Candoshi-Shapra language

Candoshi-Shapra (also known as: Candoshi, Candoxi, Kandoshi, and Murato) is an indigenous American language isolate spoken by several thousand people in western South America along the Chapuli, Huitoyacu, Pastaza, and Morona river valleys. There are two dialects, Chapara (also spelled Shapra) and Kandoashi. This language is an official language of Perú as are all native languages in the areas where they are spoken and are the predominant language in use. Their people are prideful in their language and seems to be prospering, 88.5 percent of people are bilingual with Spanish. There is 10 to 30 percent literacy and 15 to 25 percent in Second language Spanish. There is a Candoshi-Shapra dictionary and grammar rules have been developed.

Classification

Candoshi is not closely related to any living language. It may be related to the extinct and poorly attested language Chirino. Four words of Chirino are mentioned in Relación de la tierra de Jaén (1586), and they resemble words in modern Candoshi. A somewhat longer list of words is given in the same document for Rabona across the modern border in Ecuador; these include some names of plants which resemble Candoshi, though such things can easily be borrowed.

Among modern languages, Loukotka (1968), followed by Tovar (1984), connected Candoshi with Taushiro (Pinche). Kaufman (1994) tentatively proposed a Kandoshi–Omurano–Taushiro language family, with Candoshi the more distant of the trio. However, Kaufman (2007) placed Omurano and Taushiro, but not Candoshi, in Macro-Andean.

References

• Alain Fabre, 2005, Diccionario etnolingüístico y guía bibliográfica de los pueblos indígenas sudamericanos: CANDOSHI[1]