Cashibo language

Cashibo (Caxibo, Cacibo, Cachibo, Cahivo), Cacataibo, Cashibo-Cacataibo, Managua, or Hagueti is an indigenous language of Peru in the region of the Aguaytía, San Alejandro, and Súngaro rivers. It belongs to the Panoan language family, which consists of 28 languages including Shipibo and Yora. The language is spoken vigorously by the aboriginal people of the same name. According to the Ethnologue there were 5,000 speakers of Cashibo in 1999, but the language was vigorous in the communities.

Statistics

The language is official along the Aguaytía, San Alejandro, and Súngaro rivers in Perú where it is most widely spoken. It is used in schools until third grade. There are not many monolinguals, although some women over the age of fifty are.

There is five to ten percent literacy compared to fifteen to twenty-five percent literacy in Spanish as a second language. A Cashibo-Cacataibo dictionary has been compiled, and there is a body of literature, especially poetry.

References

• Ethnologue
• Campbell, Lyle. (1997). American Indian languages: The historical linguistics of Native America. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-509427-1.
• Kaufman, Terrence. (1990). Language history in South America: What we know and how to know more. In D. L. Payne (Ed.), Amazonian linguistics: Studies in lowland South American languages (pp. 13-67). Austin: University of Texas Press. ISBN 0-2927-0414-3.