Moxo languages
Arawakan subfamily of northeastern Bolivia
title: "Moxo languages" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["arawakan-languages", "languages-of-bolivia", "mamoré–guaporé-linguistic-area", "jesuit-missions-of-moxos"] description: "Arawakan subfamily of northeastern Bolivia" topic_path: "linguistics" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moxo_languages" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary Arawakan subfamily of northeastern Bolivia ::
::data[format=table title="Infobox language"]
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| name | Moxo |
| altname | Mojos |
| states | Bolivia |
| ethnicity | Moxo people (2004) |
| speakers | 10,000 |
| date | 2000–2004 |
| ref | e18 |
| familycolor | arawakan |
| fam1 | Arawakan |
| fam2 | Southern |
| fam3 | Bolivia–Parana |
| fam4 | Moxos languages |
| lc1 | ign |
| ld1 | Ignaciano Moxos |
| lc2 | trn |
| ld2 | Trinitario Moxos |
| glotto | moxo1234 |
| glottoname | Mojeno |
| glotto2 | magi1242 |
| glottoname2 | Magiana |
| region | Beni Department |
| :: |
| name = Moxo | altname = Mojos | states = Bolivia | ethnicity = Moxo people (2004) | speakers = 10,000 | date = 2000–2004 | ref = e18 | familycolor = arawakan | fam1 = Arawakan | fam2 = Southern | fam3 = Bolivia–Parana | fam4 = Moxos languages | lc1 = ign | ld1 = Ignaciano Moxos | lc2 = trn | ld2 = Trinitario Moxos | glotto = moxo1234 | glottoname = Mojeno | glotto2 = magi1242 | glottoname2 = Magiana | region = Beni Department
Moxo (also known as Mojo, pronounced 'Moho') is any of the Arawakan languages spoken by the Moxo people of the Llanos de Moxos in northeastern Bolivia. The two extant languages of the Moxo people, Trinitario and Ignaciano, are as distinct from one another as they are from neighboring Arawakan languages. The extinct Magiana was also distinct.
Moxo languages have an active–stative syntax. It is one of the National Languages of Bolivia.
Sociolinguistic background
The languages belong to a group of tribes that originally ranged through the upper Mamoré, extending east and west from the Guapure (Itenes) to the Beni, and are now centered in the Province of Moxos, Department of Beni, Bolivia. They form part of the Mamoré-Guaporé linguistic area.
Moxo was also the primary lingua franca () used in the Jesuit Missions of Moxos.
Ignaciano is used in town meetings unless outsiders are present, and it is a required subject in the lower school grades, one session per week. Perhaps half of the children learn Ignaciano. By the 1980s there were fewer than 100 monolinguals, all older than 30.
Classification
The Moxo languages are most closely related to Bauré, Pauna, and Paikoneka. Together, they form the Mamoré-Guaporé languages (named after the Mamoré River and Guaporé River). Classification by Jolkesky (2016):
Classification by Danielsen (2011) and Danielsen & Terhart (2014: 226):
- Baure languages
- Bauré
- Carmelito
- Joaquiniano: spoken in San Joaquín
- Pauna languages
- Paunaka
- Paikoneka
- Mojo languages
- Trinitário: spoken in Trinidad
- Ignaciano: spoken in San Ignacio
- Loretano: spoken in Loreto
- Javierano: spoken in San Javier
- Muchojeone
Phonology
Consonants
::data[format=table title="Consonants in Ignaciano Mojeno{{Cite book |last=Jordá |first=Enrique |title=Mojeño Ignaciano |publisher=La Paz: Plural Editores |year=2014 |location=In Mily Crevels and Pieter Muysken (eds.), Oriente |pages=21–58}}"]
| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | Nasal | Stop | Affricate | Fricative | Rhotic | Approximant |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| :: |
::data[format=table title="Consonants in Trinitario Mojeno"]
| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | plain | pal. | lab. | plain | pal. | plain | pal. | plain | pal. | lab. | Nasal | Stop | Affricate | Fricative | Liquid | Approximant |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| :: |
- /h/ can be voiced as [ɦ] between vowels.
