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48-462: The name Maipure was given to the family by Filippo S. Gilii in 1782, after the Maipure language of Venezuela , which he used as a basis of his comparisons. It was renamed after the culturally more important Arawak language a century later. The term Arawak took over, until its use was extended by North American scholars to the broader Macro-Arawakan proposal. At that time, the name Maipurean

96-434: A vernacular language . The revival of Hebrew has been largely successful due to extraordinarily favourable conditions, notably the creation of a nation state (modern Israel in 1948) in which it became the official language, as well as Eliezer Ben-Yehuda 's extreme dedication to the revival of the language, by creating new words for the modern terms Hebrew lacked. Revival attempts for minor extinct languages with no status as

144-552: A Rio Branco branch, giving for Mawayana also the names "Mapidian" and "Mawakwa" (with some reservations for the latter). Internal classification of Arawakan by Henri Ramirez (2001): Walker & Ribeiro (2011), using Bayesian computational phylogenetics , classify the Arawakan languages as follows. Northeast South Western Amazonia Amuesha , Chamicuro Circum-Caribbean Central Brazil Central Amazonia Northwest Amazonia The internal structures of each branch

192-703: A foundation for the study of South American languages and cultures, influencing subsequent generations of linguists and anthropologists. In 1998, the Venezuelan government issued a commemorative stamp in his honor, acknowledging his significant contributions to the understanding of the region’s indigenous heritage. Despite the challenges he faced, including the expulsion of the Jesuits from Spanish territories in 1767, Gilii continued his scholarly work upon returning to Italy . He passed away in Rome in 1789, leaving behind

240-496: A framework for future linguistic studies in the region. Gilii found that the languages spoken in the Orinoco area belonged to nine "mother languages", language families: In addition to his linguistic work, Gilii made significant contributions to the ethnographic understanding of the indigenous peoples of the Orinoco region. He meticulously documented the customs, social structures , and belief systems of various tribes, including

288-420: A historical language may remain in use as a literary or liturgical language long after it ceases to be spoken natively. Such languages are sometimes also referred to as "dead languages", but more typically as classical languages . The most prominent Western example of such a language is Latin , and comparable cases are found throughout world history due to the universal tendency to retain a historical stage of

336-407: A language as the liturgical language . In a view that prioritizes written representation over natural language acquisition and evolution, historical languages with living descendants that have undergone significant language change may be considered "extinct", especially in cases where they did not leave a corpus of literature or liturgy that remained in widespread use (see corpus language ), as

384-420: A legacy of groundbreaking research and a wealth of knowledge that continues to inform and inspire scholars today. Extinct language An extinct language is a language with no living descendants that no longer has any first-language or second-language speakers. In contrast, a dead language is a language that no longer has any first-language speakers, but does have second-language speakers or

432-509: A liturgical language typically have more modest results. The Cornish language revival has proven at least partially successful: after a century of effort there are 3,500 claimed native speakers, enough for UNESCO to change its classification from "extinct" to "critically endangered". A Livonian language revival movement to promote the use of the Livonian language has managed to train a few hundred people to have some knowledge of it. This

480-594: A missionary. His mission took him to Venezuela, where he worked closely with indigenous communities along the Orinoco River. During his time there, Gilii immersed himself in the study of the local languages and cultures, recognizing the importance of documenting and preserving the knowledge of these communities. One of Gilii’s most significant contributions was his advanced understanding of the nature of languages. He recognized sound correspondences and suggested genealogical relationships between languages, predating

528-518: A new generation of native speakers. The optimistic neologism " sleeping beauty languages" has been used to express such a hope, though scholars usually refer to such languages as dormant. In practice, this has only happened on a large scale successfully once: the revival of the Hebrew language . Hebrew had survived for millennia since the Babylonian exile as a liturgical language, but not as

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576-414: A result of the process of cultural assimilation leading to language shift , and the gradual abandonment of a native language in favor of a foreign lingua franca , largely those of European countries. As of the 2000s, a total of roughly 7,000 natively spoken languages existed worldwide. Most of these are minor languages in danger of extinction; one estimate published in 2004 expected that some 90% of

624-529: A second-person singular pi- , relative ka- , and negative ma- . The Arawak language family, as constituted by L. Adam, at first by the name of Maypure, has been called by Von den Steinen "Nu-Arawak" from the prenominal prefix "nu-" for the first person. This is common to all the Arawak tribes scattered along the coasts from Suriname to Guyana. Upper Paraguay has Arawakan-language tribes: the Quinquinaos ,

