| Awa Pit | |
|---|---|
| Cuaiquer | |
| Spoken in | Colombia, Ecuador |
| Native speakers | 21,000 (1986) |
| Language family | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | kwi |
Awa or Awa pit, also known as Cuaiquer, is a Barbacoan language spoken in northwestern South America.[1]
It has 21,000 speakers nearly all in the Colombian Pacific slopes, with 1,000 speakers in an adjacent area of Ecuador.[1] Most males also speak Spanish; however, children and females are predominantly monolingual.[1]
Literacy is less than 1% in their native language, and under 5% are literate in the secondary Spanish language.[1]
The language uses the subject-object-verb structure and uses the Latin alphabet.[1]
In Colombia variations of the name include: Coaiquer, Quaiquer, Kwaiker, Awa, Awa Pit, and Cuaiquer; in Ecuador its is also known as Awa, Awapit, and Cuaiquer.[1]