Urarina language

Urarina
Urarina
Itucale
kachá
Native to	Peru
Region	Loreto Region, Urarinas District along the Chambira River
Ethnicity	Urarina people
Native speakers	3,000 (2002)
Language family	Language isolate; Macro-Jibaro ? Urarina;
Writing system	Latin
Language codes
ISO 639-3	ura
Glottolog	urar1246
ELP	Urarina

Urarina is an language isolate spoken in Peru, specifically in the Loreto Region of Northwest Peru, by the Urarina people.^[4] There are around 3,000 speakers in Urarinas District (along the Chambira River).^[3] It uses a Latin script. It is also known as Itucali, Simacu or Shimacu.^[3]

It has a canonical word order of object–verb–subject.^[5]^[6]

Classification

The classification of Urarina remains contentious: academics have placed the language in at least four language families including Panoan, Tupian, Macro-Tucanoan, and Amerind. However, the proposed language families share few similarities with Urarina, meaning it is likely best described as either “unclassified” or as a language isolate. It is usually assumed that it is a language isolate given Urarina’s complete lack of lexical overlap with any languages surrounding Urarina territory. ^[7]

Dialects

There are four Urarina dialect zones:^[8]

Zone A (western area, including Tigrillo and Espejo)
Zone B (Lower Chambira dialects, including the Asna and Airico Rivers)
Zone C (Upper Chambira and all of its tributaries)
Zone D (Corrientes)

Language contact

Jolkesky (2016) notes that there are lexical similarities with the Arawak, Leko, and Omurano language families due to contact.^[9]

Status

Urarina is currently spoken by the 2,000-3,000 members of the Urarina tribe, the majority of whom have retained the ability to speak the language. However, bilingualism and use of Spanish in everyday life is on the rise, as more and more Spanish-speaking mestizos have immigrated to the valley where the Urarina live. While there is a bilingual education system, most bilingual schools almost exclusively use Spanish, as the majority of the teachers do not speak Urarina. ^[10] The version of Urarina that is spoken by younger generations has lost a substantial degree of grammatical complexity and vocabulary, as correlated to the loss of traditional cultural practices and beliefs. The language is considered potentially endangered. ^[7]

Phonology

The following is the phonology of Urarina as described by Olawsky.^[7]

Consonants

		Labial	Dental	Retroflex	Palatal	Velar		Glottal
		Labial	Dental	Retroflex	Palatal	plain	labial	plain	palatal
Nasal		/m/	/n/		ng /ɲ/
Stop	Voiceless		/t/		ts /t͡ɕ/	/k/	kw /kʷ/
Stop	Voiced	/b/	/d/
Fricative		fw /fʷ/	/s/		sh /ʃ/			/h/	hj /hʲ/
Approximant			/l/	r /ɽ/

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	/i/	/ʉ/	/u/
Mid	/e/
Open		/a/

Orthography is only written where it differs from IPA

Grammar

Urarina has several rare grammatical characteristics. The language follows the OVS word order: of all the languages that use OVS word order, Urarina is among the strictest adherents to this word order in speech.^[7] Another feature of Urarina is its complex system on all verbs (excluding borrowings). Every verb is marked according to one of three paradigms, as determined by a complicated set of pragmatic and syntactic conditions. ^[7]

Urarina follows a similarly unique word class system. Numerals and adjectives that are borrowed from Quechua and Spanish are placed in a completely separate class from indigenous Urarina words. Urarina also follows syntactic rules wherein the pitch-accent system changes the tone of a word, based on the preceding word class.^[7] The language's set of unique features has recently garnered special attention from linguists. However, Urarina's distinctive grammatical features are gradually disappearing as younger generations speak a Urarina that is being influenced by a growing bilingualism in Spanish^[7]

Like many other Amazonian languages, Urarina follows a polysynthetic, agglutinative word morphology in relating to verbs.^[7]

Vocabulary

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

gloss	Itucale
one	exlehé
two	kuradzá
head	kuxterí
eye	idichú
woman	ení
fire	öxsí
sun	enotú
maize	kaxturí
house	luredí
white	dzumaré

