Yine language

Not to be confused with Piro Pueblo language.

Yine is the principle variety of Piro, which is a Maipurean language spoken in Peru. It belongs to the Piro group which also includes Iñapari (†) and Apurinã. The Manchineri who live in Brazil (Acre) and reportedly also in Bolivia speak what may be a dialect of Yine (Aikhenvald, Kaufman). A vocabulary labeled Canamaré is "so close to Piro [Yine] as to count as Piro", but has been a cause of confusion with the unrelated Kanamarí language.^[2]

Piro
Piro
Pronunciation	[ˈjine]
Native to	Peru
Ethnicity	Yine people, Manchineri
Native speakers	5,000 (2000–2004)[1]
Language family	Arawakan Southern Piro Piro
Official status
Official language in	Bolivia
Language codes
ISO 639-3	Either: pib – Yine mpd – Machinere (Manitenére)
Glottolog	yine1238  Yine mach1268  Machinere
ELP	Piro Maxineri

Names

This language is also called Contaquiro, Pira, Piro, Pirro, Simiranch, or Simirinche. Cushichineri has been reported as a language, but is actually a family name used with Whites (Matteson 1965). The name Mashco has sometimes been incorrectly applied to the Yine. (See Mashco Piro.)

Varieties

Extinct varieties of Piro (Yine):^[3]: 244

• Chontaquiro (Simirinche, Upatarinavo): Ucayali River
• Manchineri (Manatinavo): Purus River
• Kushichineri (Kuxiti-neri, Kujigeneri, Cusitinavo): upper Purus River in Peru (in 1886, spoken on the Curumahá River or Curanja River, and probably also on the Cujar River)
• Kuniba (Kunibo): Juruá River
• Katukina: Juruá River. Documented by Natterer (1833). Not to be confused with the unrelated Katukina language.
• Canamare (Canamirim, Canamary): Iaco River, a tributary of the Purus River. Documented by Spix (1819). Not to be confused with the unrelated Kanamarí language.
• Mashco-Piro: Madre de Dios River

Demographics

As of 2000, essentially all of the 4,000 ethnic Yine people speak the language. They live in the Ucayali and Cusco Departments, near the Ucayali River, and near the Madre de Dios River in the Madre de Dios Region in Peru. Literacy is comparatively high. A dictionary has been published in the language and the language is taught alongside Spanish in some Yine schools. There are also a thousand speakers of Machinere.^[1]

Phonology

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i iː		ɯ ɯː
Mid	e eː		o oː
Open		a aː

• Vowels are nasalized after /h̃/.

Consonants

	Labial	Alveolar	Post-alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	m	n
Plosive	p	t			k
Affricate		t͡s	t͡ʃ	c͡ç
Fricative		s	ʃ	ç		h̃
Flap		ɾ
Approximant	w	l		j

• /w/ is heard as a bilabial approximant [β̞] when before a close vowel.
• /n/ is heard as [ŋ] before /k/.
• /ɾ/ can be trilled [r] when in word-initial position.^[4]

Syntax

Piro has an active–stative syntax.^[5]

Notes

1. Yine at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
   Machinere (Manitenére) at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
2. Harald Hammarström (2013) Review of the Ethnologue, 16th Ed.
3. Ramirez, Henri (2020). Enciclopédia das línguas Arawak: acrescida de seis novas línguas e dois bancos de dados. Vol. 3 (1 ed.). Curitiba: Editora CRV. doi:10.24824/978652510234.4. ISBN 978-65-251-0234-4. S2CID 243563290.
4. Urquía Sebastián & Marlett, (2008)
5. Aikhenvald, "Arawak", in Dixon & Aikhenvald, eds., The Amazonian Languages, 1999.

Further reading

• Sebastián, Rittma Urquía; Marlett, Stephen A. (2008). "Yine". Illustrations of the IPA. Journal of the International Phonetic Association. 38 (3): 365–369. doi:10.1017/S0025100308003356, with supplementary sound recordings.

References

• Campbell, Lyle (1997). American Indian languages: the historical linguistics of Native America. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Matteson, Esther. (1965). The Piro (Arawakan) language. University of California Publications in Linguistics, 42. Berkeley y Los Angeles: University of California Press. (Es la tesis para doctorado presentada en 1963 a la University of California, Los Angeles.)
• Nies, Joyce, compilador. (1986). Diccionario piro (Tokanchi gikshijikowaka-steno). Serie Lingüística Peruana, 22. Yarinacocha: Ministerio de Educación and Instituto Lingüístico de Verano.
• Parker, Stephen. (1989). "Un análisis métrico del acento en el piro". Estudios etno-lingüísticos, Stephen Parker (ed.), pp. 114–125. Documento de trabajo 21. Yarinacocha, Pucallpa: Ministerio de Educación e Instituto Lingüístico de Verano.
• Solís Fonseca, Gustavo. (2003). Lenguas en la amazonía peruana. Lima: edición por demanda.
• Urquía Sebastián, Rittma (2006). "La situación sociolingüística de la lengua yine en 2006". In Stephen A. Marlett (ed.). Situaciones sociolingüísticas de lenguas amerindias, (PDF). Lima: SIL International and Universidad Ricardo Palma.
• Urquía Sebastián, Rittma. (2006). Yine. Ilustraciones fonéticas de lenguas amerindias, ed. Stephen A. Marlett. Lima: SIL International and Universidad Ricardo Palma.
• Urquía Sebastián, Rittma; Marlett, Stephen A. (2008). "Yine". Journal of the International Phonetic Association. 38 (3): 365–369. doi:10.1017/S0025100308003356.
• Urquía Sebastián, Rittma and Wagner Urquía Sebastián. (2009). Diccionario yine–castellano
• Hanson, Rebecca (2010). A Grammar of Yine (Piro) (Ph.D. thesis). La Trobe University. hdl:1959.9/536008.