306 R M.

W Dixoll

In (2),fana 'woman' is the pivot through the two c1auses. The transitve
c1ause is then an A-construction in whichfana is the understood A and awi 'tapir'
12
the stated O. It is recognizable as an A-construction by the absence of a verbal prefix
!Ji- and by the feminine forms of tense and mood suffixes, agreeing with the A argu
ment 'woman'. In (3), awi 'tapir' is the pivot linking the two c1auses; t is in S func
Smalllanguage families and
don in the first and in O function in the second. The latter is an O-construction, isolates in Peru
marked by verbal prefix hi- and the masculine forms of tense and mood
agreeing with the O argumento

structions in Jarawara is in Dixon forthcoming-a.)

MARY RUTH WISE
Araw languages al 50 have complement c1auses (fillng a core slot in the main
and a rich array of other types of subordinate c1ause constructions. Just
Paumar also has a
derivation (in addition to A-constructions and O-con-
INTRODUCTION: THE LANGUAGES AND PAMILlES
structions).

The members of five smalllanguage familes Cahuapana, Jvaro, Zaparo, Peba

Yagua and Witoto - are located in northero Peru and across the borders in Ecuador,
Colombia, and Brazil. The speakers of these languages, with the exception of Jivaro
RIBLlOGRAPHY
and possibly Cahuapana, were among the ethnic groups whose populations were
Adams, P. 1987. 'Madja grammar sketch' (87p typescrpt, SIL Peru). decimated during the 'rubber boom' al the turn of the twentieth century. The indig
Adams Lchlan, P. and Marlett, S. 1990. 'Madija noun morphology'.IJAL, 56.102-20. ellous population of the Putumayo River region dropped from 50,000 to
Brinton, D. G. 1891. Tire American race. New York: Hodges Publisher.
Chandless, W. 1869. 'Notes on a journey up the Rver Juru', .loi/mal of he Royal
7,000-10,000 during the firs! decade of the twentieth century. The Zaparo lan
Geogmpltical Sociely, 39.296-311. guages have los! continually lo Quechua; they and all of the famlies except
Chapman, S. and Derbyshire, D. C. 1991. 'Paumar', pp. 161-352 of Handbook of Amazonillll Jivaro are al so
langllages. vol. 111, ed. D. C. Derbyshire and G. K. Pullum. Berlin: Moulon de Gruyter.
One other smaIl language family might be added lo lhe five discussed in this
Dixon, R. M. W. 1995. 'Fusionol development of gender marking in Jarawara possessed
nouns" I.lAL. 61.263-94,
chapter, namely Harakmbet (or Hate) of the southem Peruvan jungle. However,
lorthcoming-a. 'A-constructions and O-constructions in Jarawara'.
the current consensus is that it should be considered a single language sola te. Two
forthcoming-b. 'Proto-Araw phonology'.
isolates are almos! e1<tinct. Language loss appears to have oc~urred in Munichi in
Dixon, R. M. W. and Vogel, A. R. 1996. 'Reduplication in Jarawara" Languages of he World,
10.24-31,
the form of morphological simplification (Gibson 1996: 26). It was impossible to
forthcoming. Tlle .larmram language of sOlllhern Amazonia.
record any folklore among !he Taushiro since all of the old story tellers died in an
Koop. G. and Koop, L. 1985. Dicionrio Denl-Pol'tugues. Porto Velho: SIL. (Experimental epidemic in about 1964 (N. Alicea p.c.).
edition 01' ten copies; inc!udes grammatical sketch, building on Moran and Moran 1977.)
Monserrat, R. M. F. and Silva, A. O. (Kanau). 1986. Gramtica da Ifngua Kulina, Acre:
Table 12.1 Jigts the languages within families or as isolates, as well as other lan
Conselho Indigenista Mssionro. guages of northern Peruvan Amazonia; alternative names within parentheses are
Moran, P. and Moran, D. 1977. 'Notas sobre morfologia verbal Den', pp. 29-71 01' Srie followed by location, population, and comments on literacy, bilingualism and
Lingstica 7, ed. L. Bridgeman. Brasilia: SIL.
dialects. 1 The accompanying map shows the approximate locations of these Jan
Silva, A. O. (Kanau) and Monserrat, R. M. F. 1984. Dicionrio KulillllPorwglls e
Por/ugus-Kulina (dia/e/o do Igarap do Anjo J. Acre: COllselho Indigenista Missionro. guages and isolates. For more than thirty years, there have been government-spon
sored bilingual schools among the Chayahuita, Aguaruna, Achuar, Wambisa,
Shuar, Arabela, Yagua, Bora, Ocaina, Murui Witoto, Candoshi and Ticuna. The
first Aguaruna-.Spanish sehool began in 1953; among the Amarakaer and Iquito,
Unless specified otherwise, references to bilingualism indicate proficiency in the vernacular
and Spanish.
 w
o
00

Table 12.1 Small fanguage famUles and isolates in Peru

Cahuapana
la Chayahuita (Canpo piyapi, Tshaawi) Paranapura, Cahuapana, SiIlay and Shanusi rivers; popo 7,000; 20% incipient to quite bilingual; 30%

!iterate in Chayahuita and Spanish; dialects: Chayahuita, Cahuapana.

lb Jebero (Chebero, Xiwila) District of Jeberos; pop. 2.000; only older adults speak he language.

Jivaro (Shuar)
2a Aguaruna (Aguajun) Westem Upper Maraon. Potro, Mayo and Cahuapanas rivers; pop. 39,000; 35% mono lingual; al

least 80% !iterate in Aguaruna and many (65%?) in Spanish also.

Shuar subgroup
2b Achuar-Shiwiar (Achual,livaro. Maina) Morona, Macusari, Tigre, Huasaga, and Corrientes rivers in Peru; Pastaza and Bobonaza rivers in

Ecuador; popo 5,500; 90% monolingual; 35%7 iterate.

2c Wambisa Morona and Santiago rivers; popo 6,000-10,000; 20% mono lingual; 50%? literate.

2d Shuar (Jivaro. Chiwaro, Xivaro) Morona-Santiago Province in Ecuador; popo 32,000; 14% monolingual; 50%? literate.

Zapara ..
3a Andoa (Shimigae, Semigae, Gae, Gaye) village of Andoas, Pastaza river; popo of ethnic group - 150-200, language became extinct in 1993;
al! now speak Southern Pastaza Quechua andlor Spanish.

3b Arabela (Chiripuno) Arabela river, tributary of Napo; popo of ethnic group - 300, speakers 150 maximum; no monolin

guals in Arabela, many trilngual in Arabela, Tigre (Northern Pastaza) Quechua and Spanish. Note,

however, that a small isolated subgroup (the Pananahuri) which separated from those on the Arabela

about 100 years ago may still exist.

3c Aushiri (Auxira) tributaries of right bank of Napo river; extinct.

3d Cawarano headwaters of the Nanay river; 5 speakers in 1972; possibly a dialect of Iquito.

3e lquito (Amacacore, Hamacore, Northern Nanay fver; popo 150 in 1965; only older adults speak the language, all are bilingual with

Quiturran, Puca-Uma) Spanish.

3f Omurano (Roamaina, Mayna) Urituyacu river; extinct by 1958.

Table 12.1 (cont.)

