The Pira-tapuya, or variations like Pira-Tapuia, Piratapuyo, etc., or Tapuya for short, are an indigenous people of the Amazon regions. They live along the
Vaupés River in Colombia and in the state of
Amazonas, Brazil.
Languages
The Pira-tapuya call themselves Waíkana.
They speak the
Piratapuyo language, one of the
Eastern Tucanoan languages.
Other ethnic groups in the region also speak Eastern Tucanoan languages apart from the
Tariana people, who originally spoke an
Arawakan language
Arawakan (''Arahuacan, Maipuran Arawakan, "mainstream" Arawakan, Arawakan proper''), also known as Maipurean (also ''Maipuran, Maipureano, Maipúre''), is a language family that developed among ancient indigenous peoples in South America. Branch ...
.
The
lingua franca
A lingua franca (; ; for plurals see ), also known as a bridge language, common language, trade language, auxiliary language, vehicular language, or link language, is a language systematically used to make communication possible between groups ...
of the region is the
Tucano language, which has around 20,000 speakers.
Locations
The Pira-tapuya live along the banks of the Uaupés River and its tributaries such as the
Tiquié,
Papurí and
Querari rivers.
The Uaupés River rises in Colombia and flows for to the border with Brazil.
For over it forms the border between Colombia and Brazil, then for flows through Brazil to the point where it joins the
Rio Negro.
The main settlements are the town of
Mitú, capital of the
Vaupés Department Vaupés may refer to:
* Vaupés River
* Vaupés Department of Colombia
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