Yabarana is a moribund Cariban language or dialect of Mapoyo, spoken in Venezuela.[2][3]
Classification
Yawarana is a member of the Cariban language family. Their first mention as such was in 1782 by the Jesuit Filippo Salvatore Gilii, who obtained the information from the Tamanaku. Girard (1971) grouped Yawarana with Mapoyo in his eighth subgroup out of 15 which he had devised for the Cariban family. However, he doubted the close classification of Yawarana with Mapoyo, instead suspecting a close relationship with Pemon. The two are placed in Marshall Durbin's (1977) classification, which is, however, rejected by modern scholarship,[4] with the Panare language, separating them from Tamanaku. A comparative study on Tamanaku in 1990 by Mattei Muller and Henley (1990) found much lexical similarity between Mapoyo, Yawarana, and Tamanaku, but much fewer for Panare and Cumanagoto. Terrence Kaufman's (1994) classification, also outdated,[4] grouped Mapoyo-Yawarana in his Central branch with Yeꞌkuana, Apalaí, and Wayana, also adding Cumanagoto and closely related Chaima.[5] He also described Tamanaku as a synonym of Mapoyo-Yawarana.[6] A "link" between Mapoyo and Yawarana, Pémono, was identified in 1998 by Mattei Muller, and at the time was spoken by only one woman; she died soon after.[5]
History
Documentation
Until the 1990s, both Mapoyo and Yawarana were known solely from wordlists, phonological descriptions, and descriptions of specific aspects of grammar.[5]
Status
As of 2012, Yawarana was spoken by 151 people, and was seriously endangered at the time.[1]
Phonology
Consonants
Yawarana has the following consonants:[7]
| Bilabial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Labiovelar | Glottal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stop | p | t | k | |||
| Fricative | s | h | ||||
| Nasal | m | n | ɲ | |||
| Rhotic | ɾ | |||||
| Approximant | j | w |
Vowels
The vocalic system of Yawarana is identical to that of Mapoyo and Pémono:[7]
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| High | i | ɨ | u |
| Mid | e | ɘ | o |
| Low | a |
References
- 1 2 3 Grondona, Verónica (2012). Campbell, Lyle (ed.). The Indigenous Languages of South America: A Comprehensive Guide (PDF). Erscheinungsort nicht ermittelbar: De Gruyter. ISBN 978-3-11-025803-5.
- 1 2 "Glottolog 5.2 - Yabarana". glottolog.org. Retrieved 2025-09-26.
- ↑ Méndez-Arocha, Alberto (1959). "Un vocabulario Yabarana con Apuntes Fonéticos". Antropológica. 7: 65–84.
- 1 2 Gildea, Spike (2012-01-13), "Linguistic studies in the Cariban family", in Campbell, Lyle; Grondona, Verónica (eds.), The Indigenous Languages of South America, DE GRUYTER, pp. 441–494, doi:10.1515/9783110258035.441, ISBN 978-3-11-025513-3, retrieved 2026-05-30
- 1 2 3 Seiler-Baldinger, Annemarie; Mattei-Müller, Marie-Claude (2017), "Los Yawarana (Yabarana)", Los aborígenes de Venezuela V, Caracas: La Salle, pp. 127–209, retrieved 2026-05-30
- ↑ Moseley, Christopher; Asher, R. E.; Tait, Mary (1994), Atlas of the world's languages, London ; New York: Routledge, ISBN 978-0-415-01925-5
- 1 2 Mattei-Muller, Marie-Claude (2003). "Pémono: eslabón perdido entre mapoyo y yawarana: lenguas caribes ergativas de la Guayana noroccidental de Venezuela" (PDF). Amérindia: revue d'ethnolinguistique amérindienne. 28: 33–54.