Warázu language

Warázu, also known as Pauserna or Guarasugwé (Guarasú'we), is a moribund Tupi–Guaraní language of Brazil. It was also formerly spoken in Bolivia. It is spoken by the Guarasugwé people, who were estimated to number 125 according to a census in 2012.

Warázu
Pauserna
Guarasugwé
Native to	Bolivia
Region	Rondônia, Brazil and Beni Department, Bolivia
Ethnicity	46 (2000)
Extinct	Late 20th century
Language family	Tupian Tupi–Guarani Guarayu Warázu
Official status
Official language in	Bolivia
Language codes
ISO 639-3	psm
Glottolog	paus1244
ELP	Pauserna

Classification

Warázu is most closely related to Sirionó and Yuki (Yuqui). Ramirez (2017) places the classification of Warázu in the Guaraní subgroup of the Tupi-Guarani languages as follows:

• Guaraní subgroup
  • Guaraní
  • Tupinambá
  • Guarayu
  • Warázu-Sirionoid
    • Sirionoid (Sirionó, Yuqui, etc.)
    • Warázu

Names

Speakers are also known as Guaraiutá, Guaraju, Pauserna, Guarasugwe, or Warazúkwe [waɾaðúkwe].

Demographics

Ramirez (2017) found only 2 remaining speakers of Warázu, an elderly couple consisting of Känä́tsɨ [kənə́tsɨ] (José Frei Leite) and Híwa (Ernestina Moreno). They were born in Riozinho (Urukuríti) in Rondônia, Brazil, and moved back and forth between Brazil and Bolivia until finally settling in Pimenteiras do Oeste, Rondônia.

Traditionally, the Warázu people had lived in the following 7 villages along the banks of the Guaporé River. However, the Warázu language is no longer spoken in these localities.

• Riozinho (Urukurɨ́ti) (on the banks of the Riozinho River, a tributary of the Guaporé River), Brazil
• Acurizal, Brazil
• Campo Grande (on the banks of the Paragúa River, a tributary of the Guaporé River), Bolivia
• Bella Vista, Bolivia
• Jangada, Bolivia
• Barranco Vermelho, Bolivia
• Flechas, Bolivia

Phonology

Phonological inventory of Warázu:

Consonants

	Labial	Alveolar		Velar	Glottal
		plain	sibilant
Nasal	m	n
Plosive	p	t	t͡s	k	ʔ
Continuant		ð		w/kʷ	h
Trill		r

Allophones:

• [ɲ], allophone of /n/
• [ɾʲ], allophone of /ɾ/
• [tʲ], allophone of /t/
• [ʝ], allophone of /ð/

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i	ɨ	u
Mid	e	ə	o
Open		a

Syllabic structure is (C)V or (C)VV.

Pronouns

Warázu pronouns:

pronoun	Warázu
I	tsé
you (sg.)	né [á-pe]
we (excl.)	óre
we (incl.)	ðáne
you (pl.)	pé [peðó-pe]
he, she	áʔe

Vocabulary

For a list of Warázu plant and animal names from Ramirez (2017), see the corresponding Portuguese article.

Further reading

• Anonymous (2015). Diccionario flora y fauna gwarasu. Santa Cruz de la Sierra: Talleres Gráficos Kipus.
• Riester, Jürgen (1972). Die Pauserna-Guarasug’wä. Monographie eines Tupi-Guaraní-Volkes in Ostbolivien. St. Augustin bein Bonn: Verlag des Anthropos-Instituts.
• Riester, Jürgen (1976). En busca de la Loma Santa. Indígenas en el Oriente Boliviano. Análisis de su situación actual. La Paz: Editorial Los Amigos del Libro.
• Riester, Jürgen (1977). Los Guarasug’wé: Crónica de sus últimos días. La Paz: Editorial Los Amigos del Libro.