Piapoco language

Piapoco is an Arawakan language of Colombia and Venezuela.

Piapoco
Cháse
Native to	Colombia, Venezuela
Native speakers	6,400 (2001–2007)[1]
Language family	Arawakan Northern Upper Amazon Western Nawiki Piapoko languages Piapoco
Dialects	Ponares?
Language codes
ISO 639-3	Either: pio – Piapoco pod – Ponares (retired)
Glottolog	piap1246  Piapoco pona1251  Ponares – undemonstrated
ELP	Piapoco

A "Ponares" language is inferred from surnames, and may have been Piapoco or Achagua.

History

Piapoco is a branch of the Arawak language, which also includes Achagua and Tariana.^[2] Piapoco is considered a Northern Arawak language.^[3] There are only about 3,000 Piapoco speakers left today. These people live in the Meta, Vichada, and Guaviare rivers in Colombia^[4] Piapoco speakers also reside in Venezuela.^[5] It is an endangered language.^[5]

Geography/Background

The Piapocos come from the larger tribe, the Piaroa, who are indigenous to the Amazon rain forest.^[6] The Piapoco people originally lived in the midsection of Rio Guaviare, later moving in the 18th century to avoid settlers, missionaries, and others.^[7]

Bilingualism

The word Piapoco is a Spanish nickname in reference to the toucan.^[4] Most Piapoco speakers also speak Spanish.^[7] Speakers who have had less contact with Spanish speakers more often pronounce the phoneme "s" as a voiceless interdental fricative.^[8] Younger speakers of the Piapoco language tend to eliminate the "h" more than older speakers due to their contact with the Spanish language.^[8]

When a large portion of people come in contact with another language and are competent in it, their language gradually becomes more like the other.^[9] This allows for a gradual convergence, where grammar and semantics of one language begin to replicate the other.^[9]

Phonology

Consonants

		Labial	Dental	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal		m		n
Stop	voiceless	p		t		k
	voiced	b		d
Affricate				ts
Fricative			s̪ ~ θ				h
Trill				r
Approximant		w		l	j

• /s̪/ can be pronounced as [θ] among speakers who have had less contact with Spanish speakers.
• /k/ can be palatalized as [kʲ] when after /i/, before another vowel.
• /ts/ can be pronounced as [tʃ] in free variation among different speakers.
• /w/ is pronounced as [β] when preceding front vowels.

Vowels

	Front	Back
High	i	u
Low	e	a

Vowels can be nasalized [ã] when occurring before nasal consonants.^[10]

Grammar

A Piapoco-Spanish dictionary containing 2,500 words was written by Deloris Klumpp, in which botanical identification of plants were captured, although not all.^[3] The Piapoco language follows the following grammatical rules: plural suffix -nai used for animates only, derivational suffixes masculine -iri, feminine -tua, suffix -mi 'late, defunct,' nominalizing -si, declarative mood marker -ka.^[3] Piapoco is unique in that it seems to be a nominative-accusative language.^[3] There are eighteen segmental phonemes, fourteen consonant and four vowels in the Piapoco language.^[8]