Flora and fauna

List of selected plant and animal names in Urarina:^[11]

Urarina	Local Spanish	English	Scientific name	Family
aʉeno	sacha culantro	(coriander-like herb)	Eryngium foetidum	Apiaceae
aari	topa	balsa wood tree	Ochroma pyramidale	Bombacaceae
aari	arambaza	(type of bee)
aaĩ	otorongo	jaguar	Panthera onca
aerana	pucalupuna	lighthouse tree (type)	Ceiba pentandra (type)
ahai ɲe	paiche	giant arapaima (fish)	Arapaima gigas	Arapaimidae
ahariri	gamitana	tambaqui (fish)	Colossoma macropomum	Characidae
ahjaʉi	uvilla	(type of tree)	Pourouma cecropiifolia	Moraceae
ahjaaone	santa maria	(type of pepper plant)	Piper peltatum	Piperaceae
ajtɕuhiri	armadillo grande	giant armadillo	Priodontes maximus
akʉaraa	pona	white nist palm	Dictyocaryum ptarianum	Arecaceae
akaa	toé	angel trumpet vine, datura	Brugmansia sp.	Solanaceae
akii	camote	morning glory (vine)	Ipomoea sp.	Convolvulaceae
alaa	aguaje	swamp palm	Mauritia flexuosa	Palmae
alaaeri	caimitu	yellow star apple (tree)	Pouteria caimito	Sapotaceae
alajtɕõo	jergón	South American lancehead snake	Bothrops atrox
alau	maquisapa	spider monkey	Ateles paniscus
alauihja	pero caspi	(type of tree)
alõori	panguana	tinamou (partridge)	Crypturellus undulatus
anaahe	uvos	hog plum, yellow mombin (tree)	Spondias mombin	Anacardiaceae
anajsihje	mucura	anamu (herb)	Petiveria alliacea	Phytolaccaceae
anaue	pichico	tamarin (monkey)	Saguinus spp.
arauata	choro	woolly monkey	Lagothrix lagothricha
aresi ɲe	mojara	type of tetra (fish)	Acestrocephalus boehlkei	Characidae
atari	paufil	razor-billed curassow (bird)	Crax, Mitu
auri	paucar	oriole type (bird)	Psarocolius sp.	Icteridae
baka isitɕi	teta de vaca	(type of plant)	Solanum mammosum
ʤaruba	vaca marina	Amazonian manatee	Trichechus inunguis
darane	mojara	(type of fish)	related to Acestrocephalus boehlkei	Characidae
duhwa	cedro masha	cancharana (tree)	Cabralea sp.	Meliaceae
ejtɕu	cashapona	stilt palm	Socratea exorrhiza	Palmae
elelia, elele	chevón	(type of tree)
enʉasoone	nobia	(type of catfish)	Ageneiosus atronasus	Auchenipteridae
esʉ	shimbillo; guaba	ice-cream bean (tree)	Inga edulis	Fabaceae
etoe	musmuqui	owl monkey	Aotus nigriceps
fwafwafwa katʉ	sapucho; sapo platano	(type of banana)	Musa sp.
fwafwafwa	huapapa bird	boat-billed heron	Cochlearius cochlearius
fwanara lanahaj	guineo	(type of banana)	Musa sp.
haja	mullaca caspi	(type of tree)	Physalis angulata
hi ɲori	?	(type of tree)
hiriri ɲo	bagre	(type of catfish)	Pinirampus pirinampu	Pimelodidae
hjaane	achiote	annatto (tree, herb)	Bixa orellana	Bixaceae
hjarana	isana, caña brava	arrow cane	Gynerium sagittatum	Graminae
itɕai	saeha papa	(type of tuber)	Dioscorea trifida	Dioscoreaceae
kahjaʉsi	cortadera	(type of herb)	Scleria	Cyperaceae
kajahuri	cumala	(type of tree)		Myristicaceae - any type
kakʉri	trompetero	grey-winged trumpeter (bird)	Psophia crepitans
kameranati	guineo pindorito	(type of banana)
kati	mono negro	dark capuchin monkey	Cebus apella
kirimata	boquichico	tilapia (fish)	Prochilodus	Prochilodontidae
komokomo	comocomo, garza blanca	great egret	Casmerodius alba
kukuri	carachupa	Southern naked-tailed armadillo	Cabassous unicinctus
kurari	palometa; macane	silver dollar (fish)	Mylossoma/Metynnis/Myleus spp.	Characidae
kuri	jagua, sacha huito	(type of tree)	Tocoyena williamsii	Rubiaceae
kwairi	ayahuasca	(type of liana)	Banisteriopsis caapi	Malpighiaceae
laano	yuca	cassava; manioc	Manihot esculenta	Euphorbiaceae
lerano	macana	(type of knifefish)	Adontosternarchus balaenops
meseri	cocona	peach tomato (bush)	Solanum sessiliflorum	Solanaceae
nekwʉri	puma garza	rufescent tiger-heron	Botaurus pinnatus, Tigrisoma lineatum
nekwʉʉri	garabata	(type of liana)	similar to Uncaria spp.	Rubiaceae
obana	sajino	collared peccary	Pecari tajacu
ohwa	huicungo	(type of tree)	Astrocaryum murumuru	Palmae
raana	huangana	white-lipped peccary	Tayassu pecari
rihje	pijuayo, pifayo	peach palm	Bactris gasipaes	Palmae
risi ɲe	chambira	chambira palm	Astrocaryum chambira	Arecaceae
ruru	coto	red howler monkey	Alouatta seniculus
siria	dorado	(type of catfish)	Brachyplatystoma filamentosum	Pimelodidae
suseri	unchala	grey-necked wood-rail (bird)	Aramides cajanea
tariatɕa	taricaya	yellow-spotted river turtle	Podocnemis unifilis
tururi	llanchama	(type of fig tree)	Poulsenia armata	Moraceae
urwari	huitina	arrowleaf (tuber)	Xanthosoma sagittifolium	Araceae
ʃabẽeto	guayaba	(type of tree)	Psidium guajava	Myrtaceae
ʃeremia	pandisho, pan de árbol	breadfruit tree	Artocarpus altilis	Moraceae
ʉkʉari	oso hormiguero	giant anteater	Myrmecophaga tridactyla
ʉkiasi	renaco	fig tree	Ficus spp., Coussapoa spp.	Moraceae
ʉnee	kinkajou	kinkajou	Bassaricyon alleni
ʉrerej	otorongo	jaguar	Panthera onca

