Panoan
Geographic distribution	southwestern Amazon
Linguistic classification	Pano–Tacanan? Panoan
Subdivisions	Mayoruna Mainline
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–
Glottolog	pano1256
Panoan languages (dark green) and Takanan languages (light green). Spots indicate documented locations.

Panoan (alsoPánoan,Panoano,Panoana,Páno) is a family of languages spoken in westernBrazil, easternPeru, and northernBolivia. It is possibly a branch of a largerPano–Tacanan family.

The Panoan family is generally believed to be related to theTacanan family, forming with itPano–Tacanan, though this has not yet been established (Loos 1999).

Jolkesky (2016) notes that there are lexical similarities with theKechua,Mapudungun,Moseten-Tsimane,Tukano,Uru-Chipaya,Harakmbet,Arawak,Kandoshi, andPukina language families due to contact.^[1]

There are some 18 extant and 14 extinct Panoan languages.^[2] In the list of Panoan languages below adapted from Fleck (2013), (†) means extinct, and (*) obsolescent (no longer spoken daily). Dialects are listed in parentheses.

Boundaries between the Poyanawa, Chama, and Headwaters groups are somewhat blurred. Karipuna and Môa River Nawa may not be distinct languages, and Chiriba may not be Panoan at all.

Hundreds of other Panoan "languages" have been reported in the literature. These are names of groups that may have been ethnically Panoan, but whose language is unattested. They sometimes are assumed to be Panoan on no other evidence than that the name ends in-nawa or-bo. A few, such asMaya (Pisabo), are unattested but reported to be mutually intelligible with a known Panoan language (in this case Matsés).^{[citation needed]} The people speaking one of these supposed languages,Kontanáwa,^[3] was rediscovered in 2002. However, no linguistic information is available, and it is not known if they speak a distinct language.^[4]

Classification of the Panoan languages according to Amarante Ribeiro (2005):^[5]

Internal classification by Oliveira (2014: 123):^[6]

Internal classification by Jolkesky (2016):^[1]

(† = extinct)

Much of the confusion surrounding Panoan languages is the number of homonyms among different languages. The principal ambiguous names are as follows:^[2]

Neighboring languages of other families may also share the names of Panoan language. The table below ignores other homonyms further afield:

Below is a full list of Panoan language varieties listed byLoukotka (1968), including names of unattested varieties.^[7]

