Cahuarano is an extinct indigenous American language of the Zaparoan family, once spoken along the

Nanay River The Nanay River is a river in northern Peru. It is a tributary of the Amazon River, merging into this river at the city of Iquitos. The lower part of the Nanay flows to the north and west of the city, while the Itaya River flows to the south ...

in Peru. The last speaker died in the late 1980s or early 1990s. While considered a language by most scholars, it was considered by some to be a dialect of

Iquito Iquito (pronounced ) is a highly endangered Zaparoan language of Peru. Iquito is one of three surviving Zaparoan languages; the other two being Záparo, with 1-3 speakers, and Arabela with about 75 speakers. Three extinct languages are also co ...

. Its speakers, who were of the Moracano tribe, lived north of the Nanay River northwest of

Iquitos Iquitos (; ) is the capital city of Peru's Maynas Province and Loreto Region. It is the largest metropolis in the Peruvian Amazon, east of the Andes, as well as the ninth-most populous city of Peru. Iquitos is the largest city in the world tha ...

. In 1930, estimated the language's number of speakers to be around 1,000, while linguist Gustavo Solís gave the number 5 in 1987.

References

Languages of Peru Zaparoan languages Languages extinct in the 1990s Extinct languages of South America {{Peru-stub