Aroaqui (Aroaki) is an extinct
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. Branc ...
of
Brazil
Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
that was spoken in the lower
Rio Negro region, probably on the banks of the
Cuieiras River.
[Jolkesky, Marcelo Pinho de Valhery. 2016. ]
Estudo arqueo-ecolinguístico das terras tropicais sul-americanas
'. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Brasília
The University of Brasília ( pt, Universidade de Brasília, UnB) is a federal public university in Brasília, the capital of Brazil. It was founded in 1960 and has since consistently been named among the top five Brazilian universities and the ...
. Some Aroaqui groups were also located around the mouth of the Amazon River near
Macapá
Macapá () is a city in Brazil with a population of 512,902 (2020 estimation). It is the capital of Amapá state in the country's North Region. It is located on the northern channel of the Amazon River near its mouth on the Atlantic Ocean. The ...
.
A word list of Aroaqui was collected by
Johann Natterer
Johann Natterer (9 November 1787 – 17 June 1843) was an Austrian naturalist and explorer.
Family and early life
Johann Natterer was born on 9 November 1787, the son of the animal-zoologist Joseph Natterer Sr. and Maria Anna Theresia Scho ...
(1832) in
Airão.
Aroaqui and
Parawana are closely related, and may be the same language.
References
Arawakan languages
Languages of Brazil
{{Arawakan-lang-stub