Purubora language

The Puruborá language of Brazil is one of the Tupian languages. It is also known as Aurã, Cujubim, Burubora, Kuyubi, Migueleno, Miguelenho or Pumbora. Specifically, it is spoken in the Brazilian state of Rondônia, in Costa Marques and around the headwaters of the Rio São Miguel tributary of the right bank of the Guaporé. It is nearly extinct, with only two native speakers (and 243 in the ethnic group in 2014) reported in 2015.^[1]

Puruborá
Kujubi
Native to	Brazil
Region	Rondônia
Ethnicity	243 Puruborá (2014)
Native speakers	2 (2015)
Language family	Tupian Purubora–Ramarama Puruborá
Language codes
ISO 639-3	pur
Glottolog	puru1264
ELP	Puruborá

Phonology

Consonants

		Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Plosive	voiceless	p	t		k	ʔ
	voiced	b	d
	prenasal	ᵐb	ⁿd
	implosive	ɓ	ɗ
Nasal		m	n
Fricative	voiceless			ʃ		h
	voiced			ʒ
Tap			ɾ
Approximant		w		j

• /j/ has an allophone of [ɲ] when before or in between nasal vowels.
• [ŋ] is an allophone of /n/ when before /k/, or is also an allophone of /k/ when after nasal vowels in word-final position.
• /w/ may also be heard as [β] when before high vowels or in free variation with [w].
• Stops /t, d/ are also heard as palatalized [tʲ, dʲ] when before /i/.

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i ĩ	ɨ ɨ̃	u ũ
Mid	ẽ	ə ə̃	o õ
Open-mid	ɛ		(ɔ)
Open		a ã

[ɔ] may also be heard as an allophone of /o/.^[2]

Vocabulary

Loukotka (1968) lists the following basic vocabulary items.^[3]

gloss	Puruborá
one	múm
two	wewáb
three	bokód-wewáb
head	azyá
ear	zapetó
tooth	inká
hand	wapitái
woman	bagoyá
water	zereré
fire	ndamizyá
stone	muruá
maize	zyiá
tapir	taní