Chakobo language

Chácobo-Pakawara is a Panoan language spoken by about 550 of 860 ethnic tribal Chácobo people of the Beni Department northwest of Magdalena, Bolivia, and (as of 2004) 17 of 50 Pakawara. Chácobo children are learning the language as a first language, but Pakawara is moribund.^[2] Karipuna may have been a variant; alternative names are Jaunavô (Jau-Navo) and Éloe.^[3]

Chácobo
Chokobo-Pakawara
Native to	Bolivia
Region	Beni Department
Ethnicity	1,100 Chacobo (2006), possibly 50 Pacahuara (2007)[1]
Native speakers	600 (2000–2007)[1]
Language family	Panoan Mainline Panoan Nawa Bolivian Chácobo
Dialects	Chakobo Pakawara Karipuna?
Official status
Official language in	Bolivia
Language codes
ISO 639-3	Variously: cao – Chácobo pcp – Pakawara kuq – Karipuna (confuses Jau-Navo with Kawahib)
Glottolog	chac1251  Chácobo paca1246  Pacahuara kari1312  Karipuna shin1267  Shinabo
ELP	Chácobo

Several dormant and unattested languages were reported to have been related, perhaps dialects. These include Capuibo and Sinabo/Shinabo of the Mamoré River. However, nothing is actually known of these purported languages.^[4]

Phonology

Consonants

	Bilabial	Alveolar	Retroflex	Post-alv./ Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	m	n
Stop	p	t			k	ʔ
Affricate		t͡s		t͡ʃ
Fricative	β	s	ʂ	ʃ		h
Tap			ɽ
Approximant	w			j

• Sounds /t͡ʃ, ʃ/ may also be heard as palatalized [t͡ʃʲ, ʃʲ] when before vowels in free variation.
• /k/ may be heard as a voiced fricative [ɣ] when in between the positions of /ɨ/.
• /t͡ʃ/ assimilates to a retroflex [t͡ʂ] when /ʂ/ is in the following syllable.
• /n/ can be heard as [ɲ] as a realization of the sequence /ni/.

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
High	i	ɨ	o
Mid
Low		a

• /o/ may be heard as [u] when occurring within the environment of high vowels.^[5]

Examples

^[6]

Numerals

nicatsu	1
dafuira	2
unamarana	3
atchayuna	4
chayuna	5

Pronouns

hiasro	I
miani	you
zonihua	he/she/it/they
noquirzo	we
zunimato	you (pl.)

Vocabulary

chii	fire
huisruhuaina	rain
jini	water
mai	earth
oriquiti	food
osse	moon
rsepo	chicha
rsiqui	maize
vari	sun
vistima	star

References

1. Chácobo at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
   Pakawara at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
   Karipuna (confuses Jau-Navo with Kawahib) at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
2. "BBC News".
3. Distinguish Karipuna language (Rondônia), a Tupian language, across the border in Brazil
4. David Fleck, 2013, Panoan Languages and Linguistics, Anthropological Papers of the American Museum of Natural History #99
5. Tallman, Adam J. R. (2018). A Grammar of Chácobo, a southern Pano language of the northern Bolivian Amazon. University of Texas at Austin.
6. Montaño Aragon, M. Guía etnográfica lingüística de Bolivia'' La Paz: Editorial Don Bosco, 1987

• Tallman, Adam J. (2018). A grammar of Chácobo, a southern Pano language of the northern Bolivian Amazon (Ph.D. thesis). The University of Texas at Austin. doi:10.26153/tsw/1343. hdl:2152/74212.

External links

• Lenguas de Bolivia Archived 2019-09-04 at the Wayback Machine (online edition)
• New Testament in Chácobo
• Chácobo (Intercontinental Dictionary Series)
• Pacahuara (Intercontinental Dictionary Series)