3g Zaparo (Zapara. Kayapwe) Pastaza Province, Ecuador; popo 01' ethnic group 150, only 2/3 older adults spoke the language in
1980; integrated with the Northern Pastaza Quechua.
Peba-Yagua
4a Yameo !taya and Nanay rivers; popo 50 in 1'125; now extinct.
4b Peba formerly spoken north of the town 01' Pebas on the Amazon river; extinct.
4c Yagua (Yava, Llagua, Yegua) Northeastern Amazon river from (quitos to Brazil border, a few in Colombia and Brazil; popo
3,000-4,000; 25-35% bilingual in Spanish, low level 01' literacy; some dialectal differences.
Wtoto
Bora-Muinane subgroup
5a Bora Colombia-Peru border, mostly in Peru - Yaguasyacu. Ampiyacu and Putumayo rvers; popo
2,000-2,500; hgh mte of literacy and bilingualsm; 94'V,) mutually intelligible wth Miraa dialect
(100 speakers in Brazil and Colombia).
Sb Munane East Central Amazonas in Colombia; popo 150; all are bilingual with Bora or Witoto.
Witoto-Ocaina subgroup
Sc Ocaina Yaguasyacu and Ampiyacu rivers, mostly in Peru, a few in Colombia; popo 150-200; multilingual in
Murui Witoto, Bora and/or Spanish; dialects: Dukaiya, Ibo'tsa.
Early Witoto languages
5d Nipode (Muinane) Witoto mostly in Peru; popo 50-100; bilingual in Murui Witoto andlor Spanish.
Se Mintca Witoto Igaraparan river in Colombia; pop. 2,500; many are bilingual with Spanish and litemte.
sr Murui Witoto (Be) Putumayo, Ampiyacu, and Putumayo rivers; pop. 2,000-2,800; 95% of those under 40 are literate;
90% 01' those under 50 are at leas! incipient bilnguals.
Isolates (ncludes only extant languages)
6 Candoshi-Shapm (Murato) Huitoyacu, Chapul, Morona and Pastaza rvers; popo 3,000; 12'Yo incipient bilinguals; many litcf'dte
in Candoshi; daJects: Kandoashi, Chapara.

7 Cholon (Tinganeses. Seeptsa)
8 Harakmbet (Hate)
9 Munichi (Munichino, Otan abe)
10 Taushiro (Pinche)
11 Ticuna (Tukuna)
12 Urarna (Shimacu, ltucali)
Huallaga Rver Valley; 1 or 2 speakers in 1985; no recent data avalable.
Madre de Dios, Colorado and Keros rivers; popo approx. 650; approx. 80'Yu are at least incipient
bilinguals; approx. 10% lilerate in Amarakaeri and 50"/.) in Spanish; major dialecrs: Amarakaeri and
Wachipaeri; Kisambaeri is probably a subdialect of the former and Arasairi, Sapiteri and Toyoeri
are probably subdialects of he latter.
village of Munichis on the Parlnapum river; 3 speakers in 1988.
Aucayacu river, a tributary of he Tigre; popo approx. 5.
an isolate spoken along the Amazon in Peru, Colombia and Brazil; popo 6,000 in Peru, 14,000 in
Brazil, 5,000 in Colombia; high rale 01' literacy in Spanish aud Ticuna among Peruvian Ticuna;
many biliugual with Spansh or Portuguese.
Chambira and Urituyacu rivers; popo 3,500; 40% at leas! incipient bilinguals; some
Eerate in Urarina and Spanish.
\

312 Mary Ruth Wise 12 Small /anguagefamilies and iso/ates in Peru 313

related, are mutually unintelligible. No reconstruction has been proposed, nor has
Table 12.2 Jebero (Cahuapana) consonants
membership in a larger family or stock been confirmed by comparative work.
The Jivaro (Shuar) family includes Aguaruna (the most diverse), Wambisa, bilabial dental alveolar p,ost-alveolar palatal velar labio-velar glottal
Achuar and Shuar. Candoshi has sometimes been c\assified as a member of a
Shuar-Candoshi family but David Payne (1989) considers his earlier (1981) com plosive p e k '/
ejective k'
parative reconstruction of proto-Shuar-Candoshi to be unjustified. It has also been nasal m n .n !l
erroneously e1assified as Zaparo by sorne authors. 2 fricative f
Little data are available on Peba and Yameo and no comparative work has been lIap f
ejective flap f'
done on the Peba-Yagua family.3
lateral
Languages of the Zaparo family are in the eastem jungle of northern approximant w
Peru and southeast Ecuador. The whole family is nearly extinct with fewer than 200
speakers in total. Only Arabela and lquito are spoken more than 10 people, and
only Arabela has even a slim chance of survival beyond the present generaton of Table 12.3 Jebero (Cahuapana)
older adults. (See Stark 1990 for a description of the sociolinguistic situation.) VOl veIs

Taushiro is possibly a Zaparo language, but its classification has not been con
firmed.
The Witoto family neludes two main branches: Bora-Muinane and
Witoto-Ocaina. The two Bora-Munane languages are: Bora, including the Miraa
dialect which is about 94% intelligible with Bora, and Muinane, not to be confused
with Muinane Witoto. Resigaro has sometimes been included in the family but
David Payne (1985) demonstrates that the apparent relationship is the result of
heavy borrowing, with consequent phonological change and some grammatical
borrowing; Resigaro is c1early an Arawak language (see also Aschmann 1993:
Harakmbet has sometimes been erroneously classified as Pre-andine Arawak.
Apparent cognates are probably due lo borrowing and lo Ihe presence of sorne
widespread grammatical forms (cf. David Payne There has been some con
vergence of dialects, or rather ex.tension of Amarakaeri, al leasl in the Dominican
Mission al Shinluya (Van den Eynde 1972: 4; see also Lyon 1975).
2 PHONOLOGY
Most of the languages in the five families differ from areal patterns in one or more
traits. In the Jivaro languages there are few restrictions on syllable-final consonants
so that consonant clusters are very frequent. Syllables are usually open in the other
2 David P'''yne (1989) suggcsts a possible deep genetic relationship between Candoshi and
Arawak; he presents thirty-two basic vocablllary forms with CVC resemblances and several
apparent grammatical cognatcs. Gnerre (1988) sllggests a possible deep genetic relationship
between the Jivaro and Arawak ramilies. Neither sllggests thal Jivaro langllages
Candoshi are more c10sely related to each other than to Arawak.
J Dors Payne (1984) hypotheszes a possible Zaparo-Yagua connection.
front central back
close u
near-close
open a
languages. Aguaruna (Ji varo) has no while Jebero (Cahuapana) has three.
Both fricatives and affricates occllr in sorne but others have one or the other.
Pitch accent and high-low tone contrasts are more frequent than contrastive stress.
A four-vowel system is the most frequent but severallanguageshave six.
The consonant and vowel inventories of Jebero (Cahuapana) are shown in tables
12.2 and 12.3 respectively (adapted from Bendor-Samuel
Chayahuita lacks e and the glottalized consonants, has one liquid (r) and
two nasals (bilabial and alveolar). In Jebero, occlusives are voiced after nasals. The
phoneme /!../ is 'produced by the blade of the tongue in the palatal regio n with the
tongue tip down behind the bottom teeth' (Bendor-SamueI1961: 13); Jis a friction
less continuant. Syllables can be open or closed. The central near-close vowel is
lower in Jebero than in Chayahuita. 7, c-quality and nasalization are analysed as
syllable pros odies in Jebero (1961: 20). Vowel length, aspiraton, glottalization
[vowel + 1] and nasalization are considered to be part of the syllable nucleus in
Chayahuita (Hart and Hart 1976) so that syllables are open. Stress is not contrastive
in either language. In Jebero the first syllable of a disyllabic word is accented and
the second 01' words with three or more syllables; there is sorne modification with
certain suffixes.
 314 Mary Ruth Wise 12 Smalllanguage families and iso/ates in Peru 315

