Asháninka language

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Asháninka
Spoken in:	Perú
Total speakers:	23,750 - 28,500 (2000 SIL)
Language family:	American Arawakan Maipuran Southern Maipuran Pre-Andine Asháninka
Language codes
ISO 639-1:	none
ISO 639-2:	`–`
ISO 639-3:	`cni`
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode.

Asháninka is an American indigenous language spoken by the Asháninca people along the Apurímac, Ene, Perené, and Tambo rivers and tributaries in Perú. Their ethnic group numbers from 25,000 to 30,000. Many of them still speak their native tongue.

The language has also been called both Asháninca and Campa; the latter of which is offensive. Like all languages that have a predominance in any particular region of Perú, Asháninka is an official language in the area in which it is spoken as provided by the Constitution. Literacy rates range from 10% to 30% compared to 15% to 25% literacy for the second language, Spanish.

The Campa (or Pre-Andean) group of the Maipurean language family includes what have been called Asháninka, Gran Pajonal Campa, Ashéninka, Axaninca, Machiguenga, and Nomatsiguenga. As these are all very closely related linguistic systems, the decision to call them dialects of a single language or different languages rests on social and political considerations rather than mere linguistic similarity or difference, as in so many other places in the world. Attempts to unify the varieties with one written standard have not been successful. Asháninka should not be confused with the related language Ashéninka and is also close to Caquinte and Machiguenga.