672-416: A substantial trace as a substrate in the language that replaces it. There have, however, also been cases where the language of higher prestige did not displace the native language but left a superstrate influence. The French language for example shows evidence both of a Celtic substrate and a Frankish superstrate. Institutions such as the education system, as well as (often global) forms of media such as

720-470: Is " Saggio di Storia Americana, o sia Storia Naturale, Civile, e Sacra De regni, e delle provincie Spagnuole di Terra-ferma nell’ America meridionale ", published in four volumes in 1780. This comprehensive work covered various aspects of the natural, civil, and sacred history of the Spanish provinces in mainland South America. It remains a crucial source of information on the ethnology and linguistics of

768-521: Is also mentioned as "Arawakan": Including the unclassified languages mentioned above, the Maipurean family has about 64 languages. Out of them, 29 languages are now extinct : Wainumá, Mariaté, Anauyá, Amarizana, Jumana, Pasé, Cawishana, Garú, Marawá, Guinao, Yavitero , Maipure, Manao, Kariaí, Waraikú, Yabaána, Wiriná, Aruán, Taíno, Kalhíphona, Marawán-Karipurá, Saraveca, Custenau, Inapari, Kanamaré, Shebaye, Lapachu, and Morique. Kaufman does not report

816-530: Is difficult because of the large number of Arawakan languages that are extinct and poorly documented. However, apart from transparent relationships that might constitute single languages, several groups of Maipurean languages are generally accepted by scholars. Many classifications agree in dividing Maipurean into northern and southern branches, but perhaps not all languages fit into one or the other. The three classifications below are accepted by all: An early contrast between Ta-Arawak and Nu-Arawak , depending on

864-545: Is given below. Note that the strictly binary splits are a result of the Bayesian computational methods used. Internal classification by Jolkesky (2016): ( † = extinct) Internal classification by Nikulin & Carvalho (2019: 270): Phonological innovations characterizing some of the branches: The internal classification of Arawakan by Henri Ramirez (2020) is as follows. This classification differs quite substantially from his previous classification (Ramirez 2001), but

912-622: Is much less complex and tends to be similar across the family. Arawakan languages are mostly suffixing, with just a few prefixes. Arawakan languages tend to distinguish alienable and inalienable possession. A feature found throughout the Arawakan family is a suffix (whose reconstructed Proto-Arawakan form is /*-tsi/) that allows the inalienable (and obligatorily possessed) body-part nouns to remain unpossessed. This suffix essentially converts inalienable body-part nouns into alienable nouns. It can only be added to body-part nouns and not to kinship nouns (which are also treated as inalienable). An example from

960-540: Is the case with Old English or Old High German relative to their contemporary descendants, English and German. Some degree of misunderstanding can result from designating languages such as Old English and Old High German as extinct, or Latin dead, while ignoring their evolution as a language or as many languages. This is expressed in the apparent paradox "Latin is a dead language, but Latin never died." A language such as Etruscan , for example, can be said to be both extinct and dead: inscriptions are ill understood even by

1008-460: Is used fluently in written form, such as Latin . A dormant language is a dead language that still serves as a symbol of ethnic identity to an ethnic group ; these languages are often undergoing a process of revitalisation . Languages that have first-language speakers are known as modern or living languages to contrast them with dead languages, especially in educational contexts. In the modern period , languages have typically become extinct as

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1056-496: Is very similar to the one proposed by Jolkesky (2016). Below is a full list of Arawakan language varieties listed by Loukotka (1968), including names of unattested varieties. In 1783, the Italian priest Filippo Salvatore Gilii recognized the unity of the Maipure language of the Orinoco and Moxos of Bolivia; he named their family Maipure . It was renamed Arawak by Von den Steinen (1886) and Brinten (1891) after Arawak in

1104-756: The Layanas , etc. (This is the Moho-Mbaure group of L. Quevedo). In the islands of Marajos, in the middle of the estuary of the Amazon, the Aruan people spoke an Arawak dialect. The Guajira Peninsula (north of Venezuela ) is occupied by the Wayuu tribe , also Arawakan speakers. In 1890–95, De Brette estimated a population of 3,000 persons in the Guajira peninsula. C. H. de Goeje 's published vocabulary of 1928 outlines

1152-638: The Maritime branch of Northern Maipurean, though keeping Aruán and Palikur together; and is agnostic about the sub-grouping of the North Amazonian branch of Northern Maipurean. The following breakdown uses Aikhenvald's nomenclature followed by Kaufman's: Aikhenvald classifies Kaufman's unclassified languages apart from Morique . She does not classify 15 extinct languages which Kaufman had placed in various branches of Maipurean. Aikhenvald (1999:69) classifies Mawayana with Wapishana together under