Table 12.4 Aguaruna consonants Table 12.6 Yagua consonan/s

bilabial alveolar post-alveolar palatal velar labio-velar glottal bilabial alveolar post-alveolar palatal velar labio-velar glottal

plosive p k ? plosive p[pW, p] t[t) k [k]

nasal m n 1) nasal m[m"',m,m b] n[n,j1,n d ]
affrcate ts tI affriC'dte Is [ts, tI. 1, sI tI [tJl
fricative s J h fricative h [h]
approximant 1( W llap r[r)
j[j) w[w, 131

Table 12.5 Aguaruna vowels

Table 12.7 Yagua vowels
front central back
front central back
c10se u

open a
close i[i,l] i ti, i) u [u, u, i)
c1ose-mid e [e)
open-mid 0[0]
The Jivaro languages are characterized by many consonant dusters word open a [a, <e, e]
medially. The consonants and vowels of Aguaruna are shown in tables 12.4 and 12.5
(adapted from David Payne 1981).
Nasal and oral vowels contrast. As in many Amazonian languages, nasalization (2a) (David Payne 1981)
can extend over a whole series of vowels and semivowels; nasal consonants are pro Inama!]1 'meat'
nounced as prenasalzed voiced plosives in the environment of oral vowels. (See Isuwatfl 'Iungs'
David Payne 1976 for a detailed analysis of nasalty.) David Payne (1990a) proposes IpllJkiOI 'good'
that Aguanma has a type of pitch accent in which stress (intensity) does not neces
(Wipio el al. 1996)
sarily coincide with high pitch (accent) as shown in (1).4 Tbis analysis is nmh"hlv
Isaunkl 'kind of leaf' vs Isaunkl)tinl 'stream where plants
applicable to the other Jivaro languages. The reflex of 1*01 is Ir! in
with these leaves abollnd'
position (oftell syllable-final after vowel deletion) in aH of the languages except
Ijunmatl 'to draw near' vs 'to draw near to sorne-
Aguarulla which retains IU/; cOllsequently there are 110 liquids in Aguaruna.
thing or someone'
Voiceless word-final vowels are contrastive but are no louger pronolll1ced by many
speakers. Contrastive vowellength is interpreted as a vowel seqllence. Syllables may The phonemes ol' Yagua and their principal allophones except for most palatal
be open or dosed (2a). Vowel deletion andlor metathesis result in many consonant ized consonants are showl1 in tables 12.6 and 12.7 (adapted l'rom Doris Payne
cllIsters 1985b: 16-17).
Powlison (1995: 30-3) surnrnarizes the elfects of Ijl 011 vowels: for example, /wjal
(1) (David Payne 1990a: 165)
[~l/tful 'monkey (NOM)' vs [~lj ItJlIn I 'monkey is Whenever a morpheme ending
(David Payne 1981: 336) --"
in Ijl immediately precedes a rnorphemeh",,,nnn with any consonant other than
[~/kapl 'vine' vs [kaap]/kapl 'gnat'
an alveolar or palatal obstruent, there is rnetathesis of Ijl and the consonant.
Morphemes do not end in cOllsonants other than /jl (Doris Payne 1985b: 17). As in
lllSCI1t1mer the acute accent n is used to indicate high pitch or tone. Low tone
languages where torie is contrastive. the Jivaro languages, nasal consonants are pronollnced as prenasalized plosives,
\
316 Mary Ruth Wise 12 Smalllanguage families and iso/ates in Peru 317
1
1 Table 12.8 Dora consonants Table 12.9 Dora vowels
I
I
bilabial alveolar post-alveolar palatal velar labio-velar glottal [ront central back
I plosive p k kP[k P, kW ? clos i (i, 1] ID
ph th kh t [i, IJ
I
near-c1ose
nasal m n c1ose-mid 9[9'l]
affricate ts tI open-mid t:: [E, <e, el
tsh tJh open a la, <l)
fricative Ji x [x, e]
flap r
approximant
Table 12.10 Arabe/a COllsonants

bilabial alveolar post-alveolar palatal velar labio-velar glottal

that is with an oral release, in the environment of oral vowels. There are two con
trastive tone levels; sorne syllables have inherent tone; others inherent low tone; plosive p t (1, t:J k [k, x, g, Y, k:]
nasal m n In, 0:,
others have no inherent tone (I985b: 17-18).
friC'cltive s J[J,J:] h
The phonological systems of the Witoto languages vary considerably. Bora and flap r Ir, r, fl, r:]
Muinane have two contrastive levels of lexical tone. Tone is also very important in approximant jU, 1) w (w, w]
the morphosyntax of Bora, as shown in (3). Note, for example, that high tone
occurs on the penultimate vowel in the citaton form of 'chief', low tone when it is
subject, and high tone on both Ihe penultimate alld antepenultimate when it is the Table 12.11 Arabela vowels
possessor. Similarly the nominal form of mahtf6has high tone on the first syllable
front central back
bUI the verbal fonns do not, except in the ruture tense.
elose i u[u,u]
(3) (Tlliesen 1996: 15) close-mid e le, 1]
fJhupe 'chief' open a la, <e, e, :>, <l]
f.lihuupe mahtf 'the chief eats'
fJhuupe mahtf 'the chief ate some time ago'
Ocaina also has palatalzed consonants bUI not a full series. lt is in tha!
f.lihuupe mhtfo 'the chief is going to eat'
fortis and lenis nasals contrast. The fortis feature may be actualized either as length
fJihpe mhtfo 'the chief's rood'
or as tense articulation or as both (Agnew and Pike 1957: 24). The leHis nasals are
Each syllable has either a high or low tone and only one mora; the tones are the pronounced without complete closure (Leach 1969: 164). Voiced and voiceless
basis for sending messages a distance of several kilometres using a pair of hardwood sives contrast. There are twenty-six consonants, five oral vowels, five nasal vowels
signal drums abont five feet each in length (Thiesen 1969). M uinane also has con and contrastive pitch accent.
trastive tone while Ocaina has contrastive pitch accent (Aschmann 1993: 3). Witoto, Witoto is unique in that there is no voiceless bilabial plosive; does have
except for M urui, has contrastive accent [p) as an allophone of the voiceless bilabial fricative; like Bora, there is no [s). MUTUi
The phonemes of Bora are listed in tables 12.8 and 12.9. Witoto has a dental fricative lO/. Npode has voiced implosives 151 and Idl word
AIl of the consonants except !rl and Ik P! have palatalized counterparts; Itfl and medially, and Muinane has geminate plosives word-mediaIly. Sequences of three
Itr/are the palatalized counterparts of Itsl and Itsb/. The phoneme Ijl functions vowels are common in Witoto.
morphophonemically as the palatalized counterpart of Irl following lil. Bora is The consonant and vowel inventories of Arabela from the Zaparo family are
un usual in tha! it has three close or near-c\ose unrounded vowels. shown in tables 12. \O and 12.11 (adapted from F. Rich 1963).
318 Mary Rllth Wise 12 Small /anguage families and iso/ates in Peru 319

