The classification of Urarina remains contentious: academics have placed the language in at least four language families includingPanoan,Tupian, Macro-Tucanoan, andAmerind. However, the proposed language families share few similarities with Urarina, meaning it is likely best described as either “unclassified” or as alanguage isolate. It is usually assumed that it is a language isolate given Urarina’s complete lack of lexical overlap with any languages surrounding Urarina territory.[7]
Urarina is currently spoken by the 2,000–3,000 members of the Urarina tribe, the majority of whom have retained the ability to speak the language. However, bilingualism and use of Spanish in everyday life is on the rise, as more and more Spanish-speaking mestizos have immigrated to the valley where the Urarina live. While there is a bilingual education system, most bilingual schools almost exclusively use Spanish, as the majority of the teachers do not speak Urarina.[10] The version of Urarina that is spoken by younger generations has lost a substantial degree of grammatical complexity and vocabulary, as correlated to the loss of traditional cultural practices and beliefs. The language is considered potentially endangered.[7]
Urarina has several rare grammatical characteristics. The language follows theOVS word order: of all the languages that use OVS word order, Urarina is among the strictest adherents to this word order in speech.[7] Another feature of Urarina is its complex system on all verbs (excluding borrowings). Every verb is marked according to one of three paradigms, as determined by a complicated set of pragmatic and syntactic conditions.[7]
Urarina follows a similarly unique word class system. Numerals and adjectives that are borrowed fromQuechua andSpanish are placed in a completely separate class from indigenous Urarina words. Urarina also follows syntactic rules wherein the pitch-accent system changes the tone of a word, based on the preceding word class.[7] The language's set of unique features has recently garnered special attention from linguists. However, Urarina's distinctive grammatical features are gradually disappearing as younger generations speak a Urarina that is being influenced by a growing bilingualism in Spanish.[7]
Like many other Amazonian languages, Urarina follows apolysynthetic, agglutinative word morphology in relating to verbs.[7]
^Epps, Patience; Michael, Lev, eds. (2023).Amazonian Languages: Language Isolates. Volume II: Kanoé to Yurakaré. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. pp. 1107–1109.ISBN978-3-11-043273-2.
Olawsky, K. (2006).A Grammar of Urarina. (Mouton Grammar Library, 37). Berlin, New York: Mouton de Gruyter.
Wise, Mary Ruth. (1999). "Small Language Families and Isolates in Peru" inThe Amazonian Languages. Dixon, R. M. W. and Aikhenvald, Alexandra (ed.)
Elias-Ulloa, Jose and Aramburú, Rolando Muñoz (2021). "Upper-Chambira Urarina". Illustrations of the IPA.Journal of the International Phonetic Association.51 (1):137–169.doi:10.1017/S0025100319000136{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link), with supplementary sound recordings.
† indicates anextinct language,italics indicates independent status of a language,bold indicates that a language family has at least 6 members, * indicates moribund status
