Chiquitano (also ''Bésɨro'' or ''Tarapecosi'') is an indigenous
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 ...
spoken in the central region of
Santa Cruz Department of eastern
Bolivia
, image_flag = Bandera de Bolivia (Estado).svg
, flag_alt = Horizontal tricolor (red, yellow, and green from top to bottom) with the coat of arms of Bolivia in the center
, flag_alt2 = 7 × 7 square p ...
and the state of
Mato Grosso
Mato Grosso ( – lit. "Thick Bush") is one of the states of Brazil, the third largest by area, located in the Central-West region. The state has 1.66% of the Brazilian population and is responsible for 1.9% of the Brazilian GDP.
Neighborin ...
in
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 ...
.
Classification
Chiquitano is usually considered to be 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 ...
.
Joseph Greenberg
Joseph Harold Greenberg (May 28, 1915 – May 7, 2001) was an American linguist, known mainly for his work concerning linguistic typology and the genetic classification of languages.
Life Early life and education
Joseph Greenberg was born on M ...
linked it to the
Macro-Jê languages
Macro-Jê (also spelled Macro-Gê) is a medium-sized language stock in South America, mostly in Brazil but also in the Chiquitanía region in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, as well as (formerly) in small parts of Argentina and Paraguay. It is centered on ...
in his proposal, but the results of his study have been later questioned due to methodological flaws.
Kaufman (1994) suggests a relationship with the
Bororoan languages
The Borôroan languages of Brazil are Borôro and the extinct Umotína and Otuke. They are sometimes considered to form part of the proposed Macro-Jê language family, though this has been disputed.
They are called the Borotuke languages by ...
. Adelaar (2008) classifies Chiquitano as a
Macro-Jê language, while Nikulin (2020) suggests that Chiquitano is rather a sister of
Macro-Jê.
[Nikulin, Andrey. 2020. ]
Proto-Macro-Jê: um estudo reconstrutivo
'. Doctoral dissertation, University of Brasília.
Varieties
Mason (1950)
Mason (1950) lists:
;Chiquito
*North (Chiquito)
**Manasí (Manacica)
**Penoki (Penokikia)
**Pinyoca; Kusikia
**Tao; Tabiica
*Churapa
Loukotka (1968)

According to
Čestmír Loukotka
Čestmír Loukotka (12 November 1895 – 13 April 1966) was a Czechoslovak linguist. His daughter was Jarmila Loukotková.
Career
Loukotka proposed a classification Classification is a process related to categorization, the process in whi ...
(1968), dialects were ''Tao (Yúnkarirsh), Piñoco, Penoqui, Kusikia, Manasi, San Simoniano, Churapa.''
*Tao (Yúnkarirsh) - spoken at the old missions of
San Rafael San Rafael may refer to:
Places Argentina
* San Rafael, Mendoza
* San Rafael Department, Mendoza
Bolivia
* San Rafael de Velasco, capital of San Rafael Municipality
* San Rafael Municipality, Santa Cruz
Chile
* San Rafael, Chile, Maule ...
,
Santa Ana,
San Miguel,
San Ignacio San Ignacio (the Spanish language name of St. Ignatius (disambiguation), St. Ignatius) is a common toponym in parts of the world where that language is or was spoken:
Argentina
* San Ignacio, Argentina, Misiones Province
* San Ignacio Miní, a ...
,
San Juan San Juan, Spanish for Saint John, may refer to:
Places Argentina
* San Juan Province, Argentina
* San Juan, Argentina, the capital of that province
* San Juan, Salta, a village in Iruya, Salta Province
* San Juan (Buenos Aires Underground), ...
,
Santo Corazón, and
Concepción, Bolivia.
*Piñoco - spoken at the missions of
San Xavier,
San José
San José or San Jose (Spanish for Saint Joseph) most often refers to:
*San Jose, California, United States
*San José, Costa Rica, the nation's capital
San José or San Jose may also refer to:
Places Argentina
* San José, Buenos Aires
** San ...
, and San José de Buenaventura.
*Penoqui - spoken at the old mission of
San José
San José or San Jose (Spanish for Saint Joseph) most often refers to:
*San Jose, California, United States
*San José, Costa Rica, the nation's capital
San José or San Jose may also refer to:
Places Argentina
* San José, Buenos Aires
** San ...
. (However, Combès suggests that Penoqui was a synonym of
Gorgotoqui
Gorgotoqui is a currently undocumented extinct language of the Chiquitania region of the eastern Bolivian lowlands. It may have been a Bororoan language.
Spellings
Alternate spellings include ''Borogotoqui, Brotoqui, Corocoqui, Corocotoqui, Coro ...
and may have been a
Bororoan language.
[Combès, Isabelle. 2010. ''Diccionario étnico: Santa Cruz la Vieja y su entorno en el siglo XVI''. Cochabamba: Itinera-rios/Instituto Latinoamericano de Misionología. (Colección Scripta Autochtona, 4.)][Combès, Isabelle. 2012. Susnik y los gorgotoquis. Efervescencia étnica en la Chiquitania (Oriente boliviano), p. 201–220. ''Indiana'', v. 29. Berlín. ])
*Cusiquia - once spoken north of the Penoqui tribe.
