Chiquitano language

Chiquitano
Chiquitano
Chiquito
Besïro
Pronunciation	[ˈbesɨro]
Native to	Bolivia, Brazil
Region	Santa Cruz (Bolivia); Mato Grosso (Brazil)
Ethnicity	c. 100,000 Chiquitanos
Native speakers	2,400 (2021)
Language family	Language isolate (Macro-Jê?)
Dialects	Lomeriano (Bésɨro); Sansimoniano; Migueleño; Eastern dialects; Piñoco;
Official status
Official language in	Bolivia
Language codes
ISO 639-3	cax
Glottolog	chiq1253 Chiquitano; sans1265 Sansimoniano
ELP	Chiquitano
	This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

Chiquitano (also Bésɨro or Tarapecosi) is an indigenous language isolate, possibly one of the Macro-Jê languages spoken in the central region of Santa Cruz Department of eastern Bolivia and the state of Mato Grosso in Brazil.

Classification

Chiquitano is usually considered to be a language isolate. Joseph Greenberg linked it to the Macro-Jê languages in his proposal,^[2] but the results of his study have been later questioned due to methodological flaws.^[3]^[4]

Kaufman (1994) suggests a relationship with the Bororoan languages.^[5] Adelaar (2008) classifies Chiquitano as a Macro-Jê language,^[6] while Nikulin (2020) suggests that Chiquitano is rather a sister of Macro-Jê.^[7] More recently, Nikulin (2023) classified Chiquitano as a branch of Macro-Jê instead of as a sister branch of it.^[8]

Varieties

Mason (1950)

Mason (1950) lists:^[9]

Chiquito
- North (Chiquito)
  - Manasí (Manacica)
  - Penoki (Penokikia)
  - Pinyoca; Kusikia
  - Tao; Tabiica
- Churapa

The Sansimoniano dialect has also been proposed to be a Chapacuran language.^[10]^[11]

Loukotka (1968)

According to Čestmír Loukotka (1968), dialects are Tao (Yúnkarirsh), Piñoco, Penoqui, Kusikia, Manasi, San Simoniano, Churapa.^[12]

Tao (Yúnkarirsh) - spoken at the old missions of San Rafael, Santa Ana, San Miguel, San Ignacio, San Juan, Santo Corazón, and Concepción, Bolivia.
Piñoco - spoken at the missions of San Xavier, San José, and San José de Buenaventura.
Penoqui - spoken at the old mission of San José. (However, Combès suggests that Penoqui was a synonym of Gorgotoqui and may have been a Bororoan language.^[13]^[14])
Cusiquia - once spoken north of the Penoqui tribe.
Manasi - once spoken at the old missions of San Francisco Xavier and Concepción, Santa Cruz province.
San Simoniano - now spoken in the Sierra de San Simón and the Danubio River.
Churapa - spoken on the Piray River, Santa Cruz province.

Otuke, a Bororoan language, was also spoken in some of the missions.^[12]

Nikulin (2020)

Chiquitano varieties listed by Nikulin (2020):^[7]

Chiquitano
- Bésɨro (also known as Lomeriano Chiquitano), spoken in the Lomerío region and in Concepción, Ñuflo de Chávez Province. Co-official status and has a standard orthography.
- Migueleño Chiquitano (in San Miguel de Velasco and surroundings), moribund with fewer than 30 speakers
- Eastern^[1]
  - Ignaciano Chiquitano (in San Ignacio de Velasco and surroundings)^[15]
  - Santiagueño Chiquitano (in Santiago de Chiquitos)
Divergent varieties
- Sansimoniano (spoken in the far northeast of Beni Department)
- Piñoco (formerly spoken in the missions of San José de los Boros, San Francisco Xavier de los Piñoca, and San José de Buenavista/Desposorios; see also Jesuit Missions of Chiquitos)

Nikulin (2019) proposes that Camba Spanish has a Piñoco substratum. Camba Spanish was originally spoken in Santa Cruz Department, Bolivia, but is now also spoken in Beni Department and Pando Department.^[16]

Some Chiquitano also prefer to call themselves Monkóka (plural form for 'people'; the singular form for 'person' is Monkóxɨ).^[1]

Nikulin also tentatively proposes an Eastern subgroup for the varieties spoken in San Ignacio de Velasco, Santiago de Chiquitos, and Brazil.^[1]

In Brazil, Chiquitano is spoken in the municipalities of Cáceres, Porto Esperidião, Pontes e Lacerda, and Vila Bela da Santíssima Trindade in the state of Mato Grosso.^[17]^[18]

Historical subgroups

The following list of Jesuit and pre-Jesuit-era historical dialect groupings of Chiquitano is from Nikulin (2019),^[16] after Matienzo et al. (2011: 427–435)^[19] and Hervás y Panduro (1784: 30).^[20] The main dialect groups were Tao, Piñoco, and Manasi.

