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Arawan or Arauan languages
Page revised by S.Dienst, 2009.
Information about Arauan languages
Where are the Arawan languages spoken ?
These languages are spoken in the states of Amazonas and Acre in Brazil and also in Peru.
Number of speakers (estimates) :
6891 speakers UNESCO data
About 4620 speakers according to Dixon (1999)
Classification
The Arawan language family consists of the following languages (in bold) and dialects (in italic) :
Madihá dialect continuum:
Kulina: 4500 speakers according to UNESCO and 2500 according to Dixon
Western Jamamadi
Deni: 875 speakers according to UNESCO and 1000 according to Dixon
Madi: 1 090 speakers according to UNESCO and 420 according to Dixon
Eastern Jamamadi dialect
Banawá dialect
Jarawara dialect
Arawá: extinct
Suruwahá: 136 speakers according to UNESCO and 100 according to Dixon
Paumari : 290 speakers according to UNESCO and 600 according to Dixon
Comments on the Arawan languages’ classification:
We have chosen Dienst’s (2008) classification, according to which Madihá and Madi are more closely related to each other than to the other languages of the family.
These languages are not known to be related to any other language.
Are the Arawan languages endangered?
All of the Arawan languages are endangered.
According to UNESCO, the most endangered one is Paumari, considered « severely endangered » (third level on a scale of five).
Ethnographic elements:
There are few common cultural characteristics between the speakers of these different languages. Yet, we can give some common features: traditionally they are fishermen and hunters with a semi-nomad way of life and they live in primary equatorial forests . They also practice slash-and-burn agriculture on a small scale.
The Paumari have traditionally lived in floating houses. The other groups used to build communal houses which housed an entire village. This type of dwelling only survives among the Suruwahá. Most indigenous people in the region now live in wooden stilt houses, introduced by non-indigenous settlers.
But the cities’ development and the industrial exploitation of forests (for rubber) have disrupted their lives. Diseases, deforestation, lack of resources and assimilation by urban centres seriously threaten these populations, although some of them, such as the Kulina, manage to keep alive their culture and to protect partially their way of life.
For further information on Arawan speakers see also:
http://pib.socioambiental.org/en/povo/paumari
http://pib.socioambiental.org/en/povo/jamamadi
http://pib.socioambiental.org/en/povo/jarawara
http://pib.socioambiental.org/en/povo/deni
http://pib.socioambiental.org/en/povo/kulina
http://pib.socioambiental.org/en/povo/zuruaha
Sources
Dienst, Stefan. (2008). “The internal classification of the Arawan languages.” LIAMES 8.
Dixon, R.M.W. (1999). “Arawá” in R.M.W. Dixon and Alexandra Y.Aikhenvald (Eds), The Amazonian Languages, (PP 293-306), Cambridge University Press.
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Please do not hesitate to contact us should you have more information on this language: contact@sorosoro.org