References

^ W. Adelaar, 2004, p. 457.
^ ^a ^b Loukotka, Čestmír (1968). Classification of South American Indian languages. Los Angeles: UCLA Latin American Center.
^ ^a ^b ^c Urarina at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
^ "Urarina Indian Language". www.native-languages.org. Retrieved 2017-12-18.
^ "WALS Online - Language Urarina". Retrieved 11 January 2017.
^ "WALS Online - Chapter Order of Subject, Object and Verb". Retrieved 11 January 2017.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h Olawsky, Kurt (2007). "1: Introduction". A Grammar of Urarina. Mouton de Gruyter. ISBN 978-311-019020-5. ISSN 0933-7636.
^ Epps, Patience; Michael, Lev, eds. (2023). Amazonian Languages: Language Isolates. Volume II: Kanoé to Yurakaré. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. pp. 1107–1109. ISBN 978-3-11-043273-2.
^ Jolkesky, Marcelo Pinho de Valhery (2016). Estudo arqueo-ecolinguístico das terras tropicais sul-americanas (Ph.D. dissertation) (2 ed.). Brasília: University of Brasília.
^ Moseley, Christopher (March 10, 2008). Encyclopedia of the World's Endangered Languages. Taylor and Francis. ISBN 9781135796402.
^ Olawsky, Kurt (2007). A Grammar of Urarina. Mouton de Gruyter. ISBN 978-311-019020-5. ISSN 0933-7636.