Bora–Witóto (also Bora–Huitoto, Bora–Uitoto, or, ambiguously, Witotoan) is a proposal to unite the

Boran Boran (also spelled Buran, Middle Persian: ; New Persian: پوران‌دخت, ''Pūrāndokht'') was Sasanian queen (or ''banbishn'') of Iran from 630 to 632, with an interruption of some months. She was the daughter of king (or '' shah'') ...

and Witotoan language families of southwestern Colombia (

Amazonas Department Amazonas () is a department of Southern Colombia in the south of the country. It is the largest department in area while also having the 3rd smallest population. Its capital is Leticia and its name comes from the Amazon River, which drains t ...

) and neighboring regions of Peru and Brazil. Kaufman (1994) added the

Andoque language Andoque is a language spoken by a few hundred Andoque people in Colombia, and is in decline. There were 10,000 speakers in 1908, down to 370 a century later, of which at most 50 are monolingual. The remaining speakers live in the area of the A ...

Family division

* Witotoan (or Witoto–Ocaina) Kaufman (1994) lists Bóran and Witótoan (Huitoto–Ocaina) as separate families (they are grouped together with Andoque as ''Bora–Witótoan''; by 2007 he moved Andoque to Witotoan).

Genetic relations

Aschmann (1993) proposed Bora–Witoto as a connection between the Boran and Witotoan language families. Echeverri & Seifart (2016) refute the connection. Kaufman (2007) includes Bora-Witoto in his

Macro-Andean Macro-Andean is a speculative proposal by Kaufman (2007) linking languages of the northern Andes. Kaufman (1990) found lexical support for proposals linking the Jivaro–Cahuapanan families as suggested by Swadesh and others. By 2007 he had ten ...

proposal, and added the

to the Witotoan family.Kaufman, Terrence. 2007. South America. In: R. E. Asher and Christopher Moseley (eds.), ''Atlas of the World’s Languages (2nd edition)'', 59–94. London: Routledge. (Aschmann had considered Andoque a

language isolate Language isolates are languages that cannot be classified into larger language families. Korean and Basque are two of the most common examples. Other language isolates include Ainu in Asia, Sandawe in Africa, and Haida in North America. The nu ...

.) These proposals have not been accepted by other linguists. Gildea and Payne (2007) checked Bora-Witoto with Andoque, Proto-Cariban and Yagua, and found Bora-Witoto to be not related to any of the others. Mason (1950: 236–238) groups Bora–Witoto,

Tupian The Tupi or Tupian language family comprises some 70 languages spoken in South America, of which the best known are Tupi proper and Guarani. Homeland and ''urheimat'' Rodrigues (2007) considers the Proto-Tupian urheimat to be somewhere between ...

, and Zaparoan together as part of a proposed ''Macro-Tupí-Guaranían'' family.Mason, J. Alden. 1950. The languages of South America. In: Julian Steward (ed.), ''Handbook of South American Indians'', Volume 6, 157–317. (

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...

Bureau of American Ethnology The Bureau of American Ethnology (or BAE, originally, Bureau of Ethnology) was established in 1879 by an act of Congress for the purpose of transferring archives, records and materials relating to the Indians of North America from the Interior D ...

Bulletin 143.) Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office.

References

Bibliography

* Aschmann, Richard P. (1993). ''Proto Witotoan''. Publications in linguistics (No. 114). Arlington, TX: SIL & the University of Texas at Arlington. * Campbell, Lyle. (1997). ''American Indian languages: The historical linguistics of Native America''. New York: Oxford University Press. . * Echeverri, Juan Alvaro & Frank Seifart. (2016). ''Proto-Witotoan: A re-evaluation of the distant genealogical relationship between the Boran and Witotoan linguistic families.'' * Gildea, Spike and Doris Payne. (2007). Is Greenberg's "Macro-Carib" viable? Bol. Mus. Para. Emílio Goeldi. Ciencias Humanas, Belém, v. 2, n. 2, p. 19-72, May-Aug. 2007 Online version: http://www.museu-goeldi.br/editora/bh/artigos/chv2n2_2007/Greenbergs(gildea).pdf * Greenberg, Joseph H. (1987). ''Language in the Americas''. Stanford: Stanford University Press. * 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. . * 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.

External links

* Proel: *
Familia Bora–Witoto
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bora-Witoto languages Indigenous languages of the South American Northern Foothills Indigenous languages of Western Amazonia Proposed language families