*Manasi - once spoken at the old missions of
San Francisco Xavier and
Concepción, Santa Cruz
Concepción is a town in the lowlands of eastern Bolivia. It is known as part of the '' Jesuit Missions of Chiquitos'', declared in 1990 a World Heritage Site, as a former Jesuit Reduction.
Location
Concepción is the capital of Ñuflo de Ch ...
province.
*San Simoniano - now spoken in the Sierra de San Simón and the
Danubio River.
*Churapa - spoken on the
Piray River
The Piray River is a river of Bolivia
, image_flag = Bandera de Bolivia (Estado).svg
, flag_alt = Horizontal tricolor (red, yellow, and green from top to bottom) with the coat of arms of Bolivia in the center
, f ...
, Santa Cruz province.
Otuke, a
Bororoan language, was also spoken in some of the missions.
Nikulin (2020)
Chiquitano varieties listed by Nikulin (2020):
[Nikulin, Andrey. 2020. ]
Proto-Macro-Jê: um estudo reconstrutivo
'. Doctoral dissertation, University of Brasília.
*Chiquitano
**Bésɨro (also known as Lomeriano Chiquitano), spoken in the
Lomerío region and in
Concepción,
Ñuflo de Chávez Province
Ñuflo de Chávez is one of the fifteen provinces of the Bolivian Santa Cruz Department and is situated in the northern central parts of the department. The name of the province honors the conquistador Ñuflo de Chaves (1518–1556) who founded ...
. Co-official status and has a standard orthography.
**
Migueleño Chiquitano (in
San Miguel de Velasco and surroundings), moribund with fewer than 30 speakers
**''Eastern''
***Ignaciano Chiquitano (in
San Ignacio de Velasco
San Ignacio de Velasco, is the capital of the José Miguel de Velasco Province and the San Ignacio de Velasco Municipality in the Santa Cruz Department of Bolivia.
History
The Jesuit mission of San Ignacio de Velasco was founded in 1748 by the ...
and surroundings)
***Santiagueño Chiquitano (in
Santiago de Chiquitos)
*''Divergent varieties''
**Sansimoniano (spoken in the far northeast of
Beni Department
Beni (), sometimes El Beni, is a northeastern department of Bolivia, in the lowlands region of the country. It is the second-largest department in the country (after Santa Cruz), covering 213,564 square kilometers (82,458 sq mi), and it was cre ...
)
**Piñoco (formerly spoken in the missions of San José de los Boros,
San Francisco Xavier de los Piñoca, and San José de Buenavista/Desposorios; ''see also''
Jesuit Missions of Chiquitos
The Jesuit Missions of Chiquitos are located in Santa Cruz department in eastern Bolivia. Six of these former missions (all now secular municipalities) collectively were designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1990. Distinguished by a uni ...
)
Nikulin (2019) proposes that
Camba
Camba is a word historically used in Bolivia to refer to the indigenous population in the eastern tropical region of the country, or to those born in the area of Santa Cruz, Beni, and Pando. Nowadays, the term "Camba" is used predominantly to ...
Spanish has a Piñoco substratum. Camba Spanish was originally spoken in
Santa Cruz Department, Bolivia
Santa Cruz () is the largest of the nine constituent departments of Bolivia, occupying about one-third (33.74%) of the country's territory. With an area of , it is slightly smaller than Japan or the US state of Montana. It is located in the ...
, but is now also spoken in
Beni Department
Beni (), sometimes El Beni, is a northeastern department of Bolivia, in the lowlands region of the country. It is the second-largest department in the country (after Santa Cruz), covering 213,564 square kilometers (82,458 sq mi), and it was cre ...
and
Pando Department
Pando is a department in Northern Bolivia, with an area of , in the Amazon Rainforest, adjoining the border with Brazil and Perú. Pando has a population 154,355 (2020 census). Its capital is the city of Cobija.
The department, which is named a ...
.
Some Chiquitano also prefer to call themselves ''Monkóka'' (plural form for 'people'; the singular form for 'person' is ''Monkóxɨ'').
Nikulin also tentatively proposes an ''Eastern'' subgroup for the varieties spoken in
San Ignacio de Velasco
San Ignacio de Velasco, is the capital of the José Miguel de Velasco Province and the San Ignacio de Velasco Municipality in the Santa Cruz Department of Bolivia.
History
The Jesuit mission of San Ignacio de Velasco was founded in 1748 by the ...
,
Santiago de Chiquitos, and Brazil.
In Brazil, Chiquitano is spoken in the municipalities of
Cáceres,
Porto Esperidião,
Pontes e Lacerda
Pontes e Lacerda is a municipality in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso.
Location
Pontes e Lacerda is located 450 km from Cuiabá, at a latitude 15° 13'34" south and a longitude 59° 20'07" west, with an altitude of 254 meters. Its estim ...