- /w/ can be heard as [β] before a front vowel, and as [ɥ] when preceding /j/.
Vowels
::data[format=table title="Vowels in Ignaciano Mojeno"]
| Front | Central | Back | High | Mid | Low |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| :: |
- /e/ can also have an allophone of [ɛ].
::data[format=table title="Vowels in Trinitario Mojeno"]
| Front | Central | Back | High | Mid | Low |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| :: |
Word lists
The following is a wordlist containing sample words from English to Moxos:
::data[format=table title="English-Moxos"]
| English | Moxos |
|---|---|
| One | Ikapia |
| Two | Apisá |
| Three | Impúse |
| Man | Ehiro |
| Woman | Eseno |
| Sun | Sáche |
| Water | Uni |
| Fire | Yuku |
| Head | Nuxuti |
| Hand | Nubupe |
| Corn | Suru |
| :: |
Magíana word list from the late 1700s published in Palau and Saiz (1989):
:{| class="wikitable" ! Spanish gloss !! English gloss !! Magíana |- | bueno || good || shiomá |- | malo || bad || shiomallama |- | el padre || father || papá |- | la madre || mother || kay |- | el hermano || brother || nomasqui |- | uno || one || huestiche |- | dos || two || heravetá |}
References
References
- Aikhenvald, "Arawak", in Dixon & Aikhenvald, eds., ''The Amazonian Languages'', 1999.
- http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/10606b.htm {{Webarchive. link. (2008-09-07 , New Advent, Moxos Indians, Retrieved February 10, 2011.)
- (2008). "From Linguistic Areas to Areal Linguistics".
- Muysken, Pieter; [[Harald Hammarström. Hammarström, Harald]]; Birchall, Joshua; Van Gijn, Rik; Krasnoukhova, Olga; Müller, Neele (2014). [https://cl.lingfil.uu.se/~harald/hhpub/muyskenetal_guapore-mamore2014_s.pdf Linguistic areas: bottom-up or top-down? The case of the Guaporé-Mamoré] {{Webarchive. link. (2021-07-10 . In: Comrie, Bernard; Golluscio, Lucia. ''Language Contact and Documentation / Contacto lingüístico y documentación''. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 205-238.)
- Crevels, Mily. 2002. Speakers shift and languages die: An account of language death in Amazonian Bolivia. In Mily Crevels, Simon van de Kerke, Sérgio Meira & Hein van der Voort (eds.), ''Current Studies on South American Languages'' [Indigenous Languages of Latin America, 3], p. 9-30. Leiden: Research School of Asian, African, and Amerindian Studies (CNWS).
- Jolkesky, Marcelo. 2016. Uma reconstrução do proto-mamoré-guaporé (família arawák). ''LIAMES'' 16: 7-37.
- Danielsen, Swintha (2011). The personal paradigms in Baure and other South Arawakan languages. In Antoine Guillaume; Françoise Rose (eds.). ''International Journal of American Linguistics'' 77(4): 495-520.
- Danielsen, Swintha; Terhart, Lena (2014). Paunaka. In Mily Crevels; Pieter Muysken (eds.). ''Lenguas de Bolivia'', vol. III: Oriente, pp. 221-258. La Paz: Plural Editores.
- Jordá, Enrique. (2014). "Mojeño Ignaciano". La Paz: Plural Editores.
- Rose, Françoise. (2021). "Mojeño Trinitario". Illustrations of the IPA: Journal of the International Phonetic Association.
- Palau, Mercedes and Blanca Saiz. 1989. ''Moxos: Descripciones exactas e historia fiel de los indios, animales y plantas de la provincia de Moxos en el virreinato del Perú por Lázaro de Ribera, 1786-1794''. Madrid: El Viso.
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