Bororoan languages

The Borôroan languages of Brazil and Bolivia are Borôro and the extinct Umotína, Kovareka, Kuruminaka and Otuke. They are sometimes considered to form part of the proposed Macro-Jê language family,^{[1][2]: 547} though this has been disputed.^{[3]: 64–8}

Borôroan
Borotuke
Geographic distribution	Brazil
Linguistic classification	Macro-Jê? Borôroan
Subdivisions	Umotína † Otuke–Bororo
Language codes
Glottolog	boro1281
Geographical distribution of the Borôroan languages

They are called the Borotuke languages by Mason (1950), a portmanteau of Bororo and Otuke.^[4]

Languages

The relationship between the languages is,^[5]

• Umotina (†)
• Otuke–Bororo
  • Borôro
  • ? Bororo of Cabaçal (†)
  • Otuke (†), Gorgotoqui (†) ?
  • Covareca–Kuruminaka (†)

Gorgotoqui may have also been a Bororoan language.^[6][7]

See Otuke for various additional varieties of the Chiquito Plains in Bolivia which may have been dialects of it, such as Kovare and Kurumina.

There are other recorded groups that may have spoken languages or dialects closer to Borôro, such as Aravirá, but nothing is directly known about these languages:^[8]

• Aravirá – extinct language once spoken on the Cabaçal River and Sepotuba River in Mato Grosso according to Loukotka (1968)

Orari (Eastern Borôro, Orarimugodoge), listed by Loukotka as a language that was spoken on the Valhas River, Garças River, and Madeira River in Mato Grosso, is a dialect of Bororo.

Bororo of Cabaçal, which has been documented by Johann Natterer^[9] and Francis de Castelnau,^[10] has been identified by Camargo (2014) as a separate language distinct from Bororo proper.^[11]

Vocabulary

Loukotka (1968) lists the following basic vocabulary items.^[8]

gloss	Boróro	Orari	Umutina	Otuque
tongue	i-táuro	i-kaura	azoː	ki-taho
hand	i-kéra	i-kera	azyida	seni
fire	yóru	dzyóru	zoːruː	reru
stone	tori	tori	tauri	tohori
sun	kueri	meri	baru	neri
moon	ári	ari	aːliː	ari
earth	róto	mottu	moto	moktuhu
jaguar	adúgo	adugo	azyukuetá	anteko
fish	kare	karo	haré	aharo
house	bái	bai	isipá	huala
bow	baíga	voiga	bóika	vevika

Proto-language

For a list of Proto-Bororo reconstructions by Camargos (2013), see the corresponding Portuguese article.

External relations

The Bororoan languages are commonly thought to be part of the Macro-Jê language family.^{[1][2]: 547}

Ceria & Sandalo (1995) note parallels between Bororo and the Guaicuruan languages.^[12] Kaufman (1994) has suggested a relationship with the Chiquitano language,^[13] which Nikulin (2020) considers to be a sister of Macro-Jê.^[3] Furthermore, Nikulin (2019) has suggested that Bororoan has a relationship with the Cariban and Kariri languages:^[14]

gloss	Proto-Bororo	Kariri	Proto-Cariban
tooth	*ɔ	dza	*(j)ə
ear	*bidʒa	beɲe	*pana
go	*tu		*tə
tree	*i	dzi	*jeje
tongue		nunu	*nuru
root		mu	*mi(t-)
hand		(a)mɨsã	*əmija
fat (n.)	*ka		*ka(t-)
seed	*a		*a
fish	*karo		*kana
name	*idʒe	dze
heavy	*motɨtɨ	madi

An automated computational analysis (ASJP 4) by Müller et al. (2013)^[15] also found lexical similarities between Bororoan and Cariban.

Language contact

Jolkesky (2016) notes that there are lexical similarities with the Guato, Karib, Kayuvava, Nambikwara, and Tupi language families due to contact.^[16]

Cariban influence in Bororoan languages was due to the later southward expansion of Cariban speakers into Bororoan territory. Ceramic technology was also adopted from Cariban speakers.^[16]: 415 Similarly, Cariban borrowings are also present in the Karajá languages. Karajá speakers had also adopted ceramic technology from Cariban speakers.^[16]: 420

Similarities with Cayuvava are due to the expansion of Bororoan speakers into the Chiquitania region.^[16]: 416