Data collected by the UNICEF

Data on the Leco language

Alternative names: Leko, Rika, Buruwa, Burua, Lapalapa.

The name “Buruwa” is the auto-ethnonym. The term “Lapalapa” is used by certain people in the area, but there is no certainty that it really refers to this particular language. According to Van de Kerke (quoted by Fabre, 2005), “Lapalapa” would refer to a coded language, a kind of slang based on Quichua.

Classification : Leco is considered as an isolated language. The lack of knowledge on the language does not allow to list it in any language group today.

Geographic area: Bolivia, Department of La Paz, province of Larecaja, on the banks of the Rio Mapiri, the Rio Kaka and the Rio Coroico. There would also be Leco people in the area of Atén.

Number of speakers: 20 partial speakers according to Van de Kerke. The 2001 Bolivian census listed 4,186 people claiming to be Lecos, whereas the figure given by Van de Kerke in 1996 was of 200. According to Crevels (2010), this spectacular increase is due, among other things, to the recent progress of Leco ethnic demands and a certain “renewed pride”. Almost nobody speaks the ancestral language.

Status of the language: According to the 25894 supreme decree of September 11th, passed in the year 2000, Leco is one of the “indigenous languages recognized as official” in Bolivia.

Vitality and Transmission: We thought the language was dead until Van de Kerke (1996) found a few partial speakers of the language on the land. He has worked on the language ever since and has engaged in a race against time to broaden the knowledge on Leco before it disappears completely.

However, the language is dying and there is no certainty that there are any native speakers left. The last partial speakers are very old. Leco hasn’t been transmitted or used for a long time.

The Leco people were the victims of a cultural adaptation process during the 20th century, mainly due to the growth of populations of Andean origin in the area.

The Leco are now mainly speakers of Bolivian Quichua or bilingual in Quichua and Spanish.

Sources

Crevels, Mily (2010) Bolivia Amazónica In « Atlas sociolingüístico de pueblos indígenas en América Latina », UNICEF. Part 1, pp 281-300.

Fabre, Alain. 2005. Diccionario etnolingüístico y guía bibliográfica de los pueblos indígenas sudamericanos. Available online [24/05/2011]

Online sources

Data collected by the UNICEF on Leco [24/05/2011]

Page dedicated to Leco on the Linguamón website [24/05/2011]

Additional bibliography

Crevels, Mily 2002. Why speakers shift and languages die: an account of language death in Amazonian Bolivia. ILLA 3: 9-30. Leiden.

Kerke, Simon van. 1997. Some morphological properties of the Leko language. Ponencia al 49o CIA, 7-11 de julio de 1997. Quito.

Kerke, Simon van. 2002. Leko, Rik’a, Lapa-Lapa, an endangered linguistic isolate in lowland Bolivia.

Molina, Ramiro y Xavier Albó. 2006. Gama étnica y lingüística de la población boliviana. La Paz: Sistema de las Naciones Unidas en Bolivia.

PROEIB Andes. 2000. Estudios sociolingüísticos y socioeducativos con pueblos originarios de tierras bajas de Bolivia. Informe final. Cochabamba (Mimeo).

Teijeiro, José. 2007. Regionalización y diversidad étnica cultural en las tierras bajas y sectores del subandino amazónico y platense de Bolivia. La Paz: Plural Editores.

Zalles Cueto, Alberto 1990. Los lecos: dos enclaves al interior del territorio del ayllu Chalana y su problemática actual. En: Reunión Anual de Etnología, 1990: 49-56. La Paz: MUSEF

See the Atlas sociolingüístico de pueblos indígenas en América Latina and Fabre (2005) for a complete bibliography.