Cayubaba
Kayuvava
Native to	Bolivia
Region	Beni Department
Ethnicity	2,203 Cayubaba people (2012)[1]
Native speakers	12 (main language), 1,246 (learned in childhood)[1] (2012)[2]
Language family	Language isolate
Official status
Official language in	Bolivia
Language codes
ISO 639-3	cyb
Glottolog	cayu1262
ELP	Cayuvava

Part ofa series on the
Culture of Bolivia
History
People
Languages Araona Aymara Ayoreo Baure Callahuaya Canichana Cavineña Cayubaba Chiquitano Guaraní Eastern Bolivian Guaraní Iñapari Itonama Leco Machiguenga language Movima Pacahuara Plautdietsch Puquina Quechua Reyesano Saraveca Sirionó Spanish Bolivian Spanish Tacana Tapieté Toromona Uru-Chipaya Uru Western Argentine Guaraní Wichí Lhamtés Nocten Wichí Lhamtés Vejoz Yaminawa Yuracaré
Cuisine Pique macho Salteñas Silpancho more
Festivals Carnaval de Oruro
Religion Christianity Roman Catholicism Mennonitism Methodism Mormonism Other Protestant Islam Judaism Ekeko Pachamama Tiw Anchanchu
Art Architecture Neo-Tiwanakan architecture
Literature Writers
Music and performing arts Musicians Composers Musical instruments (Charango Siku Tarka N'vike Erke) Dances (Diablada Morenada Caporales Kullawada Ch´utas Waca Waca Doctorcitos Suri Sicuri Tinku Pujllay Tobas Auqui Auqui Llamerada Cambitas Chacarera Afro-Bolivian Saya Macheteros Taquirari Chovena)
Media Television Cinema Bolivia TV Bolivisión Red ATB Red Uno de Bolivia UNITEL Radio Televisión Popular Red Patria Nueva
Sport Olympics
Monuments World Heritage Sites Archaeological sites Chiripa El Fuerte de Samaipata Incallajta Iskanwaya Mollo culture Pumapunku Tiwanaku Buildings Palacio Quemado National Mint of Bolivia
Symbols Flag Coat of arms National anthem
Bolivia portal
v t e

Cayubaba (Cayuvava, Cayuwaba, Kayuvava) is amoribund language of theBolivian Amazon. The Cayubaba people inhabit theBeni region to the west of theMamoré River, North of theSanta Ana Yacuma,^[2] with a population of 794 inhabitants.

Since the declaration of the Supreme Decree N.º 25894 on September 11, 2000, Cayubaba has been one of the official indigenous languages of Bolivia,^[3] which was included in thePolitical Constitution, which was introduced on February 7, 2009.^[4]

The first to establish contact with the Cayubaba was the Jesuit missionary priest, P. Agustín Zapata in 1693. As Crevels and Muysken (2012)^[5] point out, it was during this first visit to Cayubaba territory that Father Zapata saw seven villages, of which six had approximately 1,800 inhabitants and one had more than 2,000. At the beginning of the 18th century, P. Antonio Garriga funded the Mission of Exaltation of the Holy Cross, which was primarily inhabited by the Cayubaba. Later the Missions of San Carlos, Conception, and Peñas were founded.

At the beginning of the 19th century, when Swedish geologist and paleontologistErland Nordenskiold visited Cayubaba, there were only 100 people from the group, who apart from their language, kept very little of their native culture. The Cayubaba region was famous for growing tobacco. At the time of the exploitation of rubber, the commercialization of tobacco was intense throughout the country, andExaltación became a busy port on theMamoré River. In the mid- 20th century, however, the cultivation of tobacco was almost stopped by the mass emigration of Cayubaba to Exaltación, who were fleeing the measles epidemic that almost decimated the population.

As shown by Crevels and Muysken (2012),^[6] the territory of Cayubaba forms part of a region historically known asMojos (or Moxos), that covers approximately 200,000 square kilometers of what is currently theDepartment of Beni. Above all, the Cayubaba focus on traditional farming, growing rice, yucca, corn, bananas, sugar cane, beans, pumpkins, sweet potatoes, etc. They also raised livestock, although on a small scale. The Cayubaba community meets at the Subcentral Indígena Cayubaba, which is affiliated to the Indigenous Peoples Center of Beni (CPIB) and is, therefore, a member of the Confederation of Indigenous Peoples of Eastern Bolivia (CIDOB).

As of 2005, Mily Crevels reported that only two elderly speakers remain in the village of Exaltación, located on the left bank of theMamoré River. One elderly speaker was also found in the city ofTrinidad.^{[7][clarification needed]}

According to the2012 Bolivian census, there were 2,203 of Cayubaba, of whom 1,246 learned speak Cayubaba language in their childhood and for only 12 Cayubaba was their main language.^[1]

Jolkesky (2016) notes that there are lexical similarities with theArawak,Bororo,Takana, andTupi language families due to contact.^[8]

As indicated by Crevels and Muysken (2012),^[9] despite all the tentative proposals to genetically classify Cayubaba (see, for example, Greenberg, 1987);^[10] Kaufman, 1990,^[11] 1994;^[12] Suárez, 1974),^[13] the language is still considered alanguage isolate.

