Maipure language

Maipure (Maypure, Mejepure, Maipure: [maipúɺi jukuáɺɛ]) is an extinct language once spoken along the Ventuari, Sipapo, and Autana rivers of Amazonas and, as a lingua franca, in the Upper Orinoco region. It became extinct around the end of the eighteenth century. Raoul Zamponi provided a grammatical sketch of the language and furnished a classified word list, based on all of its extant eighteenth century material (mainly from the Italian missionary Filippo S. Gilij).^[1] It is historically important in that it formed the cornerstone of the recognition of the Maipurean (Arawakan) language family.^{[citation needed]}

Maipure
Maypure, Mejepure
Pronunciation	[maipúɺi jukuáɺɛ]
Native to	Venezuela
Region	Orinoco
Extinct	late 18th century[1]
Language family	Arawakan Northern Upper Amazonian Orinoco (Yavitero)/Western Nawiki Maipure
Language codes
ISO 639-3	None (mis) Individual code: bvv – Baniva (Avane)
Linguist List	qij
Glottolog	maip1246

Classification

Kaufman (1994)^[2] gives its closest relatives as Yavitero and other languages of the Orinoco branch of Upper Amazon Arawakan. Aikhenvald places it instead in the Western Nawiki branch.^[3]

Phonology

Any assesment about Maipure phonology is tentative due to the poor attestation of the language. A consonant and vowel system are presented below.^[1]

Consonants

Maipure consonants

		Bilabial	Dental	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Stop	voiceless	p	t			k
	voiced	b
Fricative			s				h
Nasal		m	n
Lateral flap				ɺ
Trill				r
Glide		w			j

/r/ is phonetically long, [rː]. /h/ is not attested, but is mentioned by Gilij. /t, s, n/ are classified as dentals due to similar realizations in Baniva and Yavitero.

Vowels

	Front		Central		Back
	plain	long	plain	long	plain	long
High	i	iː			u	uː
Mid	e	eː
Low			a	aː

/u/ is realized freely as either [u] or [o]. /e/ is presumably realized as [ɛ], as it is in Baniva and Yavitero. Long vowels are extremely rare.