Tucanoan languages

The Tucano languages ​​( also Tukanoa languages) are a family of languages ​​, which belongs to the indigenous languages ​​of South America. It includes 25 individual languages ​​spoken in northwestern Amazonia on the territory of Colombia, Brazil, Ecuador and Peru. It is named after the language Tucano.

Structure

In parentheses feeding the main distribution area is specified.

  • West Tucano: North: Coreguaje: Koreguaje [ coe ] (Colombia )
  • Macaguaje [ mcl ] (Colombia )
  • Secoya [ sey ] (Ecuador)
  • Siona [ snn ] (Colombia )
  • Tama [ th ] (Colombia )
  • Tetete [ teb ] (Ecuador)
  • Orejón [ ore ] ( Perú )
  • Tanimuca - Retuarã [ tnc ] (Colombia )
  • Cubeo [ cub ] (Colombia )
  • Central: Bara: Waimaha [ bao ] (Colombia )
  • Pokangá [ pok ] (Brazil )
  • Tuyuca [ do ] (Colombia )
  • Yurutí [ yui ] (Colombia )
  • DESANO [ the ] (Brazil )
  • Siriano [ sri ] (Colombia )
  • Barasana [ bsn ] (Colombia )
  • Macuna [ myy ] (Colombia )
  • Carapana [ cbc ] (Colombia )
  • Tatuyo [ tav ] (Colombia )
  • Arapaso [ arj ] (Brazil )
  • Guanano [ gvc ] (Brazil )
  • Piratapuyo [ pir ] (Brazil )
  • Tucano [ tuo ] (Brazil )
  • Yahuna [ YNU ] (Colombia )
  • Miriti [ mmv ] (Brazil )

Numbers of speakers

The numbers of speakers of each language are very small, usually only a few hundred.

The main languages ​​are:

  • Cubeo (approx. 6,200 speakers in Colombia & Brazil )
  • Tucano (approx. 4,600 speakers in Brazil and Colombia)
  • Coreguaje (approx. 2,000 speakers in Colombia)

The following languages ​​are already extinct:

  • Macaguaje
  • Miriti
  • Tama
  • Tetete
  • Yahuna

Linguistic characteristics

The Tucano languages ​​are characterized inter alia by:

  • Prosodic nasality
  • Distinctive pitch
  • Genus: many noun classes
  • Basic word order of subject-object - verb ( SOV ), rarely object - verb-subject ( OVS )
Language family Amazon Basin Prosody (linguistics) Linguistic typology Object–verb–subject Ibero-American Institute
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