Zaparo differs from Arabela in having alveolar and postalveolar affricates and a
3.1 Nominal morphology
plosive. Iq uito and Zaparo each has only four vowels: clase front and central,
open central, and one back vowe1 varying between close and mido In all three Jan 3.L1 Classifiers
guages long and short vowels contrasto In Arabela, al least, there is palatalization In Yagua, classifiers are infixed into the number 'one' and suffixed to other
and labialization of consonants (written as Ci and Cu in the examples) in syllables numbers; classifiers occur with nouns, demonstratives, adjectives and verbs. They
following i and ti, respectively. In Arabe1a /hl has a nasal quality and vowels are are especally important in Bora where more than 350 have been identified. In
nasalized following Ih/ and nasal consonants (F. Rich 1963: 197). With the excep Witoto and Peba-Yagua, the families with gender distinction, masculine or
tion of a phrase-final fortis Ih/ and [?J for emphasis in Arabela, syllables are open. feminine gender suffixes function as classifiers in words referring to animate nouns.
A two-tone system is reported for [quito (Eastmall and Eastman 1963: 146).5 In Bora c1assifiers occur in pronouns al so. Examples from Bora with - ?mi 'Ieaf'
The isolates present several phonological features which differ from areal patterns: follow:
Ticuna has a very complex tonal system as well as laryngealized vowels (L. Anderson
(4) (Thieseu 1996: \06-7)
l 959a,b, and Montes Rodrguez 1995). 6 Candoshi has a voiceless retroflexed post
alveolar affricate, and the maximum syllable is CCCVC. Taushiro is the kJ'aahkhw 'knowledge' kraahkhw?mi 'book'
Peruvian language in which there are no blabial or labio-dental consonants. mithja 'big' mthia?mi 'big leaf, book, etc.'
tsha 'one' tsh?ami 'oue leaf, boak, etc.'
3 MORPHOLOGY tsh 'another' tsh?iami 'another leaf,
etc.'
Word c1asses in most of the languages include open classes of nouns, verbs and
adjectives. Closed c1asses uSllally include adverbs as well as pronouns and conjllnc
a 'conjullction, ?ami 'that leaf, etc.,
tions. In most of the languages, adjectives are more likely to occur as predicate auaphoric mentioned in
pronoun' preceding sentence'
tives than in the noun phrase but the adjective c1ass as such ls not necessarily c1osed.
AH of the languages of the five familes are agglutinative, although strings of phanithwe 'important' phuithIe?mi 'the most impart;>nt
affixes tend to be shorter in the Jvaro languages than in the others. Sulfixes predom (Ieaf, book, etc.)'
inate but there are causative prefixes in Jivaro, Cahuapana and Harakmbet. The
In the Witoto family and Yagua, uumerals agree with their head noun as in (5);
Cahuapana languages also have about two dozen stem-formng verbal prefixes. In
in Bora and demonstratives do also.1 The modifier .in descrptive uoun
Zaparo, Bora and Yagua, person markers are prefixed to possessed noulls. In
phrases may optionally agree, as in
Yagua, (quito and Harakmbet, ud sometimes in Arabela and Zapa ro, subject
person markers are prefixes also. Cahuapana, Jivaro and Harakmbet verbs cross (5) (Yagua: Doris payne 1985b: 114)
reference both subject/agent and object. The cross-referencing morphemes are pre t-nu-kii nHnu
fixes in Harakmbet; declarative, dubitative and imperative sets differ in some one-CL:thick. pole-one pole
subject/agent-object forms. 'one Dole' or 'one tree trunk'
The Witoto languages and Yagua have dual, as well as singular and plural, (6) Doris Paync 1985b: 117)
numbers (a dual number is unusual in Amazonia). Cahuapana languages and
r-bti f'naj(-bii)
Harakmbet have dual number in the first person only.
[rna(-bi)]
5 Further analysis might show tha! quito has a pitch-accent i ts-cL:flower red( -cL:flower)
6 Anderson (1959a,b) and Soares (1995) describe Ticuna as having five tones as well as glides. 'its red flower'
In a recent auto-Seb'ltlental analysis, Montes Rodrguez (1995) agrees wilh Anderson's pho
netic transcription but consders tha! high and low tones comprise Ihe basic opposition and
that a third mid tone is relatvely weak and might best be con side red as an underspecified J Thedata available lo me are insufficienl to determine ir this is tme of all WitQto languages
element. or noto
320 Mar)' Ruth Wise 12 Smalllangllage fami/ies and isolates in Peru 321

lo Cahuapaoa aod Zaparo, one of the frequent nouo derivational suffixes is an
attributive {'owner or'), as in so?ja- wan (wife-ATTRlB) 'one who has a wife', ma?
wan (thiogs-ATTRlB) 'a rich persoo' (Chayahuita: Hart 1988: 261).
3.1.2 Case
Nominative-accusative type case markers occur io alllanguages of the Cahuapana,
Jivaro and Witoto families, and in Candoshi and Harakmbet. In Bora and the Jivaro
languages, the nominative is zero. Witoto itself optiooally marks both oominative
and accusative (the object is obligatorily marked when the subject is third person).
In Cahuapana both may be marked or both may be uomarked; the subject is usually
marked to avoid ambiguity or for emphasis and the object only for emphasis.
In Arabela, subje\.:t and object fUllctions are usually marked by constituent order
but -ri may mark the subject when it precedes the verbo The -ri subject marker
occurs io traositive constructions and may be indicative that Zapara lan
guages are partlally ergative. Another ergative-lke feature in all of the Zaparo
is the fact that there are two sets of pronouns, the second of which could be consid
ered absolutive since it is used for the object and for the subject of stative clauses.
The use of one set or the other, however, depends prmarily on constituent order; the
first set is used ror agents/subjects and also for objects when they precede the verbo
In Yagua, definite object enclitcs attach to any word which follows the verb and
directly precedes the object; or they attach to the verb when the object is not a fully
specified noun phrase, as in Compare the ageot aod object references in
(Thomas Payne 1983:
Thomas payne (1983: 180) argues that this kind of system can lead to an ergative
reanalysis and places Yagua typologically with those languages which utilize erga
tive construction types as the unmarked transitive construction in dscourse, where
the direct object is not being introduced into the discourse for the first time.
The cases in Murui Witoto are: -di 'nominative', -na 'accusative/oblique', -d:>
'instrumental', -ri'dative', -m:> 'allative', -m:>na 'ablative" -k:>ni'locative'.
In Jivaro, accusative and dative cases are not distinguished; the marker in Achuar
is -nl-nal-anl-un. Other Achuar cases are -har 'instrumental, comitative', -kl-ak
'means', -numl-nam 'Iocative', - V 'genitive', - V 'vocative'.
In Zaparo and Yagua there are not only basic locative sulfixes or postpositions
bu! more than twenty-five postpositions indicating more exact locaton in time or
space; many of them are compound, e.g. Arabela -kako 'on, aboye', -h 'from',
-kaka-h 'from aboye'; -koma 'below', ora 'for', -koma-ra 'downwards'.
The Yagua applicative verbal sulfix and the 'instrumental, comitative' case
marker have the same shape and are no doubt etymologically related (Doris Payne
1985b: J78). This is also true for the A rabel a sulfix -tal-tia 'applicative or instrumen
tal/comitative'.
3.2 Pronouns
Common to all five language families are personal, demonstrative, possessive and
interrogative pronouns.
Singular, dual and plural are distinguished lor all persons in the Witoto and Peba