Cayubaba presents the following system of consonantal phonemes (taken from Crevels and Muysken, 2012)^[14] based on (Key 1961),^[15] 1962,^[16] 1967).^[17] The consonant phoneme represented below with /r/ has allophones that include [ɾ~ l~ d̥].^{[citation needed]}

In the second table, we are presented with the system of vowel phonemes (taken from Crevels and Muysken, 2012)^[18] and based on (Key, 1961).^[15]

Regarding the vocabulary and word classes in Cayubaba, the following can be pointed out (Crevels and Muysken, 2012):^[19]

• In Cayubaba, there are five distinct word classes: verbs, for exampleboro (give),tavu (swim). Nouns, for exampleveje-veje (wind),ñoko (monkey). Pronouns, for exampleãre-ai (1SG),ãre-a (2SG), and modifiers and particles, for examplekóra 'perhaps',ñõhõ (now).
• In regards to adjectives, many adjectival concepts are expressed through predicate adjectives formed with the affixespa(+i)... +ha, for example:pa-i-ra-ha ''Well, be well', pa-tï-ha 'red, is red'. This is to say, it is difficult to establish criteria for the class of adjectives separate from verbs.
• In addition, Cayubaba presents some adverbs, such aspïïrëboro (slowly),irire (good).
• The basic numerical system includes five numerals:  karata/kata (one),mitia/mite (two),kurapa (three),chaada/chaad (four),y me(i)da(ru) (five). These numerals can be combined with therirobo element (irobo/erobo/iro/hiro/kiro) 'five more' to form numbers up to ten. The numbers eleven to nineteen are formed with the augmentative suffix -hiiñe (and, in addition to). Starting from one hundred, borrowed words from Castilian are used, such askarata-siento [one-one hundred] (one hundred),karata-mirie [one-thousand] (a thousand).

Regarding the morphology of Cayubaba, the following is presented from Crevels and Muysken:^[20]

• Regarding the nominal morphology, Cayuvava shows a process of fullreduplication, for example  wïrï-wïrï 'iguana', and partial, for exampleuku-ku 'pig'. In addition, there are also six complex and productive processes of nominal composition:

The plural nominal is expressed through theprocliticme = as observed in (Figure 1). In nominal sentences, the procliticme, is appended to the first element of the sentence, as seen in (Figure 2).

• The personal pronouns in Cayubaba function as independent elements, but they actually are derived from verb forms. The basic pronouns, which are presented in Table 3, are derived from the existential verbãre 'there are', 'exist'. In this verb form, the direct object marker is suffixed. In the case of plural pronouns, you can put the personal markers before the suffix-hi ‘present active state'. These pronouns may be considered, then, like presentative pronouns in the sense of 'I'm the one who...'.

• As for the verbal morphology, there are processes ofreduplication andaffixation, as well as a set ofproclitic andenclitic elements. There are certain types of reduplication, for example [root + root] reduplication inròmò-ròmò 'kneel down' to express an ongoing action. As for the process of affixation, the verb can be modified by a series of prefixes and suffixes that indicate the subject, object, time, appearance, mode, etc., for example, the first-position prefixes that mark time and appearance, such as themara-'hypothetical future' in (3) andmera- 'simple future' in (4).

• The verbal complex can also be modified by a series ofproclitic and enclitic elements. Within the proclitic elements, there are modal/evidential proclitics,chui='certainty',manoro= 'almost' (surely), to have the intention. Within the enclitic elements, there are locative enclitics, e.g. "=jahi" 'below', "=puti"'outside', the temporal or aspectual enclitics, e.g. "koidi" 'sometimes', "=ñoho" 'now', and the relational enclitics, e.g. "=dyë" 'together', =ma 'with respect to a woman'.

With regard to the syntax of Cayubaba, the following is seen (Crevels and Muysken, 2012):^[21]

• Cayubaba does not present a fixed constituent order. The only mandatory element in the clause is that the predicate usually precedes the subject and objects, as is observed in (5). If the subject is a free personal pronoun, then it always precedes the predicate, as observed in (6).

• With respect to the nominal phrase, the modifier precedes the nucleus, as shown in (7). However, the possessive element follows that which is possessed, as is observed in (8).

• In Cayubaba, processes of incorporation are observed, as in (9), which consist of the incorporation of the direct object in the verb, which is in the same accent group.

• Cayubaba also presents different subordination processes. Theprocliticki = in its subordinate function, for example, is used to indicate add-ons, as in (10), and it can also complete an adverbial subordinate, as in (11). It also distinguishes conjunctions that mark subordinate clauses and appear at the beginning of the sentence, for example, "=chu" 'because' in (12).

Loukotka (1968) lists the following basic vocabulary items for Cayuvava.^[22]

gloss	Cayuvava
one	karata
two	mítia
three	kurapa
tooth	ai-che
tongue	iné
hand	daxe
woman	toréne
water	ikita
fire	idore
moon	iráre
maize	xiki
jaguar	yedava
house	iñíka

• Llanos de Moxos (archaeology)

• Key, H. (1975). Lexicon-dictionary of Cayuvava-English. (Language Data Amerindian Series, 5). Dallas:Summer Institute of Linguistics.

• Lenguas de BoliviaArchived 2019-09-04 at theWayback Machine (online edition)
• Cayuvava (Intercontinental Dictionary Series)

• Languages of Bolivia
• Language isolates of South America
• Endangered Indigenous languages of the Americas
• Mamoré–Guaporé linguistic area

• Language articles citing Ethnologue 25
• All pages needing factual verification
• Wikipedia articles needing factual verification from September 2019
• CS1 Spanish-language sources (es)
• CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list
• CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list
• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Wikipedia articles needing clarification from July 2024
• All articles with unsourced statements
• Articles with unsourced statements from November 2020
• Articles containing Cayubaba-language text
• Pages with errors in interlinear text
• Webarchive template wayback links