Northern languages

• Pano /Pánobo - spoken in the village ofContamana on theUcayali River, Loreto province, Peru.
• Maruba /Maxuruna /Mayoruna /Pelado /Dallus - spoken on theMaruba River andJandiatuba River, state of Amazonas.
• Culino - extinct language once spoken between theJutaí River,Javarí River, andJandiatuba River, Amazonas.
• Panau - spoken by only a few families inSeringal Barão,Rio Branco, territory of Acre, Brazil. (Unattested.)
• Cashibo /Cacataibo /Caxivo /Hagueti - spoken on thePachitea River,Pisqui River, andAguaytía River, Loreto, Peru.
• Manamabobo - extinct language once spoken on thePachitea River, Peru. (Unattested.)
• Carapacho /Caliseca - once spoken on theCarapacho River, Peru. (Unattested.)
• Pichobo - once spoken at the mouth of thePaguamigua River in Peru. (Unattested.)
• Sobolbo /Bolbo - once spoken on theCohengua River, Peru. (Unattested.)
• Mochobo - once spoken between theGuanie River andGuarimi River. (Unattested.)
• Maspo - once spoken on theTaco River andManipaboro River. (Unattested.)
• Comobo /Univitsa - once spoken in the same region on theInua River andUnini River. (Unattested.)
• Conibo /Cunibo /Curibeo - spoken along theUcayali River between 8° 30' and 10° latitude.
• Cháma /Manava /Chipeo /Setebo /Shipibo /Puinahva - spoken on theUcayali River north of the Conibo tribe.
• Nocamán - spoken at the sources of theChesco River, Loreto.
• Ruanagua - spoken on theCorjuania River, Loreto. (Unattested.)
• Capanagua - spoken on theTapiche River and Blanco River, Loreto.
• Busquipani - once spoken on theAlacrán River, Loreto. (Unattested.)
• Custanáwa - spoken on the upper course of thePurus River near the mouth of theCuranja River, Loreto. (Unattested.)
• Espino - spoken on theCurumaha River in the same region. (Unattested.)
• Yura - once spoken on thePiqueyaco River, Loreto. (Unattested.)
• Marináwa - spoken on theFurnaya River, Loreto. (Pike and Scott 1962.)
• Xaranáwa - spoken on theCuranja River, Loreto. (Unattested.)
• Canawari - extinct language once spoken on theCurumaha River andRixalá River, Acre territory, Brazil
• Nucuini /Remo /Rheno - spoken at the sources of theJavari River and on theMoenalco River^{[further explanation needed]} andIpixuna River, state of Amazonas.
• Amahuaca /Sayaco /Impetineri - spoken on theUrubamba River andUcayali River, Loreto, and on thePurus River andJuruá River, Acre.
• Mastináhua - spoken on thePurus River in the same territory. (Unattested.)
• Cachináua /Huñikui - spoken between theEmbira River,Liberdade River, andTarauacá River, state of Amazonas.
• Tuxináua - spoken on theEmbira River andHumaitá River, Acre.
• Camanáwa - on theMôa River in Acre. (Unattested.)
• Pacanáwa - spoken at the sources of theEmbira River, Acre. (Unattested.)
• Nehanáwa - spoken by a small tribe on theJordão River, Acre.
• Nastanáwa - spoken on the upper course of theJordão River.
• Cuyanáwa - spoken between theMôa River andParaná dos Mouros River, Acre territory. (Unattested.)
• Sacuya - once spoken between theJuruá River andTamaya River, Acre. (Unattested.)
• Xanindáua - spoken by a small tribe on theRiozinho River, Acre. (Unattested.)
• Coronáwa - spoken in the Acre territory, but exact location unknown. (Unattested.)
• Yauavo - once spoken between theTejo River andAturia River, Acre. (Unattested.)

Yaminaua group

• Yaminaua - spoken at the sources of theTarauaca River, territory of Acre.
• Poyanáwa - spoken in Acre territory on theMôa River.
• Yumanáwa - spoken on theMuruzinho River, Acre.
• Paran-náwa - spoken on theMuru River, Acre.
• Nixináwa - spoken on theJordão River, Acre.
• Yawanáwa - spoken in Acre territory on the upper course of theJordão River.
• Sanináwa /Shanináua - spoken on theValparaiso River,Liberdade River, andHumaitá River, Acre.
• Xipináwa - spoken between theValparaiso River andLiberdade River. (Unattested.)
• Aranáwa - spoken between theHumaitá River andLiberdade River. (Unattested.)
• Contanáwa - spoken in Acre on the upper course of theTarauaca River and on theHumaitá River. (Unattested.)
• Yumináhua - spoken on theTarauaca River, Acre. (Unattested.)
• Wamináua /Catoquino do Rio Gregorio - spoken in the same territory on theGregorio River.

Sensi group

• Sensi - spoken on theHuanachá River andChanuya River,department of Loreto, Peru.

Central group

• Yamiaca /Haauñeiri - spoken by a small tribe on theYaguarmayo River, department of Madre de Dios, Peru.
• Arazaire - language spoken by a few families in the same region on theMarcapata River.
• Atsahuaca /Chaspa - spoken on theCarama River in Peru.
• Araua - extinct language once spoken on theChiva River, territory of Colonia, Bolivia. (Unattested.)

Eastern group

• Chacobo - spoken aroundLake Rogoaguado, Beni province, Bolivia.
• Capuibo - once spoken on theBiata River in Beni province, Bolivia. (Unattested.)
• Pacaguara - language now probably extinct, once spoken between theBeni River andAbuña River.
• Sinabo /Shenabu /Gritones - language now probably extinct, once spoken on theMamoré River near Los Almendrales, Beni Province. (Unattested.)
• Caripuna /Jaunavô /Shakáre /Éloe /Yacariá - spoken in the nineteenth century along theMadeira River and the sources of theBeni River, now only in a single village at the mouth of theMutumparaná River, Rondônia.
• Pama /Pamainá - language of an unknown tribe of theCaldeirão River, territory of Rondônia. (Unattested.)