Yagua families. In Cahuapana languages, dual is distinguished only for first person
tsa-hj-ma Anita

inclusive (and first dual inclusive also has an impersonal sense).9 First person inclu
[tsah mjl

sive and exclusive are distinguished eXI..--ept in Jivaro where fi;5t person singular is
3sg.A-fall-PERFV Anita

used lor exclusive and first person plural inclusive and for tlle Witoto-
'Anita fello'

Ocaina branch.of Witoto. Demonstrative pronouns distinguish three degrees of

(7b) tsa-ptfi Pauro-o Anita
3sg.A-carry Paul-3sg.0
'Paul canies Anita.'
(7c) tsa-ptJi-ni Anita
3sg.A-carry-3sg.0 Anita
'He carries Anita.'
tsa-ptfi-n
3sg.A-carry-3sg.0
'He carries him/her.'8
8 Thomas Payne glosses Ihi5 example '.
9 'Impersonal' is used in the sense of 'one (does)', Le. an unspecitied subjecl or agent.
Powlison all gloss -nU as '3sg'.
distance and are often partially identicalwith third person pronominal fOfTI1s, as
Anita can be seen in t);e case of Murui Witoto in table 12.12 (from S. A. Burtch 1983, vol.
11: 149-50). (Encliticized subject person markers are listed only if they dilfer from
the free forms.)IO
Jivaro does not distinguish singular and plural in third person, and the demon
strative ror second degree of deixis is the same as one of the third person pronouns,
as shown in table 12.13 ror Achuar (from Fast, Fast and Fast 1996: 31, 33).
Possessive pronouns in Jivaro and Cahuapana are formed by the addition of a
case marker to the personal pronoun, e.g. ka '1', kakin 'mine' (Chayahuita: H. Hart
1988: 262-3).
. him/herlthem' bul he, Doris Payne and Paul
10 The grave accenl marks the final vowel of a diphlhong in Witoto.
322 Ruth Wise J2 Smalf and iso/ates in Peru 323

Table 12.13 Achuar pronouns

Table 12.12 MI/rui

Singular Plural
Singular Dual Plural
I mase bb I wi ii
kue kaI 2 m tum
fem kalJlaW 3 present 01' in sight u
;mwb, absent ni
2 mase
; -:HnwbI ;m;W Demonstrative
fem ;mwJl:lW near present h
present (in sight) u
3 mase imwe iaWmaiaW imakw absent (out of sight) nu
-e -maki
fcm iJlaiJl:l iaWJluaW iJlaiJluadI
neut ie/-e
Near maseanim bimwe bimakw
(bi-) 3.3 Adjectives
fem anim biJlaiJl:l biJlaiJluaW
neut bie In sorne of the languages adjectives are not c1early distinguished from nouns in that
Within mase anim baimwe balmakw may occur with most of the nominal affixes. However, when they fllnction as
view nouns they often have a slightly different meaning, e.g. Achuar pu 'fat' (as adjec
fem anim baiJlaiJl:l baiJlaiJluaw
(ba-)
but 'the chief' (as noun); pSIl 'hard' but pis-ri hard-3sg 'its hardness or firm
neut bale
Fast and Fast 1996: 35, 236).
Fal' mase anim naimwe naimakw
(out of
fem anim naiJ1aiJlJ naiJlaiJlualU
sight) 3.3.1 and superlative grades
(/la-) neut nale In Chayahllita
is forrned
naja 'good', noja naja 'betterlbest'. The standard orecedes as
Demonstrative or interrogative pronouns uSllally substitllte for relative pro in (9).
nouns, as in Arabela.
(9) (H. Har t 1988: 267)
(R. Rich 1999: 46) ipi kiran wa1wi wa1w-iJn na-so?
agouti from small small-ADJ
that-EMPH
'Which is it?' 'That [animal] is srnaller than the agouti.'

(R. Rich 1999: 426)

In Yagua the standard, which is a postpositional phrase, follows the cornparative
kia pa-re tejano kia pani-ja-ni
form, as in (10).
2sg tO.take-IMPER which to.like-coNT-l R

'Take whichever one you like.'

(10) (Doris Payne ami Thomas Payne 1990: 288)
hrjij tsmij Anita raj-janh
indefinte pronollns are sometimes based on the interrogatives. very good Anita I sg-more. than
are separate: a?nakin 'sorne, someone" insosona 'whoever', 'Anita is prettier than 1.'
ma7sona 'whatever" ka nsontal 'no one', ko manta 'nothing' (H. Hart 1988:
265). Comparson can also be made by juxtaposition of c1auses, as in (11).
324 Mary Ruth Wise 12 Smalllanguage families and iso/ates in Peru 325

(1I) (Doris Payne and Thomas Payne 1990: 290) CompouIld verbs are described for Bora (15), Chayahuita (16) and Harakmbet
hrjij r-muritfwa hatskaru n hrjij
much INAN-cost sugar NEG much
(15) (Thiesen 1996: 60)
r-muritfwa hartsij
i?h tf3-twhk hnw-lpe twhkhnru-wpe
INAN-cost rice
to.speak-to.begin-3sg.masc to.begin-3sg.masc
'Sugar costs more than rice. 'Sugarcostsa rice costs not much.')
i?h.itl3-ne

to.speak-action.in.general

3.4 Verbal morphology 'He began to speak.'

Verbal morphology in all of the families is considerably more complex than that of (16) (H. Hart 1988:
nouns and other word c\asses; so much so that in narrative text many c1auses consist nito-ta?a-r-in
just of a verb. to.know-to.run-INDlc-3sg
In Jivaro and Cahuapana, suffixes referring to both the agent and the object 'He knows how to run.'
occur: in object-agent order in Jivaro and in the opposite order in Cahuapana. 1995:205)
(17)
When there is no suffix agreeing with the object, it is third person, as in e?-t? + e?-biei? > e?btejt?
(12) Chayalutita (H. Hart 1988: 273) INF-guardlpossess INF-to.die
awir-in-ko 'Hehits me.' 'to guard a dead animal'
awtr-in-kin 'He hits you.' In Candoshi repeated action is expressed by repetition or reduplication of the
awtr-in 'He hits [him/her/them].' verb rooL In a series of individual actions the repeated root is followed by an
In Iquito and Yagua a prefix agreeing with the subject/agent occurs, and in inflected pro-verb as in (18); in continllous repetition the reduplicated verb root
Witoto a suffix. In Bora the classifiers can occllr as verbal suffixes agreeing with a occurs in a finite verb, as in (19).
third person subjectlagent as in (13b). First and second person subjects are inde (18) (S. TlIggy 1982:
pronOUl1S preceding the verb, as in kos kos kos afira-g-ana
(l3a) (Thiesen 1996: 58) people tO.arrive tO.arrive tO.arrive to.do.th!Is-CURR.PAST-3pl
'A group of peop1e arrived, then another grollp, then another group.'
tsiin '1 ran.'
(19) (S. Tuggy 1982: 41)
(13b) (Thiesen 1996:
Tpots karo-waro-tar-tamta-e-ja
thpo-pe
people tO.descend-to.descend-HABlTuAL-also-3-EMPH
treat-masc.sg 'he treats sick)'
'A multitude of people descended also.'
thpo-tse
treat-fem.sg 'she treats (the sick)' Chayahuita distinguishes aspect but not tense in the verbo Jebero and languages
of the other famlies have both tense and aspect suffixes. In Yagua, Jivaro and
Incorporation of the object is described for Cahuapana and Harakmbet. The
Cahllapana the unmarked tense is the present. Witoto itself distinguishes non
object thus incorporated may be a noun stem or a c1assifier.
fllture and future tenses. Jivaro distinguishes five past tenses: immediate past, recent
(14) (H. Hart 1988: 274) past, remote past, habitual past (over a long period of time) and reportative past.
a1pi-naja-ti-r-awt Jivaro al so distinguishes imrnediate, definite and indefinite flltures. Example (20)
to.light-eye-APPLlc-INDIC-1 sg.A gives Achuar with the verb tilin 'to say', and (21) gives further
'{ shone the light in (his) eyes.' examples of contrasts in tense.
326 Mary Ruth Wise 12 Smalllallguage and isolates in Peru 327

