Peba–Yaguan languages

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.

Peba–Yaguan
Yawan, Peban
Geographic
distribution		western Amazon
Linguistic classificationSaparo–Yawan ?
  • Peba–Yaguan
Glottologpeba1241[1]

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]

glossYaguaPebaYameoMasamae
one tékítomätairapwitérpoetinten
two nanoxõmonomoiranarámue
three mungoátamoimansapwiterorineo
head ori-nórai-nowi-nátunato
ear o-tsiwámi-tiwawi-tíwẽ
tooth o-xanávi-alawi-é
man wánukomoleyawára
fire [h]enáfölaóleaule
sun iñiremelanénatéraraitará
earth mokanékapalépópopopo
maize lelúlolúogung
tapir necháameishanáse

Further reading
  • Powlison, P. (1995). Diccionario Yagua - Castellano. (Serie Lingüística Peruana, 35). Lima: Ministerio de Educación and Summer Institute of Linguistics.
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References
  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.
  2. Loukotka, Čestmír (1968). Classification of South American Indian languages. Los Angeles: UCLA Latin American Center.
  3. Jolkesky, Marcelo Pinho De Valhery. 2016. Estudo arqueo-ecolinguístico das terras tropicais sul-americanas. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Brasília.
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