1200-501: The "kill the Indian, save the man" policy of American Indian boarding schools and other measures was to prevent Native Americans from transmitting their native language to the next generation and to punish children who spoke the language of their culture of origin. The French vergonha policy likewise had the aim of eradicating minority languages. Language revival is the attempt to re-introduce an extinct language in everyday use by

1248-602: The 1400 entries in de Goeje, 106 reflect European contact; 98 of these are loans. Nouns which occur with the verbalizing suffix described above number 9 out of the 98 loans. Though a great deal of variation can be found from language to language, the following is a general composite statement of the consonants and vowels typically found in Arawak languages, according to Aikhenvald (1999): For more detailed notes on specific languages see Aikhenvald (1999) pp. 76–77. Arawakan languages are polysynthetic and mostly head-marking. They have fairly complex verb morphology. Noun morphology

1296-601: The Arawakan family had only broken up after 600 CE, but Michael (2020) considers this to be unlikely, noting that Arawakan internal diversity is greater than that of the Romance languages. On the other hand, Blench (2015) suggests a demographic expansion that had taken place over a few thousand years, similar to the dispersals of the Austronesian and Austroasiatic language families in Southeast Asia. As one of

1344-552: The Guianas, one of the major languages of the family. The modern equivalents are Maipurean or Maipuran and Arawak or Arawakan . The term Arawakan is now used in two senses. South American scholars use Aruák for the family demonstrated by Gilij and subsequent linguists. In North America, however, scholars have used the term to include a hypothesis adding the Guajiboan and Arawan families. In North America, scholars use

1392-468: The Internet, television, and print media play a significant role in the process of language loss. For example, when people migrate to a new country, their children attend school in the country, and the schools are likely to teach them in the majority language of the country rather than their parents' native language. Language death can also be the explicit goal of government policy. For example, part of

1440-498: The Lokono/Arawak (Suriname and Guyana) 1400 items, comprising mostly morphemes (stems, affixes) and morpheme partials (single sounds), and only rarely compounded, derived, or otherwise complex sequences; and from Nancy P. Hickerson's British Guiana manuscript vocabulary of 500 items. However, most entries which reflect acculturation are direct borrowings from one or another of three model languages (Spanish, Dutch, English). Of

1488-535: The Pareci language is given below: no-tiho 1SG -face no-tiho 1SG-face my face tiho-ti face- ALIEN Filippo S. Gilii Filippo Salvatore Gilii (1721–1789), also known as Felipe Salvador Gilij , was an Italian Jesuit priest and a pioneering figure in the field of South American linguistics. Gilii’s work in the province of Venezuela , particularly along the Orinoco River , laid

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1536-557: The Tamanaco Indians. His observations provided valuable insights into the cultural diversity and complexity of these communities. Gilii’s ethnographic work was not limited to mere observation; he actively engaged with the indigenous peoples, learning their languages and participating in their daily lives. This immersive approach allowed him to gain a deeper understanding of their worldviews and traditions, which he meticulously recorded in his writings. Gilii’s most notable work

1584-550: The currently spoken languages will have become extinct by 2050. Normally the transition from a spoken to an extinct language occurs when a language undergoes language death by being directly replaced by a different one. For example, many Native American languages were replaced by Dutch , English , French , Portuguese , or Spanish as a result of European colonization of the Americas . In contrast to an extinct language, which no longer has any speakers, or any written use,

1632-496: The dominant lingua francas of world commerce: English, Mandarin Chinese , Spanish, and French. In their study of contact-induced language change, American linguists Sarah Grey Thomason and Terrence Kaufman (1991) stated that in situations of cultural pressure (where populations are forced to speak a dominant language), three linguistic outcomes may occur: first – and most commonly – a subordinate population may shift abruptly to

1680-453: The dominant language, leaving the native language to a sudden linguistic death. Second, the more gradual process of language death may occur over several generations. The third and most rare outcome is for the pressured group to maintain as much of its native language as possible, while borrowing elements of the dominant language's grammar (replacing all, or portions of, the grammar of the original language). A now disappeared language may leave

1728-533: The extinct Magiana of the Moxos group. Apart from minor decisions on whether a variety is a language or a dialect, changing names, and not addressing several poorly attested languages, Aikhenvald departs from Kaufman in breaking up the Southern Outlier and Western branches of Southern Maipurean. She assigns Salumã and Lapachu (' Apolista ') to what is left of Southern Outlier ('South Arawak'); breaks up

1776-528: The foundation for much of what is known about the indigenous languages and cultures of the region. His contributions to linguistics , ethnography , and the understanding of indigenous South American societies have left an indelible mark on the academic world. Gilii was born on July 26, 1721, in Norcia, Umbria . He joined the Society of Jesus at the age of twenty and was subsequently sent to South America as

