Bororoan languages

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Language family indigenous to Brazil

title: "Bororoan languages" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["bororoan-languages", "macro-jê-languages", "language-families", "languages-of-brazil", "indigenous-languages-of-south-america-(central)", "mamoré–guaporé-linguistic-area"] description: "Language family indigenous to Brazil" topic_path: "linguistics" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bororoan_languages" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Language family indigenous to Brazil ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox language family"]

FieldValue
nameBorôroan
regionBrazil, formerly Bolivia
familycoloramerican
fam1Macro-Jê?
glottoboro1281
glottorefnameBororoan
mapBororoan languages.png
mapcaptionGeographical distribution of the Borôroan languages
altnameBorotuke
child1Umotína
child2Otuke–Bororo
::

| name = Borôroan | region = Brazil, formerly Bolivia | familycolor = american | fam1 = Macro-Jê? | glotto = boro1281 | glottorefname = Bororoan | map = Bororoan languages.png | mapcaption = Geographical distribution of the Borôroan languages | glottoname = | notes = | ancestor = | altname = Borotuke | child1 = Umotína | child2 = Otuke–Bororo

The Borôroan languages of Brazil and Bolivia are Borôro and the extinct Umotína, Kovareka, Kuruminaka and Otuke. They are sometimes considered to form part of the proposed Macro-Jê language family, though this has been disputed.

They are called the Borotuke languages by Mason (1950), a portmanteau of Bororo and Otuke.

Languages

The relationship between the languages is,

Gorgotoqui may have also been a Bororoan language.Combès, Isabelle. 2012. Susnik y los gorgotoquis: Efervescencia étnica en la Chiquitania (Oriente boliviano), p. 201–220. Indiana, v. 29. Berlín.

Bororo of Cabaçal, which has been documented by Johann Natterer and Francis de Castelnau, has been identified by Camargo (2014) as a separate language distinct from Bororo proper.

Loukotka (1968)

Loukotka (1968) lists the following languages of the Boróro stock:

  • Boróro / Coroados / Biribocone - extinct language once spoken on the Cabaçal and Jauru Rivers, state of Mato Grosso.
  • Aravirá – extinct language once spoken on the Cabaçal River and Sepotuba River in Mato Grosso. [Is a synonym of Bororo of Cabaçal.]
  • Orari / Eastern Boróro / Orarimugodoge - language spoken by an ancient warlike tribe on the Valhas River, Garças River, and Madeira River, Mato Grosso. [Is a dialect of Bororo proper.]
  • Umutina / Barbudo - spoken by a few families between the Paraguai and Bugres Rivers, Mato Grosso.
  • Otuque / Loushiru - spoken at the ancient mission of Santo Corazon in the Bolivian Chaco, now by a few individuals.
  • Covare - extinct language once spoken at the ancient mission of Santa Ana de Chiquitos, Bolivia.
  • Curumina - extinct language from the ancient mission of Casalvasco.
  • Curucane / Carruacane - extinct language once spoken at the ancient mission of San Rafael, Bolivia. (Unattested.)
  • Curave / Ecorabe - extinct language once spoken at the ancient mission of Santo Corazon, Bolivia. (Unattested.)
  • Tapii - extinct language from the ancient mission of Santiago de Chiquitos, Bolivia. (Unattested.)

Mason (1950)

The following are listed as Bororo varieties by Mason (1950):

; Bororo

  • Eastern: Orarimugudoge
  • Western: Cabasal; Campanya
  • Acioné
  • Aravira
  • Biriuné
  • Coroa (?)
  • Coxipo (?)

Vocabulary

Loukotka (1968) lists the following basic vocabulary items.

:{| class="wikitable sortable" ! gloss !! Boróro !! Orari !! Umutina !! Otuque |- ! tongue | i-táuro || i-kaura || azoː || ki-taho |- ! hand | i-kéra || i-kera || azyida || seni |- ! fire | yóru || dzyóru || zoːruː || reru |- ! stone | tori || tori || tauri || tohori |- ! sun | kueri || meri || baru || neri |- ! moon | ári || ari || aːliː || ari |- ! earth | róto || mottu || moto || moktuhu |- ! jaguar | adúgo || adugo || azyukuetá || anteko |- ! fish | kare || karo || haré || aharo |- ! house | bái || bai || isipá || huala |- ! bow | baíga || voiga || bóika || vevika |}

Proto-language

For a list of Proto-Bororo reconstructions by , see the corresponding Portuguese article.

External relations

The Bororoan languages are commonly thought to be part of the Macro-Jê language family.

