Candoshi-Shapra (also known as Candoshi, Candoxi, Kandoshi, and Murato) is an indigenous American
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 num ...
, spoken by several thousand people in western South America along the Chapuli, Huitoyacu, Pastaza, and Morona river valleys. There are two dialects, Chapara (also spelled Shapra) and Kandoashi. It is an official language of
Peru, like other native languages in the areas in which they are spoken and are the predominant language in use. Around 88.5 percent of the speakers are bilingual with
Spanish. The literacy rate in Candoshi-Shapra is 10 to 30 percent and 15 to 25 percent in the second language Spanish. There is a Candoshi-Shapra dictionary, and grammar rules have been codified.
Classification
Candoshi is not closely related to any living language. It may be related to the extinct and poorly attested language
Chirino. Four words of Chirino are mentioned in ''Relación de la tierra de Jaén'' (1586), and they resemble words in modern Candoshi. A somewhat longer list of words is given in the same document for
Rabona, across the modern border in
Ecuador and include some names of plants that resemble Candoshi, but such words can easily be borrowed.
Among modern languages, Loukotka (1968),
followed by Tovar (1984), connected Candoshi with
Taushiro (Pinche).
Kaufman (1994) tentatively proposed a ''Kandoshi–Omurano–Taushiro'' language family, with Candoshi the most distant of the trio. However, Kaufman (2007) placed Omurano and Taushiro but not Candoshi in
Saparo–Yawan.
David Payne (1981) proposes that Candoshi is related to
Jivaroan, which Payne calls Shuar. Together, Shuar and Candoshi make up a putative Shuar-Candoshi family, for which Payne (1981) provides a tentative reconstruction of Proto-Shuar-Candoshi.
Jolkesky (2016) classifies Candoshi-Shapra as a
Macro-Arawakan language.
[Jolkesky, Marcelo Pinho De Valhery. 2016. ]
Estudo arqueo-ecolinguístico das terras tropicais sul-americanas
'. Doutorado em Linguística. Universidade de Brasília.
Language contact
Jolkesky (2016) notes that there are lexical similarities with the
Cholon-Hibito,
Jivaro,
Kawapana,
Kechua,
Kunza,
Mochika, and
Pano
Pano may refer to:
Pano ancient empory somaly
Culture and language
* Páno, one of the family of Panoan languages, within the wider group of Pano-Tacanan languages spoken in South America
* Pano people or Tsimané people, Bolivia
* Paño, a fo ...
language families due to contact.
Further reading
*Tuggy, J. C. (1966). Vocabulario candoshi de Loreto. (Serie Lingüística Peruana, 2). Yarinacocha: Summer Institute of Linguistics.
References
*Alain Fabre. 2005. ''Diccionario etnolingüístico y guía bibliográfica de los pueblos indígenas sudamericanos: CANDOSHI
*Jolkesky, Marcelo. 2016. Estudo arqueo-ecolinguístico das terras tropicais sul-americanas. Brasilia: UnB. PhD Dissertation
Available here
*Payne, David Lawrence. 1981. "Bosquejo fonológico del Proto-Shuar-Candoshi: evidencias para una relación genética." ''Revista del Museo Nacional'' 45. 323-377.
External links
* ELAR Collection
Documentation of Kandozi and Chapra (Candoshi-Shapra) in Loreto, Perudeposited by Simon Overall
{{South American languages
Languages of Peru
Indigenous languages of Western Amazonia
Language isolates of South America