Exceptional to Panoan languages' predominantly suffixal morphology are sets of approximately 30 morphemes primarily referring to parts or features of prototypical human and animal bodies (and, by analogical extension, of botanicals, manufactures, landscapes, and abstract space) which have been found to occur in almost all attested languages of the family (Fleck 2006: 59; Ferreira 2007, 2008; Amarante Ribeiro and Cândido 2008; Zariquiey and Fleck 2012: 385–386).

That these monosyllabic forms are productively affixed to the front of verbal, nominal, or adjectival roots has led many Panoanists to describe them as prefixes (e.g. Prost 1967 and Zingg 1998 [for Chakobo]; Faust 1973, Loriot et al. 1993, and Valenzuela 2003 [for Shipibo-Konibo]; Hyde 1980 [for Amawaka]; Eakin 1991[for Yaminawa]), while the forms' resemblance and loose semantic correspondence to unbound, polysyllabic 'body-part terms' has led others to describe them as incorporated nouns (e.g. Loos 1999). More recent and detailed analyses of this feature in Matses (Fleck 2006) and Kashibo-Kakataibo (Zariquiey and Fleck 2012) have demonstrated that most body-part prefixes in these languages are not readily analyzable as synchronic allomorphs of the nouns they resemble.

Many Panoan body-part prefixes semantically encompass a range of denotata beyond the strictly 'corporeal' by means of analogical extension. In Matses, for example, the prefixan- corresponds to the nounsana 'mouth, tongue, palm (of hand), sole (of foot), (arm)pit';anmaëşh 'gill slits (of fish)'; andanşhantuk 'swampy depression in the ground'; but can itself be glossed also as 'cavity, concave surface, interior, underside'; and 'center (of path of stream)' (Fleck 2006: 64). In the examples below, the prefixan- with the verb rootkiad 'learn' expresses the learning of a specifically 'oral activity' while the prefixmë- 'hand, mortar, forearm, wrist, projecting carpal bones, elbow, finger, knuckles, fingernail, branch' expresses the learning of a specifically 'manual' one:

The following example illustrates howan- can express locative information in non-corporeal, topographical space:

While body-part prefixes in Kashibo-Kakataibo, as in Matses, are highly productive with verbs, they are used regularly with only a modest array of adjectives and nouns (Fleck 2006: 72; Zariquiey and Fleck 2012: 394–5). Zariquiey and Fleck (2012: 394) note that the Kashibo-Kakataibo "words for 'skin', 'hair', and 'flesh'" are regularly prefixed:

Due to the paucity of detailed studies of Panoan body-part prefixes, explanations of their grammaticalization remain largely speculative. Fleck has hypothesized that "Panoan (verb) prefixation evolved from past noun incorporation that co-existed with noun-noun and noun-adjective compounding that involved synchronic reduction of body-part roots" (2006: 92). In light of their analysis of Kashibo-Kakataibo prefixation, Zariquiey and Fleck present two diachronic scenarios to orient future comparative work: "(1) prefixation evolved from productive noun incorporation (prefixes have come from longer body-part nouns); or (2) Proto-Panoan body-part terms were monosyllabic forms that became bound, and most of the current body-part terms were later built up from these" (2012: 408).

Loukotka (1968) lists the following basic vocabulary items.^[7]

Below are Proto-Panoan reconstructions by de Oliveira (2014).^[8] For the full list of original Portuguese glosses, see the correspondingPortuguese article.

