Yaruro language

The Yaruro language (also spelled Llaruro or Yaruru; also called Yuapín or Pumé) is an indigenous language spoken by Yaruro people, along the Orinoco, Cinaruco, Meta, and Apure rivers of Venezuela. It is not well classified; it may be an isolate, or distantly related to the extinct Esmeralda language.

Yaruro
Pumé
RegionVenezuela
EthnicityYaruro people
Native speakers
7,900 (2001 census)[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3yae
Glottologpume1238
ELPYaruro[2]

Genetic relations

Pache (2016) considers Yaruro to be related to the Chocoan languages, citing evidence from lexical and sound correspondences. Some shared lexical items between Yaruro and Chocoan (Pache (2016) cites Yaruro and Epena forms from the Intercontinental Dictionary Series):[3]

YaruroChocoan
dac͡ço ‘eye, face,’ c͡ço ‘seed, fruit, nut’Epena tautʰu ‘forehead’
da ‘eye’ (used in complex forms)Proto-Chocoan **da ‘eye region,’ **da-ˈbu ‘eye,’ Epena ˈtau ‘eye’
duɾi ‘after’Proto-Chocoan **duˈɾi ‘tail’
ɡõã ‘meat, flesh,’ goe ‘blood’Proto-Emberá *uˈa ‘blood’
hu ‘bone,’ hu c͡çia ‘strong’Proto-Chocoan **huˈa ‘arm, hand,’ Epena huaˈtau ‘strong’
i ‘skin’Proto-Emberá *ˈe ‘skin’
ĩbu ‘nose’Proto-Chocoan **kẽˈbu ‘nose’
ic͡çi ‘hand’Epena iˈsia ‘wing’

Language contact

Jolkesky (2016) notes that there are lexical similarities with the Saliba-Hodi, Arawak, Bora-Muinane, Choko, Witoto-Okaina, and Waorani language families due to contact.[4]

Phonology

Consonants
Labial Dental Palatal Velar Glottal
Stop voiceless p t c k ʔ
voiced b d ɟ ɡ
Affricate voiceless ts
voiced dz
Fricative voiceless f s ʃ x h
voiced v ð ʒ
Nasal m n ɲ ŋ
Rhotic ɾ
Lateral l
Approximant w j

Vowels
Front Central Back
High i ɨ u
Mid e ə o
æ ɔ
Low a ɑ

[5]

Vocabulary

Loukotka (1968) lists the following basic vocabulary items.[6]

glossYaruro
handichi
foottaho
manoí
waterui
starboé
earthdabú
dogarerí
jaguarpanaumé
snakepóʔo
housexoʔo
boatdzyará

Further reading
  • Obregón Muñoz, H. (1981). Léxico yaruro-español, español-yaruro. Caracas: Ministerio de Educación.

Notes
  1. Yaruro at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
  2. Endangered Languages Project data for Yaruro.
  3. Pache, Matthias J. 2016. Pumé (Yaruro) and Chocoan: Evidence for a New Genealogical Link in Northern South America. Language Dynamics and Change 6 (2016) 99–155. doi:10.1163/22105832-00601001
  4. Jolkesky, Marcelo Pinho de Valhery (2016). Estudo arqueo-ecolinguístico das terras tropicais sul-americanas (Ph.D. dissertation) (2 ed.). Brasília: University of Brasília.
  5. Alexandra Y. Aikhenvlad & R. M. Dixon (1999). p. 378.
  6. Loukotka, Čestmír (1968). Classification of South American Indian languages. Los Angeles: UCLA Latin American Center.
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