1824-448: The labels Maipurean and Arawakan will have to await a more sophisticated classification of the languages in question than is possible at the present state of comparative studies. The languages called Arawakan or Maipurean were originally recognized as a separate group in the late nineteenth century. Almost all the languages now called Arawakan share a first-person singular prefix nu- , but Arawak proper has ta- . Other commonalities include

1872-548: The language in question must be conceptualized as frozen in time at a particular state of its history. This is accomplished by periodizing English and German as Old; for Latin, an apt clarifying adjective is Classical, which also normally includes designation of high or formal register . Minor languages are endangered mostly due to economic and cultural globalization , cultural assimilation, and development. With increasing economic integration on national and regional scales, people find it easier to communicate and conduct business in

1920-851: The most geographically widespread language families in all of the Americas, Arawakan linguistic influence can be found in many language families of South America. Jolkesky (2016) notes that there are lexical similarities with the Arawa , Bora-Muinane , Guahibo , Harakmbet-Katukina , Harakmbet , Katukina-Katawixi , Irantxe , Jaqi , Karib , Kawapana , Kayuvava , Kechua , Kwaza , Leko , Macro-Jê , Macro-Mataguayo-Guaykuru , Mapudungun , Mochika , Mura-Matanawi , Nambikwara , Omurano , Pano-Takana , Pano , Takana , Puinave-Nadahup , Taruma , Tupi , Urarina , Witoto-Okaina , Yaruro , Zaparo , Saliba-Hodi , and Tikuna-Yuri language families due to contact. However, these similarities could be due to inheritance, contact, or chance. Classification of Maipurean

1968-446: The most knowledgeable scholars, and the language ceased to be used in any form long ago, so that there have been no speakers, native or non-native, for many centuries. In contrast, Old English, Old High German and Latin never ceased evolving as living languages, thus they did not become extinct as Etruscan did. Through time Latin underwent both common and divergent changes in phonology, morphology, syntax, and lexicon, and continues today as

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2016-488: The name Maipurean to distinguish the core family, which is sometimes called core Arawak(an) or Arawak(an) proper instead. Kaufman (1990: 40) relates the following: [The Arawakan] name is the one normally applied to what is here called Maipurean. Maipurean used to be thought to be a major subgroup of Arawakan, but all the living Arawakan languages, at least, seem to need to be subgrouped with languages already found within Maipurean as commonly defined. The sorting out of

2064-420: The native language of hundreds of millions of people, renamed as different Romance languages and dialects (French, Italian, Spanish, Corsican , Asturian , Ladin , etc.). Similarly, Old English and Old High German never died, but developed into various forms of modern English and German, as well as other related tongues still spoken (e.g. Scots from Old English and Yiddish from Old High German). With regard to

2112-490: The prefix for "I", is spurious; nu- is the ancestral form for the entire family, and ta- is an innovation of one branch of the family. The following (tentative) classification is from Kaufman (1994: 57-60). Details of established branches are given in the linked articles. In addition to the family tree detailed below, there are a few languages that are "Non-Maipurean Arawakan languages or too scantily known to classify" (Kaufman 1994: 58), which include these: Another language

2160-453: The region. In this work, Gilii discussed major concepts of linguistics such as areal features between unrelated languages, loanwords, word order , language death , language origins , and nursery forms of child language. His discussions on these topics were ahead of his time and laid the groundwork for future linguistic research. Gilii’s contributions to linguistics and ethnography have been widely recognized and celebrated. His work provided

2208-427: The work of the renowned philologist William Jones . Unlike Jones, who proposed the idea of language families without substantial evidence, Gilii presented concrete evidence to support his hypotheses. Gilii’s work included the identification of nine “mother languages” ( lenguas matrices ) spoken in the Orinoco area. His classification was one of the earliest proposals of South American language families and provided

2256-492: The written language, skills in reading or writing Etruscan are all but non-existent, but trained people can understand and write Old English, Old High German, and Latin. Latin differs from the Germanic counterparts in that an approximation of its ancient form is still employed to some extent liturgically. This last observation illustrates that for Latin, Old English, or Old High German to be described accurately as dead or extinct,

2304-447: Was resurrected for the core family. See Arawakan vs Maipurean for details. The Arawakan linguistic matrix hypothesis (ALMH) suggests that the modern diversity of the Arawakan language family stems from the diversification of a trade language or lingua franca that was spoken throughout much of tropical lowland South America. Proponents of this hypothesis include Santos-Granero (2002) and Eriksen (2014). Eriksen (2014) proposes that

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