• Amarante Ribeiro, Lincoln Almir, and Gláucia Viera Cândido. (2008). "A formação de palavras a partir de morfemas monossilábicos nominais e bases verbais em línguas indígenas da família Pano: Prefixação ou incorporação nominal?"Veredas On Line (UFJF) 1:129–45.
• Campbell, Lyle. (1997).American Indian languages: The historical linguistics of Native America. New York: Oxford University Press.ISBN 0-19-509427-1.
• Eakin, Lucille. (1991). "Lecciones Para el Aprendizaje del Idioma Yaminahua.Documento de Trabajo no. 22. Yarinacocha, Peru: Instituto Lingüístico de Verano.
• Faust, Norma. (1973). "Lecciones Para el Aprendizaje del Idioma Shipibo-Conibo."Documento de Trabajo no. 1. Yarinacocha, Peru: Instituto Lingüístico de Verano.
• Ferreira, Rogério Vincente. (2007). "Afixos verbais em uma lingua da familia Pano."V Congreso Internacional de Investigaciones Lingüísticos-Filológicas: La Enseñanza de la Lengua en el Tercer Milenio. Lima: Universidad Ricardo Palma.
• Ferreira, Rogério Vincente. (2008). "Morfemas "partes do corpo" em Matis e algumas línguas da família Pano."Raído (Universidade Federal da Grande Dourados) 2, no. 4:35–39.
• Fleck, David. (2006). "Body-part prefixes in Matses: Derivation or noun incorporation?"IJAL 72:59–96.
• Hyde, Sylvia. (1980). "Diccionario Amahuaca" (Edición Preliminar).Serie Lingüística Peruana no. 7. Yarinacocha, Peru: Instituto Lingüístico Peruano.
• Kaufman, Terrence. (1990). "Language history in South America: What we know and how to know more." In D. L. Payne (Ed.),Amazonian linguistics: Studies in lowland South American languages (pp. 13–67). Austin: University of Texas Press.ISBN 0-292-70414-3.
• Kaufman, Terrence. (1994). "The native languages of South America." In C. Mosley & R. E. Asher (Eds.),Atlas of the world's languages (pp. 46–76). London: Routledge.
• Loos, E.; Loos, B. (2003). Diccionario Capanahua-Castellano. Versión electrónica ilustrada. (Serie Lingüística Peruana, 45). Lima: Summer Institute of Linguistics.
• Loos, Eugene E. (1999). "Pano."The Amazonian Languages, ed. R. M. W. Dixon and Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald, pp. 227–49. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Loriot, James; Erwin Lauriault; and Dwight Day. (1993). "Diccionario Shipibo–Castellano."Serie Lingüística Peruana no. 31. Yarinacocha, Peru: Instituto Lingüístico de Verano.
• Migliazza, Ernest C.; & Campbell, Lyle. (1988). "Panorama general de las lenguas indígenas en América".Historia general de América (Vol. 10). Caracas: Instituto Panamericano de Geografía e Historia.
• Prost, Gilbert R. (1967). "Chacobo."Bolivian Indian Grammars: 1, ed. Esther Matteson, pp. 285–359. Norman: Summer Institute of Linguistics and the University of Oklahoma.
• Rodrigues, Aryon. (1986).Linguas brasileiras: Para o conhecimento das linguas indígenas. São Paulo: Edições Loyola.
• Scott, M. (2004). Vocabulario Sharanahua-Castellano. (Serie Lingüística Peruana, 53). Lima: Summer Institute of Linguistics.
• Shell, Olive A. (1975). "Las lenguas pano y su reconstrucción".Serie Lingüística Peruana (No. 12). Yarinacocha, Peru: Instituto Lingüístico de Verano.
• Valenzuela, Pilar M. (2003). "Transitivity in Shipibo-Konibo grammar." Ph.D. dissertation, University of Oregon, Eugene.
• Zariquiey Biondi, Roberto and David W. Fleck. (2012). "Body-Part Prefixation in Kashibo-Kakataibo: Synchronic or Diachronic Derivation?"IJAL 78(3):385–409.
• Zingg, Philipp. (1998).Diccionario Chácobo–Castellano Castellano–Chácobo con Bosquejo de la Gramática Chacobo y con Apuntes Culturales. La Paz, Bolivia: Ministerio de Desarrollo Sostenible y Planificación Viceministro de Asuntos Indígenas y Pueblos Originarios.

• Proel:Familia Panoana
• Pacahuara and Yaminahua dictionaries online from IDS (select simple or advanced browsing)
• Lenguas de Bolivia (online edition)

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• Indigenous languages of Western Amazonia
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