Kaufman (1994) suggests a relationship with the Bororoan languages.[5] Adelaar (2008) classifies Chiquitano as a Macro-Jê language,[6] while Nikulin (2020) suggests that Chiquitano is rather a sister of Macro-Jê.[7]
Piñoco - spoken at the missions of San Xavier, San José, and San José de Buenaventura.
Penoqui - spoken at the old mission of San José. (However, Combès suggests that Penoqui was a synonym of Gorgotoqui and may have been a Bororoan language.[10][11])
Cusiquia - once spoken north of the Penoqui tribe.
Bésɨro (also known as Lomeriano Chiquitano), spoken in the Lomerío region and in Concepción, Ñuflo de Chávez Province. Co-official status and has a standard orthography.
The following list of Jesuit and pre-Jesuit-era historical dialect groupings of Chiquitano is from Nikulin (2019),[13] after Matienzo et al. (2011: 427–435)[16] and Hervás y Panduro (1784: 30).[17] The main dialect groups were Tao, Piñoco, and Manasi.
Chiquitano has borrowed extensively from an unidentified Tupí-Guaraní variety; one example is Chiquitano takones [takoˈnɛs] ‘sugarcane’, borrowed from a form close to Paraguayan Guaranítakuare'ẽ ‘sugarcane’.[13]: 8 There are also numerous Spanish borrowings.
Chiquitano (or an extinct variety close to it) has influenced the Camba variety of Spanish. This is evidenced by the numerous lexical borrowings of Chiquitano origin in local Spanish. Examples include bi ‘genipa’, masi ‘squirrel’, peni ‘lizard’, peta ‘turtle, tortoise’, jachi ‘chicha leftover’, jichi ‘worm; jichi spirit’, among many others.[13]
Galeote Tormo, J. (1993). Manitana Auqui Besüro: Gramática Moderna de la lengua Chiquitana y Vocabulario Básico. Santa Cruz de la Sierra: Los Huérfanos.
Santana, A. C. (2005). Transnacionalidade lingüística: a língua Chiquitano no Brasil. Goiânia: Universidade Federal de Goiás. (Masters dissertation).
^Greenberg, Joseph H. (1987). Language in the Americas. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
^Rankin, Robert. (1992). [Review of Language in the Americas by J. H. Greenberg]. International Journal of American Linguistics, 58 (3), 324-351.
^Campbell, Lyle. (1988). [Review of Language in the Americas, Greenberg 1987]. Language, 64, 591-615.
^Kaufman, Terrence. 1994. The native languages of South America. In: Christopher Moseley and R. E. Asher (eds.), Atlas of the World’s Languages, 59–93. London: Routledge.
^Adelaar, Willem F. H. Relações externas do Macro-Jê: O caso do Chiquitano. In: Telles de A. P. Lima, Stella Virgínia; Aldir S. de Paula (eds.). Topicalizando Macro-Jê. Recife: Nectar, 2008. p. 9–27.
^Combès, Isabelle. 2010. Diccionario étnico: Santa Cruz la Vieja y su entorno en el siglo XVI. Cochabamba: Itinera-rios/Instituto Latinoamericano de Misionología. (Colección Scripta Autochtona, 4.)
^Combès, Isabelle. 2012. Susnik y los gorgotoquis. Efervescencia étnica en la Chiquitania (Oriente boliviano), p. 201–220. Indiana, v. 29. Berlín. doi:10.18441/ind.v29i0.201-220
^CIUCCI, L.; MACOÑÓ TOMICHÁ, J. 2018. Diccionario básico del chiquitano del Municipio de San Ignacio de Velasco. Santa Cruz de la Sierra: Ind. Maderera “San Luis” S. R. L., Museo de Historia. U. A. R. G. M. 61 f.
^FUNAI/DAF. Plano de Desenvolvimento de Povos Indígenas (PDPI) – Grupo Indígena Chiquitano, MT. Diretoria de Assuntos Fundiários: Brasília, 2002.
^MATIENZO, J.; TOMICHÁ, R.; COMBÈS, I.; PAGE, C. Chiquitos en las Anuas de la Compañía de Jesús (1691–1767). Cochabamba: Itinerarios, 2011.
^HERVÁS Y PANDURO, L. Idea dell’Universo che contiene la storia della vita dell’uomo, elementi cos-mografici, viaggio estatico al mondo planetario, e storia della terra, e delle lingue. Vol. XVII: Ca-talogo delle lingue conosciute. Cesena: Gregorio Biasini, 1784.
^Krusi, Dorothee, Martin (1978). Phonology of Chiquitano.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^Sans, Pierric (2011), Proceedings of the VII Encontro Macro-Jê.Brasilia, Brazil
^Santana, Áurea Cavalcante. 2012. Línguas cruzadas, histórias que se mesclam: ações de documentação, valorização e fortalecimento da língua Chiquitano no Brasil. Goiânia: Universidade Federal de Goiás.
Fabre, Alain (2008-07-21). "Chiquitano"(PDF). Diccionario etnolingüístico y guía bibliográfica de los pueblos indígenas sudamericanos. Retrieved 2009-01-16.