Arikapú language

Arikapú or Maxubí is an endangered Yabutian language.

Arikapú
Arikapú
Native to	Brazil
Region	Rondônia, at the headwaters of the Rio Branco
Ethnicity	37 Arikapú (2014)[1]
Native speakers	2 (2009)[2]
Language family	Macro-Gê ? Yabutian Arikapú
Dialects	Arikapu Maxubí
Writing system	Latin
Language codes
ISO 639-3	ark
Glottolog	arik1265
ELP	Arikapú
Arikapú is classified as Critically Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger
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Loukotka (1968) lists Arikapú and Maxubí as separate languages. Arikapú is spoken on the Branco River south of the Tuparí tribe. Maxubí was spoken on the Mequéns River, and went extinct some time after 1968.^[3]

Speakers

In 1998, Arikapú was spoken by only six individuals in Rondônia, Brazil, at the headwaters of the Rio Branco. By 2015, Djeoromitxi (2015)^[4] reported there were only two remaining speakers, namely the two sisters Nazaré Wadjidjika Arikapu and Nambuika Arikapu.^[5]: 27It is being supplanted by Portuguese.

Phonology

Nasalisation is indicated by a tilde on the vowel : ⟨ã ä̃ ẽ ĩ õ ũ⟩.

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i ĩ	ɨ	u ũ
Near-close	ɪ
Close-mid	e ẽ		o õ
Mid		ə ə̃
Open		a ãʌ̃

Consonants

	Bilabial	Alveolar	Postalveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	m	n
Plosive	p	t			k	ʔ ⟨ʼ⟩
Affricate			t͡ʃ ⟨tx⟩
Fricative						h
Approximant				j ⟨y⟩	w
Flap		ɾ ⟨r⟩

Orthography

Arikapú alphabet

a

ä

b

d

dj

e

h

i

ï

k

'

m

n

o

p

r

t

tx

u

ü

y

w