Tao subgroups
Subgroup	Location(s)
Aruporé, Bohococa (Bo(h)oca)	Concepción
Bacusone (Basucone, Bucofone, Bucojore)	San Rafael
Boro (Borillo)	San José, San Juan Bautista, Santo Corazón
Chamaru (Chamaro, Xamaru, Samaru, Zamanuca)	San Juan Bautista
Pequica	San Juan Bautista, afterwards San Miguel
Piococa	San Ignacio, Santa Ana
Piquica	east of the Manasicas
Purasi (Puntagica, Punasica, Punajica, Punaxica)	San Javier, Concepción
Subareca (Subarica, Subereca, Subercia, Xubereca)	San Javier
Tabiica (Tabica, Taviquia)	San Rafael, San Javier
Tau (Tao, Caoto)	San Javier, San José, San Miguel, San Rafael, San Juan Bautista, Santo Corazón
Tubasi (Tubacica, Tobasicoci)	San Javier, afterwards Concepción
Quibichoca (Quibicocha, Quiviquica, Quibiquia, Quibichicoci), Tañepica, Bazoroca	unknown

Piñoco subgroups
Subgroup	Location(s)
Guapa, Piñoca, Piococa	San Javier
Motaquica, Poxisoca, Quimeca, Quitaxica, Zemuquica, Taumoca	? San Javier, San José, San José de Buenavista or Desposorios (Moxos)

Manasi subgroups
Subgroup	Location(s)
Manasica, Yuracareca, Zibaca (Sibaca)	Concepción
Moposica, Souca	east of the Manasicas
Sepe (Sepeseca), Sisooca, (?) Sosiaca	north of the Manasicas
Sounaaca	west of the Manasicas
Obariquica, Obisisioca, Obobisooca, Obobococa, Osaaca, Osonimaca, Otaroso, Otenenema, Otigoma	northern Chiquitanía
Ochisirisa, Omemoquisoo, Omeñosisopa, Otezoo, Oyuri(ca)	northeastern Chiquitanía
Cuzica (Cusica, Cusicoci), Omonomaaca, Pichasica, Quimomeca, Totaica (Totaicoçi), Tunumaaca, Zaruraca	unknown

Peñoquí (Gorgotoqui?), possibly a Bororoan language, was spoken in San José. It was soon replaced by the Piñoco dialect, and was so divergent that Father Felipe Suarez, who authored a Chiquitano grammar, had to translate the catechism and compile a dictionary of it.^[21] The dictionary is held at the Archivo de la Sociedad Geográfica de Santa Cruz de la Sierra.^[22]

Phonology

Consonants

	Bilabial	Dental	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Plosive	p	t̪	t	t͡ʃ	k	ʔ
Fricative	β		s	ʃ
Nasal	m		n	ɲ	ŋ
Rhotic			r
Glide	w			j

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i	ɨ	u
Close-mid	e		o
Open		a

^[23]

Nasal assimilation

Chiquitano has regressive assimilation triggered by nasal nuclei / ɨ̃ ĩ ũ õ ã ẽ/ and targeting consonant onsets within a morpheme.

/suβũ/ → [suˈmũ] 'parrot (sp.)'^[24]

Syllable structure

The language has CV, CVV, and CVC syllables. It does not allow complex onsets or codas. The only codas allowed are nasal consonants.

Vocabulary

Loukotka (1968) lists the following basic vocabulary items for different dialects of Chiquito (Chiquitano).^[25]

gloss	Chiquito	Yúnkarirsh	San Simoniano	Churápa
tooth	oh-ox		oän	noosh
tongue	otús		natä	iyúto
foot	popez	popess	pipín	ípiop
woman	pais	páirsh	paá	páish
water	toʔus	tush		túʔush
fire	péz	péesh		peés
sun	suur	suursh	sóu	súush
manioc	tauax	táhuash	tabá	tawásh
tapir	okitapakis	tapakish		oshtápakish
house	ogox	póosh		ípiosh
red	kiturixi	kéturuk		kéturikí

For a vocabulary list of Chiquitano by Santana (2012),^[26] see the Portuguese Wiktionary.

Language contact

Chiquitano has borrowed extensively from an unidentified Tupí-Guaraní variety; one example is Chiquitano takones [takoˈnɛs] ‘sugarcane’, borrowed from a form close to Paraguayan Guaraní takuare'ẽ ‘sugarcane’.^[16]^: 8 There are also numerous Spanish borrowings.

Chiquitano (or an extinct variety close to it) has influenced the Camba variety of Spanish. This is evidenced by the numerous lexical borrowings of Chiquitano origin in local Spanish. Examples include bi ‘genipa’, masi ‘squirrel’, peni ‘lizard’, peta ‘turtle, tortoise’, jachi ‘chicha leftover’, jichi ‘worm; jichi spirit’, among many others.^[16]

