Pauna language

Spoken in

• Arawak Southern Arawak Paunaka

Paunaka is an Arawakan language of South America. It belongs to the highly endangered and yet little-studied part of the Southern Arawak and is spoken in the Bolivian region Chiquitanía, near Santa Cruz and north of the Gran Chaco.

One suspects a connection to the already extinct Paiconeca language, which is also belonging to the Arawak linguistic family. These two languages ​​are so often grouped together as a dialect group and referred to as Paunaca, Pauneca or Pauna.

Through the Spanish colonization of many indigenous languages ​​were repressed for centuries through or barely passed on to future generations. The main languages ​​in this region are therefore Bolivian Spanish and Chiquitano. Currently, the Paunaka counts only about ten speakers and semi - speakers who live in the Chiquitano in eastern Bolivia. However, 150 people, at the ethnic group, some of which still understand Paunaka. Due to the small number of speakers, the language is threatened by extinction.