(20) (Fast, Fast and Fast 1996: 75-7) AIl of the languages have 1110rphological causatives. In Cahuapana and Jivaro
twai 'he says' languages and Harakmbet a causative prefix consisting of a single vowel is iden
turtui 'he says to me' tified by David Payne (1990b: 78) as a wide-spread grammatical tbrm in South
tji 'he said (immediate)' American languages. These languages, as well as the others, also have causative
'he said (recent or remo te)' suffixes. In most cases the causative affix can occur with both transitive and intran
'he used to
sitive verb roots.
tu 'he said (repo1'ted)'

(23) Achuar (Fast, Fast and Fast 1996: 38-9)

ttatui 'he will say (immediatefdefinite)'

wak-tin vs i-wik-tin
ttinuilai 'he will say after sorne time'

tO.clirnb-INF CAus-to.c1imb-INF
(21) (Fast, Fast and Fast 1996: 45-6) 'to climb' 'to lin'
ji.afi takkma-s-ma-mt
takkma-s-mia-ji vs tak-mtik-sa-mia-ji
yeste1'day to. work -PER FV-REC. PAST-2sg
too work-PERFV-REc'PAST-3sg toowork-CAus-PERFV-REC. PAST-3sg
'You worked yesterday (recent).' 'he has worked' 'he has made him work'
am-fa takkma-s-mia-mi
In Witoto itself one of the causative suffixes is -tao A valency-changing suffix with
2sg-also to.work-PERFV-REM.PAST-2sg
the consonant t is wide-spread in Amazonian IUlIgUUg<::lS In Zaparo,
'You wo1'ked sorne time ago (remote).'
Peba-Yagua and Cahuapana (and possibly Jivaro
jamikia takkma-s-ta-hai
as Bueh), a suffix with t functions as an applicative" so tl1at normally oDllque noun
110W to.work-PERFV-IMM.PAST-I sg
phrases are treated as direct objects. The applicative may also introduce another
'1 am to work now (immediate).'
argument although it sometimes remains implicit. In Cahuapana the suffix -lif-la
may verbalize, transitivize, change impersonal verbs to intransitive, detransitivize,
wi takkma-s-tat-hai

and change transitive to ditransitive, as in (24) (-r 'indieative'; -in 'third singular
tomorrow l sg to.work-PERFV-FUT.DEF-I sg

agent or subject'; third singular object is zero).

'( am going to work tomorrow

(24) Chayahuila (11. Hart 1988: 269-70)

Aspects lll~llllglll~Il~U completive 01' terminative), du1'ative
ira 'trail' (no un) ira-ti-r-in 'he/she walks'
ama-e-in 'he/she bathes' ama-ti-r-in 'he/she bathes him/her'
Directional suffixes occur in all of Ihe families except Jivaro.
a representative set: - wi 'up, upriver', -kuaa 'down, downriver', -kuwii taJi-t-r-in 'jtbecomes night in the
-sllwii 'arriving', -maa 'indefinite in til11e/direction' (Eastl11an and Eastman 1963: 'h n!rhts') place where he/she is'
180). In Yagua, categories having to do with movement are 'boullded' 'jt nights on

arrival', 'UpOll departure', 'en route', 'stationary') and 'unbounded' (e.g. 'while nati-r-n 'he/she nati-ti-r-in 'he/she obeys'
wandering around'). himfher'
In livaro, Cahuapana and Witoto desiderative afllxes oeeur, especially if the a'~pa-r-in 'hefshe senda il' a 'pa-ti-r-in 'he/she sends it to
subject of the cornplement and 'to want' are identical. The desiderative in someone'
Cahuapana is a prefix (ja- in Chayahuita).
In Zaparo languages, the meanings of tal-tia include: in a container, with content&,
Mu/'ui Witoto (Burteh and Wise 1968: 23)
a group/plllral, affection, perform the action carrying something (25), involuntary
kW::l-aka-d-e

11 See Greenbel'g (1987: 317-20) lar disc\lssion of a system oC applicative classifiers in

'He wants to see.' Almosan-Keresiouan languages.
328 Mary Rutlt Wise 12 Smalllanguage fami/ies and isolates in Peru 329

accompaniment (i.e. being carried), to do with a goallreason, the subject is (30a) (Doris L. Payne 1985b: 38)

sick/old/wounded (26), and refiexivizer, Le. intransitivizer. An additional function, tsa-n66ta-m-r

unique to Zaparo, is that it occurs in the maio verb when the subject of the infiniti 3sg-knock.down-PERFv-INAN

val comolement is different, as in 'She/he has knocked it down.'

(R. Rich 1999: 431)

(JOb) tsa-n6ta-j-m [santarnj]
kua morehaka tiurii-tia-ree-nihia

1sg manioc stumble-APPLIc-COMPL-lsg

'S he has fallen down.'
'J stumbled while carrying my load of manioc.'

Evidentials occur in Bora and Zapara. In Arabela there appear to be only repor
(26) (R. Rich 1999: 56) tative evidentials: -na s suffixed to the subject if it precedes the verb, as in (31); if
hanija-ri nu-koko-hi kua there is no subject preceding, -kinia is suffixed to the verb, as in (32).
1sg-S trail-by-of 1sg hurt-eL
(31) (R. Rich 1999: 80)
roJi-jo-ko-ho-ta-rikio-wa-oi
kua ke-ja-na kua nikitio-ja kuno pueja-no-ni
sg father-pl-REP 1sg give-coNT that person-sg-I R
'They say my parents are giving me to that man.'

