Jivaroan languages

Jibaroan
Hívaro
Geographic
distribution:
Peru
Linguistic classification: Macro-Jibaro ?
  • Jibaroan
Subdivisions:

Jivaroan (violet) and Cahuapanan (pink) languages. Spots are documented locations, shadowed areas probable extension in 16th century.

Jivaroan (also Hívaro, Jívaro, Jibaroana, Jibaro) is a small language family, or perhaps a language isolate, of northern Peru and eastern Ecuador.

Contents

Family division

Jivaroan consists of 4 languages:

1. Shuar
2. Achuar
3. Awajun
4. Huambisa

This language family is spoken in Amazonas, Cajamarca, Loreto, and San Martin, Peru and the Oriente region of Ecuador. .

Genetic relations

The extinct Palta language was classified as Jivaroan by Jacinto Jijón y Caamaño ca. 1940, followed by Čestmír Loukotka. However, only a few words are known, and Kaufman (1994) states that there is "little resemblance".

The most promising external connections are with the Cahuapanan languages and perhaps a few other language isolates in proposals variously called Jívaro-Cahuapana (Hívaro-Kawapánan) (Jorge Suárez and others) or Macro-Jibaro or Macro-Andean (Morris Swadesh and others, with Cahuapanan, Urarina, Puelche, and maybe Huarpe).

The unclassified language Candoshi has also been linked to Jivaroan, but more recently linguists have searched elsewhere for Candoshi's relatives.

External links

Bibliography