Kariri languages

The Karirí languages, generally considered dialects of a single language, are extinct languages spoken until the middle of the 20th century; the 4,000 ethnic Karirí are now monolingual Portuguese speakers, though a few know common phrases and names of medicinal plants.

The four known Kariri languages are:

• Kipeá (Quipea, Kariri)
• Kamurú (Camuru)
• Dzubukuá (Dzubucua, Kiriri)
• Sabujá (Sapuya, Pedra Branca).

There are short grammatical descriptions of Kipeá and Dzubukuá, and word lists for Kamurú and Sabujá. Ribeiro established through morphological analysis that Kariri is likely to be related to the Jê languages.

Other languages called 'Kariri'

The names Kariri and Kiriri were applied to many peoples over a wide area in the east of Brazil, in the lower and middle São Francisco River area and further north. Most of their now-extinct languages are too poorly known to classify, but what is recorded does not suggest that they were all members of the Kariri family. Examples are:

• Katembri (Kiriri, Kariri, Kariri de Mirandela [near Banzaê & Quijingue])
  • 100 words in the early 1960s from an elder with vague memories of the language.
  • Kaufman (1990) classified it as Katembri–Taruma. LinguistList code qef
• Xukurú (Kirirí, Kirirí-Xokó [in Pernambuco])
  • A few words from an elder in 1961.
  • Loukotka (1968) says this forms a small family with Paratió. ISO 639-3: xoo
• Xocó (Xokó, Chocó [in Sergipe], Kariri-Xocó, Kariri-Shoko, Cariri-Chocó [in Alagoas], Xukuru-Kariri, Xucuru-Kariri, Xucuru-Cariri [in Alagoas])
  • Three populations. A few dozen words from one Kariri-Xoco elder and three Xukuru-Kariri elders in 1961. Not clear if this was one language or three.
  • Conflated with the Kariri family as ISO 639-3 kzw; Ethnologue does not indicate if this was a conscious decision.

References

• RIBEIRO, Eduardo. (2002) 'O marcador de posse alienavel em Kariri: um morfema macro-je revisitado'. Revista Liames, 2: 31-48.
• Alain Fabre, 2005, Diccionario etnolingüístico y guía bibliográfica de los pueblos indígenas sudamericanos: KARIRI[1]