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]
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]
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]
The word Piapoco is a Spanish nickname in reference to the toucan.[4] Most Piapoco 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.[10] This allows for a gradual convergence, where grammar and semantics of one language begin to replicate the other.[10]
^Seifart, F (2012). "Causative Marking in Resígaro (Arawakan): A Descriptive and Comparative Perspective". International Journal of American Linguistics. 78 (3): 369–384. doi:10.1086/665917. S2CID144865690.
^ abcdAikhenvald, Alexandra Y. (1 January 1998). "Review of Vocabulario Piapoco-Español, ; Bosquejo del Macuna: Aspectos de la cultura material de los macunas--Fonología; Gramática, , , ; Gramática Pedagógica del Cuiba-Wámonae: Lengua indígena de la familia lingüística guahiba de los llanos orientales". International Journal of American Linguistics. 64 (2): 168–173. doi:10.1086/466355. JSTOR1265983.
^ abKlumpp, James; Burquest, Donald A. (1 January 1983). "Relative Clauses in Piapoco". International Journal of American Linguistics. 49 (4): 388–399. doi:10.1086/465801. JSTOR1265211. S2CID144582996.
^Klumpp, Deloris A.; Hollenbach, Barbara E. (2019). A Grammar of Piapoco. SIL International.
^ abAikhenvald, Alexandra Y. (1 January 2003). "Mechanisms of Change in Areal Diffusion: New Morphology and Language Contact". Journal of Linguistics. 39 (1): 1–29. doi:10.1017/s0022226702001937. JSTOR4176787.
Klumpp, Deloris A. (2019). Hollenbach, Barbara E. (ed.). A Grammar of Piapoco. SIL eBook 71. SIL International.
