of early Catholic missionaries, summarized by Paul Rivet.

Peba–Yaguan

	Yameo

	Masamae (Mazán, Parara)

	Peba

	Yagua

Loukotka (1968) also lists Masamae (Mazán, Parara), spoken the Mazán River in Loreto Department, Peru. It is most closely related to Yameo.[2]

Jolkesky (2016) groups Peba and Yameo in one branch, and Yagua in another separate branch.[3]

Classification

There is no sound scientific evidence yet that the Peba–Yaguan family is related to any other family or stock of South America (in particular, there is no evidence for grouping it with Cariban languages). There has likely been contact between the Yaguas and Bora–Witotoan peoples, perhaps particularly during the era of the rubber-trade; this may account for some structural similarities between the languages (Payne, forthcoming). Kaufman (2007) includes Sabela, Taushiro, and Omurano in his Yawan family.

Language contact

Jolkesky (2016) notes that there are lexical similarities with the Kwaza, Zaparoan, and Nambikwaran language families due to contact.[3]

Vocabulary

Loukotka (1968) lists the following basic vocabulary items.[2]

gloss	Yagua	Peba	Yameo	Masamae
one	tékí	tomätaira	pwitér	poetinten
two	nanoxõ	monomoira	narámue
three	mungoá	tamoimansa	pwiterorineo
head	ori-nó	rai-no	wi-nátu	nato
ear	o-tsiwá	mi-tiwa	wi-tíwẽ
tooth	o-xaná	vi-ala	wi-é
man	wánu	komoley	awára
fire	[h]ená	föla	óle	aule
sun	iñi	remelané	natéra	raitará
earth	mokané	kapalé	pópo	popo
maize	lelú	lolú	ogung
tapir	nechá	ameisha	náse

References

Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Peba–Yagua". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
Loukotka, Čestmír (1968). Classification of South American Indian languages. Los Angeles: UCLA Latin American Center.
Jolkesky, Marcelo Pinho De Valhery. 2016. Estudo arqueo-ecolinguístico das terras tropicais sul-americanas. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Brasília.

Payne, Doris L. forthcoming. Source of the Yagua classifier system.
Catholic Encyclopedia article

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.

[Glottolog-1] Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Peba–Yagua". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.

[Loukotka-2] Loukotka, Čestmír (1968). Classification of South American Indian languages. Los Angeles: UCLA Latin American Center.

[Jolkesky-2016-3] Jolkesky, Marcelo Pinho De Valhery. 2016. Estudo arqueo-ecolinguístico das terras tropicais sul-americanas. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Brasília.