(32) (R. Rich 1999: 80)

Arabela (R. Rich 1999: 91)
kuso-ja-kinia
hanija kia pani-tia-a kia-nu-ni
sick-cONT-REP
1sg 2sg want-APPLIC-CONT gO-INF-1 R
say he/she is sick.'
'1 want yOLl to go.'
In Bora the reportative - ?ba indicates that the speaker was not a witness of that
Reflexive and reciprocal suffixes usually precede aspect and person suffixes, as in
which he reports; the reporta ti ve -f3a indicates that the speaker is reporting what he
Achuar (28).
heard. The two may occur together, as in (33).
(28) (Fast, Fast and Fast 1996: 38)
(33) (Thiesen 1996: 97)
tfar-k-hai vs
Hotse-~- ?h-phe LUmi~ khww~-?6-ha-tw
Joseph-REP-unseen-PAST escaped dark-room-house-from
'1 cut it.' '1 cut myself.'
'Joseph escaped from jail a while back (the one who told me was not
In Bora there is one valency-reducng derivation which can be interpreted as a witness).'
reflexive or passive according to the contexto

(29) (Thiesen 1996: 59) 4 SYNTAX

6 kP?t?tn~-me
Isg cut-REFL 4.1 Constituent order
'1 cut myself 11 was cut. '
The preferred constituent order is AOV, SV in the Jivaro, Witoto, Cahuapana fam
A suffix -j is reported for which forms an intransitive stem from a transi lies and in Arabela and Harakmbet. The preferred order in Iquito, Zaparo and
tive root with O becoming S.12 Ticuna is AVO, SV; in Yagua and Taushiro it is VAO, VS. Urarina is the only
Peruvian language in which it is OAV, SV. Al! of the languages have postpositions.
11 Dors Payne (l985b) uses he term 'anti-causatve' for this suffix. Demonstrative, quantitative and descriptive adjectives generally precedetheir
330 Mary Rlllh Wise 12 Small fanguage families and iso/ates in Peru 331

nouns, as in (34a); descriptive adjectves, however, can foJlow the noun, as in (34b). Interrogative words in content questions are usually the first elernent or cliticized
In comoound nouns the modifier i5 usually first, as in (34c) and (35). to the first elernent in the sentence, as in Zaparo (38); in that language, however, inter
rogative particJes in polar questions are always cliticized to the subject, as in
Arabela (R. Rich 1999: 94)

keraatia puereetuuka sapitiaaha

(38) (Peeke el al. 1991: 14)
fish'
tia jtJoraka ali tfa
what name be.lNTERROG 2sg
kua mueruu kiari-nii

'What is your name?'

Isg machete neW-CL

'my new machete'

(39) (Peeke el al. 1991: 13)
maha-k tfa-ti: wiro-ka ats-ka-?
(34c) kahi-rikiako
raw-sg 2Sg-INTERROG beetle-sg eat-coNT-ANTICIPATORY
'axe-handle'
'Are yOll eating a raw beetle?'
(35a) Clzayalllla (H. Hart 1988: 261)
NCl!atlVe atnxes uSllally OCCllr in the verb, as in Murui Witoto IJikall:J-jle-d-e
pimo-Japon
(ask-NEG-THEMATlC-3sg) 'he did not ask' (B. Burtch and Wise 1968: 23). Nega
'fragrant-soap'
terjections are reported ror all of the languages, e.g. Achuar ats/ts 'no'.
(35b) finiti-nirt there is no specifically passive construction; however, predicate nominal
too be. thin/skinny-nose constructions ohen convey a passive sen se, as in (40).
'llarrow nose'
(Doris L. Payne 1985b: 38)
'In Yagua the unmarked order of constituents within the noun phrase is: DEM
+ NUMBER + HEAD N + DESeAD]' (Dorls L. Payne 1986: 447), as in (36).
'1 am now trarnoled I 1 am now a trarnpled one.'
(36) (Doris L. Payne 1986: 447)
hinjj nuuhjj kiwaa haamll-jj tn Witoto itself, as in and as in there are
these.two two fish bg-two passive
'these two big fish'
(4Ia) MI/mi Witota (B. Burtch and Wise 1968:
In Chayahuita, descriptive adjectives occur much more frequently as the predi bie emUflle:J jlwn:l-ka
cate adjective 01' equative c1auses than in a noun phrase. this eartll you tO.make-PASSv
'The earth was made bv you.'
(H. Hart 1988: 292)

to?tiratin tJantJopi maJowi?

(4Ib) ha jla-ka-m:l marcOa ha bic-m:Jna
c1aws long very
already to.prove-PAssv-when good then there-from
'Its c1aws (of lhe sloth) are very long.'
mare-hi-t-e
gOOd-FUT-INDIC-3sg
Genitives usually precede their noun heads. In however, ir the possessor
'Now when it has been proved good, it will be good from there.'
i8 expressed by an enclitic prefixed to the head noun and by a noun, the possessor
follows the head noun, e.g. sa-hmanJu [smunju] Alchico (3sg (42) Arabe/a (R. Rich 1998)
'Alchico's canoe' (Dors L. 1985b: 103). Most knship terms paa tac huura-ha-Ji-ja-cee-ni
and body parts are inalienably however, the possessive construction does l.incl now disappear-cAus-PASSV-CONT-COMPL-I R
not differ. whether the nouns are inalienable or alienable. 'We (our population) are being decimated.'
332 Mary Ruth Wise J2 Smalllanguage amilies and iso/ates in Peru 333

