Maipure (Maypure, Mejepure, Maipure:maipùri jucuàre[maipúɺijukuáɺɛ]^[1]) is an extinct language once spoken along theVentuari,Sipapo, andAutana rivers ofAmazonas and, as alingua franca, in the UpperOrinoco region. It became extinct around the end of the eighteenth century. Raoul Zamponi provided a grammatical sketch of the language and furnished a classified word list, based on all of its extant eighteenth century material (mainly from the Italian missionaryFilippo S. Gilij).^[1] It is historically important in that it formed the cornerstone of the recognition of theMaipurean (Arawakan) language family in 1783, along with theMoxo languages.^[2]

Kaufman (1994)^[3] gives its closest relatives asYavitero and other languages of the Orinoco branch ofUpper Amazon Arawakan. Aikhenvald places it instead in the Western Nawiki branch.^[2]

Any assessment about Maipure phonology is tentative due to the poor attestation of the language. A consonant and vowel system are presented below.^[1]

/r/ is phonetically long,[rː]./h/ is not attested, but is mentioned by Gilij./t,s,n/ are classified as dentals due to similar realizations inBaniva andYavitero.

/u/ is realized freely as either[u] or[o]./e/ is presumably realized as[ɛ], as it is in Baniva and Yavitero. Long vowels are extremely rare.

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