Ceria & Sandalo (1995) note parallels between Bororo and the Guaicuruan languages. Kaufman (1994) has suggested a relationship with the Chiquitano language, which Nikulin (2020) considers to be a sister of Macro-Jê. Furthermore, Nikulin (2019) has suggested that Bororoan has a relationship with the Cariban and Kariri languages:

:{| class="wikitable sortable" ! gloss !! Proto-Bororo !! Kariri !! Proto-Cariban |- ! tooth | *ɔ || dza || *(j)ə |- ! ear | *bidʒa || beɲe || *pana |- ! go | *tu || || *tə |- ! tree | *i || dzi || *jeje |- ! tongue | || nunu || *nuru |- ! root | || mu || *mi(t-) |- ! hand | || (a)mɨsã || *əmija |- ! fat (n.) | *ka || || *ka(t-) |- ! seed | *a || || *a |- ! fish | *karo || || *kana |- ! name | *idʒe || dze || |- ! heavy | *motɨtɨ || madi || |}

An automated computational analysis (ASJP 4) by Müller et al. (2013) also found lexical similarities between Bororoan and Cariban.

Language contact

Jolkesky (2016) notes that there are lexical similarities with the Guato, Karib, Kayuvava, Nambikwara, and Tupi language families due to contact.

Cariban influence in Bororoan languages was due to the later southward expansion of Cariban speakers into Bororoan territory. Ceramic technology was also adopted from Cariban speakers. Similarly, Cariban borrowings are also present in the Karajá languages. Karajá speakers had also adopted ceramic technology from Cariban speakers.

Similarities with Cayuvava are due to the expansion of Bororoan speakers into the Chiquitania region.

References

References

  1. Nikulin, Andrey. (2020). "Proto-Macro-Jê: um estudo reconstrutivo". Universidade de Brasília.
  2. Mason, John Alden. (1950). "Handbook of South American Indians". [[Smithsonian Institution]], [[Bureau of American Ethnology]] Bulletin 143.
  3. {{harvp. Camargos. 2013
  4. 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.)
  5. Feest, Christian. 2014. ''[https://www.researchgate.net/publication/262010790_Johann_Natterer_Bororo_Wordlists_and_Ethnographic_Notes Johann Natterer. Bororo Wordlists and Ethnographic Notes. Bororo Wordlists and Ethnographic Notes]''. [https://www.researchgate.net/project/The-Ethnographic-Collection-of-Johann-Natterer The Ethnographic Collection of Johann Natterer].
  6. Castelnau, Francis de. 1850-59. ''Expédition dan les parties centrales de l'Amérique du Sud : de Rio de Janeiro à Lima, et de Lima au Para exécutée par ordre du gouvernement français pendant les années 1843 à 1847, sous la direction de Francis de Castelnau''. P. Bertrand. Paris
  7. 9788575981603
  8. Loukotka, Čestmír. (1968). "Classification of South American Indian languages". UCLA Latin American Center.
  9. (2024-06-04). "Historical Occupation and Modern Deforestation: Evidence from Indigenous Extinctions in the Amazon {{!}} TSE".
  10. (1939). "O nexo lingüístico Bororo/Merrime-Caiapó (contribuição para a unidade genética das línguas americanas)". Revista do Círculo de Estudos "Bandeirantes".
  11. (2010). "Nimuendajú was right: the inclusion of the Jabutí language family in the Macro-Jê stock". International Journal of American Linguistics.
  12. (1995). "A Preliminary Reconstruction of Proto-Waikurúan with Special Reference to Pronominals and Demonstratives". [Anthropological Linguistics, Trustees of Indiana University].
  13. Kaufman, Terrence. 1994. The native languages of South America. In: Christopher Moseley and R. E. Asher (eds.), ''Atlas of the World’s Languages'', 59–93. London: Routledge.
  14. Nikulin, Andrey V. [https://www.academia.edu/40654122/The_classification_of_the_languages_of_the_South_American_Lowlands_State-of-the-art_and_challenges The classification of the languages of the South American Lowlands: State-of-the-art and challenges / Классификация языков востока Южной Америки]. Illič-Svityč (Nostratic) Seminar / Ностратический семинар, October 17, 2019.
  15. Müller, André, Viveka Velupillai, Søren Wichmann, Cecil H. Brown, Eric W. Holman, Sebastian Sauppe, Pamela Brown, Harald Hammarström, Oleg Belyaev, Johann-Mattis List, Dik Bakker, Dmitri Egorov, Matthias Urban, Robert Mailhammer, Matthew S. Dryer, Evgenia Korovina, David Beck, Helen Geyer, Pattie Epps, Anthony Grant, and Pilar Valenzuela. 2013. ''[https://asjp.clld.org/static/WorldLanguageTree-004.zip ASJP World Language Trees of Lexical Similarity: Version 4 (October 2013)]''.
  16. Jolkesky, Marcelo Pinho de Valhery. (2016). "Estudo arqueo-ecolinguístico das terras tropicais sul-americanas". University of Brasília.

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bororoan-languagesmacro-jê-languageslanguage-familieslanguages-of-brazilindigenous-languages-of-south-america-(central)mamoré–guaporé-linguistic-area