In Bora an independent clause with the subject marked by a pronominal suffix

4.2 Relativization
may function as a subject, as in (45b), or object, as in (45c); or ir there is a nominal
Relative c1auses gene rally follow their head nouns if there is one. In Chayahuita the subject, the inanimate marker -ne/-nie is suffixed to the otherwise independent verb
only mark of relativization is -so? suffixed to the verb, e.g. ti awir-an-so' (agollti in lhe relative c1ause, as in (45d).
strike-2sg-REL) 'the agollti which you strucklhit' (H. Hart 1988: 264).
(45a) (Thiesen 1996: 91-2)
In Yagua, relative c1auses - enclosed in square brackets below - consistently
mthiane kPkhme-pi e
follow their head nOllns; non-pronominal relativizers are formed with the demon
much work-3sg
strative -hij plus the neutral c1assifier ora and the enclitic -tij, as in (43a), or a rela
'He works hard.'
tive pronoun may be formed by adding the enc1itic -tij to a pronoun such as rj, as
in (43b). The verbs in both c1auses are finite. (45b) kPkhme-pi l tshhUlk h
much work-3sg come
(43a) (Doris L. Payne 1985b: 69) 'The one who works hard iscoming.'
ramjitwjerja himjitJara [hirjtijl tsa-tHrjuj
raj-mutwjej-ra hij-fa-tlj (45c) kPkhme-pJ e-kheJ a't
lsg-cook-INAN rood DEM-CL:NEUT-REL 3sg-buy much work-3sg-Acc Isg pay
Tomsa-ra '1 paid the one who works a lot.'
Tom-INAN[RESUMPTIVE1 (45d) ahthiwml [Ja krkhme-n Je]
'1 cooked the food that Tom bOllght.' Isg saw John work-INAN
'1 saw 101m working.'
(43b) (Dors L. Payne 1985b:
n tsmir-ja [rtjimjj tuwaatfu In relative c1auses are introduced by the demonstrative pronoun n
rj-tj-mj tsa-imu that'.
NEG good-CL:NEUT 3pl-REL-NEG listen 3sg-LOC
'Thos:: who don't listen to himlher are not good.' (46) (Eastman and Eastman 1963: 167)
k k-nikii kiaa-mutra [n kiaa-miijkura]
The common argument may have any function in the main clause and in the rela NEG Isg-see 2sg-motor that 2sg-used.~o.have
tive c1ause. '1 don't see the motor which you used to have.'
In Jivaro languages there are no relative pronouns but third person pronouns may
have this fUl1ction. The more common constructiol1 is simply a nominalized clause,
4.3 Subordination and coreference/switch~reference
as shown in the Aguaruna examples in (44).
Other nominalized clauses inc\llde complements and purpose c\auses. When the
Aguaruna 1978: 296, 299)
sllbject of lhe verbal complement is the same as tllat of the main c\ause, the com
takaktsuhi [suhumainu-k1
plement is normally nominalized with an infinitive suffix as in Arabela
we.do.not.carry.in.hand what.might.be sold-TOPIC
(Compare (27) for use of the applicative in the main verb if the subjects are
'We do not have anythng to seU.'
different.)
(44b) Aguanllla (Larson 1978: 252, 255) (47) (R. Rich 1999: 91)
makitfik atnts [matfiuki-n taukumau] hanija kia-ta kia-nu pani-ja-ni
one person monkey-O one.who.tamed Isg 2sg-COMIT gO-INF want-coNT-1 R
'a person who tamed a monkey' '1 want to go with you.'
\
334 Mary Ruth Wise
1
In Yagua if the subjects are ditrerent a finite verb is used in the complement with
I a non-coreferential person-marking clitic, as in (48).
(48) (Doris L. Payne and T. E. Payne 1990: 337)
I [hiwjaataJ [tsuunj)
hij-wii.:lta tsa-hunj Tomsa
2sg-want 3sg-look Tom
'Do you want Tom to look/writeT
In Yagua, infinitival nominalizations have adverbial functions also.
are suffixed with a postposition and person-marking clitics (equivalent to possessor
reference), as in (49-50). If subject reference is omitted, it is understood that the
of the infinitive is the same as that of the main verbo
(49) (Doris L. Payne and T. E. Payne 1990: 337)
tsatsmjaa hmjuutjaanhU-n
tsa-tsj-maa hij-himtja-hanu-hG-n
3sg-run-PERFv COREF-help-INF-ADLATlvE-3sg
'He has run to help him.' (lit. 'he, has run towards hm/)
(Doris L. Payne and T. E. Payne 1990: 337)
[ja] [sHij] [siimbjeenhjura]
hij-a ts[Uij tsa-himjij-hanu-hU-ju..r
2sg-1RR give 3sg-eat-lNF-ADLATIVE-COREF-INAN
'Give it to him to eaL' (lit. 'give it to towards his
The Yagua coreference c1itics indicate 'coreference with a previously mentioned
subject, possessor or object of postposition within the same clause ... Part of the
function of the set II [suffixal] coreference cHtie is to indieate reflexivity and reci
procity' (Doris L. Payne and T. E. Payne 1990: 361).
and Jivaro, on the other hand, have subordinating verbal suffixes
which indicate coreference Ol" lack 01' il, Le. switch-reference, re!ative to the agent or
of the adverbial subordinate c1ause and that of the matrix clause.
In Chayahuita, switch-reference suffixes occur only in subordinate verbs with third
pcrson agents or subjects, as shown in table 12.14 (from H. Hart 1988: 489) with the
sequential action, subordinate forms of Ihe intransitive verb sakatirin 'to work'.D
Switch-reference systems are highly developed in Jivaro languages. Long chains
of subordinate c1auses occur. Larson (p.c.) reports a complete narrative
consisting of 136 subordinate c1allses, including embedded dlllogue.
13 The morphemescould be broken down furlher but (he whole does not always equal the sum
of the parts.
12 Smalllanguage families and isolates in Peru 335
Table 12.14 Chayalmita switch-reference sliffixes
Singular Pluml
sakato-wato excl sakato-watoi
dual sakato-wa?
inc! sakato-watiwa?
2 sakato-watan sakato-watama?
3 SS sakato-waton sakato-watona?
DS sakalo-watfin sakato-watfina?
same or different agen! or subject; these are followed by one independent c\ause. A
person marker occllrs in the verb, and the subordinating suffixes also mark tempo
ral and or logical relations. The subordinate c\auses are marked by -k(a) 'topic
marker' ir they are part of the main event lineo
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\

340 Mar)' Ruth Wise

i
I
graph'. pp. 45-65 of Discourse gmmmm7 sludie. in indigenolls languages of Colombia,
PClIlama, and EClladO/; part 3, ed. R. E. Longacre and F. Woods, SIL Publications in 13

Linguistics and Related Fields, 52(3). Dalias: SIL.

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Norman: SIL and University of Oklahoma. Other small families and isolates
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ALEXANORA y. AIKHENVALO ANO
Verano.
Wise, M. R. 1993. 'Algunas interrogan tes en la clasificacin de las lenguas indgenas sudamer R. M. W. OIXON
icanas', paper presented al the 10th International Congress of the Asociacin de la
Lingstica y la Filologa de la Amrica Latina.
1996. 'Las lenguas zparo familia que se extingue', paper presented al the 11th The other small families and isolates are grouped in this chapter, according to the
International Congress of the Asociacin de la Lingstica y la Filologa de la Amrica country in which most of their speakers are located; sorne spill over into a nearby
Latina.
Wise, M, R. and Stewart, A. (eds.) 1981. Cohesin y enfoque en textos.v discursos, Srie naton. Table 13.1 summarizes the languages, estimated number of speakers and
Lingistica Peruana, 17. Pucallpa: Instituto Lingstico de Verano. approximate locations, These locations are given on map 12. (A number of other lan
guages, now extinct, on which little or no information is available, are not listed hereY

1 BRAZIL

There are about 170 indigenous languages in Brazil. They belong to about 20 lan
guage famliea and are spoken by approximately 155,000 people (A. D. Rodrigues
1986). Languages from Ihe larger families are discussed elsewhere in this volume
Carib in chapter 2, Arawak in chapter 3, Tup in chapter 4, Tup-Guaran in chapter
5, Macro-Je in chapler 6, Tucano in chapter 7, Pano in chapter 8, Mak in chapter
'9, Nambiquara in chapter 10 and Araw in chapler 11. Languages of the
Chapacura family, Ihe Yanomam dialect cluster, and isolates Trumai, Mura
Piraha, Jabut, Mku and Aikan are spoken exclusively in Brazil. Their typologi
cal properties are briefly discussed here.

1.1 Yanomami

The Yanomami (also known as Yanoarna, Yanomami-Waic, Xirian or

Guaharibo) are one of the largest groups of non-acculturated tropical forest
Indians in northern Brazil and in southern Venezuela (Migliazza 1972; Tovar and
De lavar 1984: Lizot 1988: 489). Yanomami constitutes a dialect continuum

I Special thanks go lo Niidia Pires, rol' providing information on Jabuti, HenI' Ramirez rol'
dala on Yanomami, Hein van der Voort fol' dala on Koaia and Ione Vasconcelos, fOf nfor
mation on Aikan. 13.L2, on Trumai. i8 a condensation, by Ihe authors, of matel'ials
writlen by Raquel Guirardello. We are grateful to Paul Frank, Francisco Queixalos, Terry
Malone,lanel Barnes and Tim Curnow ror commenting on a previous draft of this chapler.