Aguaruna language

Aguaruna
Awajún
Native to Perú
Ethnicity Aguaruna people
Native speakers
38,000  (2000)[1]
Jivaroan
  • Aguaruna
Language codes
ISO 639-3 agr
Glottolog agua1253[2]

Aguaruna is an indigenous American language of the Jivaroan family spoken by about 45,000 Aguaruna people in Peru. The speakers live along the western portion of the Marañón River and also along the Potro, Mayo, and Cahuapanas rivers. Native speakers currently prefer the name Awajún. According to the Ethnologue there are almost no monolingual speakers; nearly all also speak Spanish. The school system begins with Aguaruna only; as the students progress, Spanish is gradually added. There is a positive outlook and connotation in regard to bilingualism. 60 to 100% are literate and 50 to 75% are literate in Spanish. Huambisa and Achuar-Siwiar are closely related languages. A modest dictionary of the language has been published.

References

  1. Aguaruna at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
  2. Nordhoff, Sebastian; Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2013). "Aguaruna". Glottolog. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.

External links