Sapé, also called Kaliana or Caliana, is an extinct language recently spoken along the Paragua River and Karuna River. There were only about a few dozen speakers in the mid-1900s, and by the 2000s, only a few elderly speakers were found. Sapé may be a language isolate.
| Sapé | |
|---|---|
| Kaliana | |
| Native to | Venezuela |
| Region | Paragua and Karuna rivers |
| Ethnicity | 9 (2011 census)[1] |
| Extinct | 2018[1] |
Arutani–Sape ?
| |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | spc |
| Glottolog | sape1238 |
| ELP | Sapé |
 Sapé is classified as Critically Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger | |
Documentation
editSape is one of the most poorly attested extant languages in South America, and there is no comprehensive linguistic description of the language other than scattered word lists.[2][3]
Word lists have been collected by Armellada & Matallana (1942),[4] Migliazza (1978),[5] Walter Coppens,[6] and Francia Medina.[7] There are unpublished field notebooks by Fèlix Cardona i Puig from the 1930s-1940s containing linguistic data of Sapé.[8]
Perozo et al. (2008: 175-176) was also able to collect 44 words and 5 short phrases from semi-speakers living in the Ninam villages of Boca de Ichún and Kavamaikén and the Pemon village of Karunkén in Venezuela.[9] Some of the Sapé semi-speakers have since moved to Yuwapí Merú, a village located on the Middle Paragua. There may also be semi-speakers of Sapé living in the Pemon village of Venevené (Benebené, Veneveken).[8]
Loukotka (1968)
editLoukotka (1968) lists the following basic vocabulary items for Kaliána.[10]
gloss Kaliána one koki two ikiria three komoña head koyanukú eye kam-kukú tooth kaká man mínõ water inám fire txokó sun yám manioc téntu jaguar pudzyín house enaĩ
Sociolinguistic situation
editAccording to Rosés Labrada & Medina (2019), the last fluent speakers of Sapé were Elena Lezama, who died in 2004, and Ramón Quimillo Lezama, who died in November 2018. However, at least 2 semi-speakers remain.[8] Traditionally located along the Karún River and the Upper Paragua River, most Sapé have assimilated into Pemon-speaking villages.
Language contact
editJolkesky (2016) notes that there are lexical similarities with the Warao, Chibchan, Puinave-Kak, Jirajara, Tukano (especially Cubeo and Wanano), Arutani, and Máku language families due to contact.[11]
Similarities with Chibchan are primarily with the Magdalena subgroup.[11]: 326
References
edit- ^ a b Jorge Emilio Rosés Labrada & Francia Medina (2019) Sapé (Venezuela) — Language Snapshot. In Peter K. Austin (ed.) Language Documentation and Description, vol. 16. London: EL Publishing. pp. 169–175
- ^ Hammarström, Harald. 2010. 'The status of the least documented language families in the world'. In Language Documentation & Conservation, v 4, p 183 [1]
- ^ Dixon and Aikhenvald, 1999, The Amazonian Languages, p 343.
- ^ Armellada, Cesareo de & Baltasar de Matallana. 1942. Exploración del Paragua. Boletín de la Sociedad Venezolana de Ciencias Naturales 8, 61-110.
- ^ Migliazza, Ernest C. 1978. Maku, Sape and Uruak languages current status and basic lexicon. Anthropological Linguistics 20(3), 133-140.
- ^ Coppens, Walter. 2008 [1983]. Los Uruak (Arutani). In Miguel Ángel Perera (ed.) Los aborígenes de Venezuela, 2nd edition, Volume 2, 705-737. Caracas: Fundación La Salle de Ciencias Naturales/Instituto Caribe de Antropología y Sociología.
- ^ Medina, Francia. 2008. Los Sapé: notas sobre su situación presente y actualización bibliográfica. In Miguel Ángel Perera (ed.) Los aborígines de Venezuela, 2nd edition, Volume 2, 739-746. Caracas: Ediciones IVIC, Monte Ávila Editores, ICAS, Fundación La Salle.
- ^ a b c Jorge Emilio Rosés Labrada & Francia Medina (2019). Sapé (Venezuela) — Language Snapshot. In Peter K. Austin (ed.) Language Documentation and Description, vol 16. London: EL Publishing. pp. 169-175.
- ^ Perozo, Laura, Ana Liz Flores, Abel Perozo, and Mercedes Aguinagalde. 2008. Escenario histórico y sociocultural del alto Paragua, Estado Bolívar, Venezuela. In Josefa Celsa Señaris, Carlos A. Lasso & Ana Liz Flores (eds.) Evaluación rápida de la biodiversidad de los ecosistemas acuáticos de la cuenca alta del río Paragua, Estado Bolívar, Venezuela, 169-180, 302-308. Arlington, VA: Conservation International.
- ^ Loukotka, Čestmír (1968). Classification of South American Indian languages. Los Angeles: UCLA Latin American Center.
- ^ a b Jolkesky, Marcelo Pinho de Valhery (2016). Estudo arqueo-ecolinguístico das terras tropicais sul-americanas (Ph.D. dissertation) (2 ed.). Brasília: University of Brasília.
External links
edit- Alain Fabre, 2005, Diccionario etnolingüístico y guía bibliográfica de los pueblos indígenas sudamericanos: SAPÉ.
- Archive of the Indigenous Languages of Latin America, Sapé Collection