References

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Nikulin, Andrey (May 26, 2021). "Chiquitano: a presentation". Universität Bonn.
^ Greenberg, Joseph H. (1987). Language in the Americas. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
^ Rankin, Robert L. (July 1992). "Language in the Americas . Joseph H. Greenberg". International Journal of American Linguistics. 58 (3): 324–351. doi:10.1086/ijal.58.3.3519791. ISSN 0020-7071.
^ Campbell, Lyle; Greenberg, Joseph H. (September 1988). "Language in the Americas". Language. 64 (3): 591. doi:10.2307/414535.
^ Kaufman, Terrence; Asher, Ronald E. (1994). "The native languages of South America". In Moseley, Christopher (ed.). Atlas of the world's languages. London: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-01925-5.
^ Adelaar, Willem F. H. Relações externas do Macro-Jê: O caso do Chiquitano. In: Telles de A. P. Lima, Stella Virgínia; Aldir S. de Paula (eds.). Topicalizando Macro-Jê. Recife: Nectar, 2008. p. 9–27.
^ ^a ^b Nikulin, Andrey. 2020. Proto-Macro-Jê: um estudo reconstrutivo. Doctoral dissertation, University of Brasília.
^ Nikulin, Andrey (2023-12-01). "Lexical evidence for the Macro-Jê–Tupian hypothesis / Лексические свидетельства в пользу макро-же–тупийской гипотезы". Journal of Language Relationship. 21 (1–2): 1–56. doi:10.31826/jlr-2023-211-206. ISSN 2219-4029.
^ Mason, John Alden (1950). "The languages of South America". In Steward, Julian (ed.). Handbook of South American Indians. Vol. 6. Washington, D.C., Government Printing Office: Smithsonian Institution, Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 143. pp. 157–317.
^ Fabre, Alain (2005). "Chapakura" (PDF). Diccionario etnolingüístico y guía bibliográfica de los pueblos indígenas sudamericanos. p. 1.
^ Métraux, Alfred (1948). "The Chapacuran tribes". In Steward, J.H. (ed.). Handbook of South American Indians. Vol. 3. pp. 397–407.
^ ^a ^b Loukotka, Čestmír (1968). Classification of South American Indian Languages. Los Angeles: UCLA Latin American Center. pp. 60.
^ Combès, Isabelle. 2010. Diccionario étnico: Santa Cruz la Vieja y su entorno en el siglo XVI. Cochabamba: Itinera-rios/Instituto Latinoamericano de Misionología. (Colección Scripta Autochtona, 4.)
^ Combès, Isabelle. 2012. Susnik y los gorgotoquis. Efervescencia étnica en la Chiquitania (Oriente boliviano), p. 201–220. Indiana, v. 29. Berlín. doi:10.18441/ind.v29i0.201-220
^ CIUCCI, L.; MACOÑÓ TOMICHÁ, J. 2018. Diccionario básico del chiquitano del Municipio de San Ignacio de Velasco. Santa Cruz de la Sierra: Ind. Maderera “San Luis” S. R. L., Museo de Historia. U. A. R. G. M. 61 f.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Nikulin, Andrey (2020). "Contacto de lenguas en la Chiquitanía". Revista Brasileira de Línguas Indígenas. 2 (2): 5–30. doi:10.18468/rbli.2019v2n2.p05-30. S2CID 225674786.
^ Santana, Áurea Cavalcante. 2012. Línguas cruzadas, histórias que se mesclam: ações de documentação, valorização e fortalecimento da língua Chiquitano no Brasil. Doutorado, Universidade Federal de Goiás.
^ FUNAI/DAF. Plano de Desenvolvimento de Povos Indígenas (PDPI) – Grupo Indígena Chiquitano, MT. Diretoria de Assuntos Fundiários: Brasília, 2002.
^ MATIENZO, J.; TOMICHÁ, R.; COMBÈS, I.; PAGE, C. Chiquitos en las Anuas de la Compañía de Jesús (1691–1767). Cochabamba: Itinerarios, 2011.
^ HERVÁS Y PANDURO, L. Idea dell’Universo che contiene la storia della vita dell’uomo, elementi cos-mografici, viaggio estatico al mondo planetario, e storia della terra, e delle lingue. Vol. XVII: Ca-talogo delle lingue conosciute. Cesena: Gregorio Biasini, 1784.
^ Métraux, Alfred (1948). "Tribes of eastern Bolivia and the Madeira headwaters". In Steward, J.H. (ed.). Handbook of South American Indians (PDF). Vol. 3. pp. 381–454.
^ Loukotka, Čestmír (1968). Wilbert, Johannes (ed.). Classification of South American Indian Languages (PDF) (4th ed.). Latin American Center, UCLA. p. 239. ISBN 9780879031077.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
^ Krusi, Dorothee, Martin (1978). Phonology of Chiquitano.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^ Sans, Pierric (2011), Proceedings of the VII Encontro Macro-Jê.Brasilia, Brazil
^ Loukotka, Čestmír (1968). Classification of South American Indian languages. Los Angeles: UCLA Latin American Center.
^ Santana, Áurea Cavalcante. 2012. Línguas cruzadas, histórias que se mesclam: ações de documentação, valorização e fortalecimento da língua Chiquitano no Brasil. Goiânia: Universidade Federal de Goiás.

Fabre, Alain (2008-07-21). "Chiquitano" (PDF). Diccionario etnolingüístico y guía bibliográfica de los pueblos indígenas sudamericanos. Retrieved 2009-01-16.