Sapé language

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title: "Sapé language" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["arutani–sape-languages", "critically-endangered-languages", "indigenous-languages-of-south-america", "languages-of-venezuela", "language-isolates-of-south-america", "endangered-language-isolates"] description: "Extinct Arutani–Sape language of Venezuela" topic_path: "linguistics" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sapé_language" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Extinct Arutani–Sape language of Venezuela ::

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

Field	Value
name	Sapé
nativename	Sapé
states	Venezuela
region	Paragua and Karuna rivers
ethnicity	9 (2011 census)
ref
familycolor	American
fam1	Arutani–Sape ?
iso3	spc
glotto	sape1238
glottorefname	Sapé
map2	Lang Status 20-CR.svg
mapcaption2
notice	IPA
extinct	November 2018, with the death of Ramón Quimillo Lezama
speakers2	2 semispeakers (2019)
altname	Kaliana
pronunciation
::

| name = Sapé | nativename = Sapé | states = Venezuela | region = Paragua and Karuna rivers | ethnicity = 9 (2011 census) | date = | ref = | familycolor = American | fam1 = Arutani–Sape ? | iso3 = spc | glotto = sape1238 | glottorefname = Sapé | map2 = Lang Status 20-CR.svg | mapcaption2 = | notice = IPA | extinct = November 2018, with the death of Ramón Quimillo Lezama | speakers2 = 2 semispeakers (2019) | altname = Kaliana | pronunciation =

Sapé, also called Kaliana or Caliana, is an extinct language recently spoken along the Paragua River and Karuna River. There were only about a few dozen speakers in the mid-1900s, and by the 2000s, only a few elderly speakers were found. Sapé may be a language isolate.

Documentation

Sape is one of the most poorly attested extant languages in South America, and there is no comprehensive linguistic description of the language other than scattered word lists.

Word lists have been collected by Armellada & Matallana (1942), Migliazza (1978), Walter Coppens, and Francia Medina. There are unpublished field notebooks by Fèlix Cardona i Puig from the 1930s-1940s containing linguistic data of Sapé.

Perozo et al. (2008: 175–176) was also able to collect 44 words and 5 short phrases from semi-speakers living in the Ninam villages of Boca de Ichún and Kavamaikén and the Pemon village of Karunkén in Venezuela. Some of the Sapé semi-speakers have since moved to Yuwapí Merú, a village located on the Middle Paragua. There may also be semi-speakers of Sapé living in the Pemon village of Venevené (Benebené, Veneveken).

Loukotka (1968)

Loukotka (1968) lists the following basic vocabulary items for Kaliána.

:{| class="wikitable sortable" ! gloss !! Kaliána |- | one || koki |- | two || ikiria |- | three || komoña |- | head || koyanukú |- | eye || kam-kukú |- | tooth || kaká |- | man || mínõ |- | water || inám |- | fire || txokó |- | sun || yám |- | manioc || téntu |- | jaguar || pudzyín |- | house || enaĩ |}

Sociolinguistic situation

According to Rosés Labrada & Medina (2019), the last fluent speakers of Sapé were Elena Lezama, who died in 2004, and Ramón Quimillo Lezama, who died in November 2018. However, at least 2 semi-speakers remain. Traditionally located along the Karún River and the Upper Paragua River, most Sapé have assimilated into Pemon-speaking villages.

Language contact

Jolkesky (2016) notes that there are lexical similarities with the Warao, Chibchan, Puinave-Kak, Jirajara, Tukano (especially Cubeo and Wanano), Arutani, and Jukude language families due to contact.

Similarities with Chibchan are primarily with the Magdalena subgroup.

References

References

1. "MAKU, SAPE AND URUAK LANGUAGES CURRENT STATUS AND BASIC LEXiCON".
2. (2019-08-31). "Sapé (Venezuela) -- Language Snapshot". Language Documentation and Description.
3. "The status of the least documented language families in the world".
4. Dixon and Aikhenvald, 1999, ''The Amazonian Languages'', p 343.
5. Armellada, Cesareo de & Baltasar de Matallana. 1942. Exploración del Paragua. ''Boletín de la Sociedad Venezolana de Ciencias Naturales'' 8, 61-110.
6. Migliazza, Ernest C. 1978. Maku, Sape and Uruak languages current status and basic lexicon. ''Anthropological Linguistics'' 20(3), 133-140.
7. Coppens, Walter. 2008 [1983]. Los Uruak (Arutani). In Miguel Ángel Perera (ed.) ''Los aborígenes de Venezuela'', 2nd edition, Volume 2, 705-737. Caracas: Fundación La Salle de Ciencias Naturales/Instituto Caribe de Antropología y Sociología.
8. Medina, Francia. 2008. Los Sapé: notas sobre su situación presente y actualización bibliográfica. In Miguel Ángel Perera (ed.) ''Los aborígines de Venezuela'', 2nd edition, Volume 2, 739-746. Caracas: Ediciones IVIC, Monte Ávila Editores, ICAS, Fundación La Salle.
9. Perozo, Laura, Ana Liz Flores, Abel Perozo, and Mercedes Aguinagalde. 2008. Escenario histórico y sociocultural del alto Paragua, Estado Bolívar, Venezuela. In Josefa Celsa Señaris, Carlos A. Lasso & Ana Liz Flores (eds.) ''Evaluación rápida de la biodiversidad de los ecosistemas acuáticos de la cuenca alta del río Paragua, Estado Bolívar, Venezuela'', 169-180, 302-308. Arlington, VA: Conservation International.
10. Loukotka, Čestmír. (1968). "Classification of South American Indian languages". UCLA Latin American Center.
11. (2019-08-31). "Sapé (Venezuela) -- Language Snapshot". Language Documentation and Description.
12. Jolkesky, Marcelo Pinho de Valhery. (2016). "Estudo arqueo-ecolinguístico das terras tropicais sul-americanas". University of Brasília.

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