, and
Vila Bela da Santíssima Trindade in the state of
Mato Grosso
Mato Grosso ( – lit. "Thick Bush") is one of the states of Brazil, the third largest by area, located in the Central-West region. The state has 1.66% of the Brazilian population and is responsible for 1.9% of the Brazilian GDP.
Neighborin ...
.
Historical subgroups
The following list of Jesuit and pre-Jesuit-era historical dialect groupings of Chiquitano is from Nikulin (2019),
after Matienzo et al. (2011: 427–435) and
Hervás y Panduro
Hervás (; ext, Ervás) is a Spanish town in the north of the province of Cáceres (province), Cáceres. It had 3,839 inhabitants in 2005. It is 120 km from Cáceres, Spain, Cáceres and 90 km far from Salamanca. It is the capital of ...
(1784: 30). The main dialect groups were Tao, Piñoco, and Manasi.
Penoquí (
Gorgotoqui
Gorgotoqui is a currently undocumented extinct language of the Chiquitania region of the eastern Bolivian lowlands. It may have been a Bororoan language.
Spellings
Alternate spellings include ''Borogotoqui, Brotoqui, Corocoqui, Corocotoqui, Coro ...
?), possibly a
Bororoan language, was spoken in
San José
San José or San Jose (Spanish for Saint Joseph) most often refers to:
*San Jose, California, United States
*San José, Costa Rica, the nation's capital
San José or San Jose may also refer to:
Places Argentina
* San José, Buenos Aires
** San ...
.
Phonology
Consonants
Vowels
Nasal assimilation
Chiquitano has regressive assimilation triggered by nasal nuclei and targeting
consonant
In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract. Examples are and pronounced with the lips; and pronounced with the front of the tongue; and pronounced ...
onset
Onset may refer to:
* Onset (audio), the beginning of a musical note or sound
* Onset, Massachusetts, village in the United States
**Onset Island (Massachusetts), a small island located at the western end of the Cape Cod Canal
*Interonset interval ...
s within a morpheme.
* → 'parrot (sp.)'
Syllable structure
The language has CV, CVV, and CVC syllables. It does not allow complex onsets or codas. The only codas allowed are nasal consonants.
Vocabulary
Loukotka (1968) lists the following basic vocabulary items for different dialects of Chiquito (Chiquitano).
:
For a vocabulary list of Chiquitano by Santana (2012),
[Santana, Áurea Cavalcante. 2012. ''Línguas cruzadas, histórias que se mesclam: ações de documentação, valorização e fortalecimento da língua Chiquitano no Brasil''. Goiânia: Universidade Federal de Goiás.] see the
Portuguese Wiktionary.
Language contact
Chiquitano has borrowed extensively from an unidentified Tupí-Guaraní variety; one example is Chiquitano ''takones''
akoˈnɛs‘sugarcane’, borrowed from a form close to
Paraguayan Guaraní
The guaraní (, plural: ''guaraníes''; currency sign, sign: ₲; ISO 4217, code: PYG) is the national currency unit of Paraguay. The guaraní was divided into 100 céntimos but, because of inflation, céntimos are no longer in use.
The currenc ...
''takuare'ẽ'' ‘sugarcane’.
There are also numerous Spanish borrowings.
Chiquitano (or an extinct variety close to it) has influenced the
Camba
Camba is a word historically used in Bolivia to refer to the indigenous population in the eastern tropical region of the country, or to those born in the area of Santa Cruz, Beni, and Pando. Nowadays, the term "Camba" is used predominantly to ...
variety of Spanish. This is evidenced by the numerous lexical borrowings of Chiquitano origin in local Spanish. Examples include ''bi'' ‘
genipa
''Genipa'' is a genus of trees in the family Rubiaceae. This genus is native to the American tropical forests.
Description
Tall trees, without any spines, prickles or thorns; with large opposite leaves of almost leathery texture, smooth or ha ...
’, ''masi'' ‘squirrel’, ''peni'' ‘lizard’, ''peta'' ‘turtle, tortoise’, ''jachi'' ‘
chicha
''Chicha'' is a fermented (alcoholic) or non-fermented beverage of Latin America, emerging from the Andes and Amazonia regions. In both the pre- and post- Spanish conquest periods, corn beer ('' chicha de jora'') made from a variety of maize ...
leftover’, ''jichi'' ‘worm; jichi spirit’, among many others.
Further reading
*Galeote Tormo, J. (1993). ''Manitana Auqui Besüro: Gramática Moderna de la lengua Chiquitana y Vocabulario Básico''. Santa Cruz de la Sierra: Los Huérfanos.
*Santana, A. C. (2005). ''Transnacionalidade lingüística: a língua Chiquitano no Brasil''. Goiânia: Universidade Federal de Goiás. (Masters dissertation).
*Nikulin, Andrey. 2019. ''¡Manityaka au r-ózura! Diccionario básico del chiquitano migueleño: El habla de
San Miguel de Velasco y de
San Juan de Lomerío''.
References
*
External links
Lenguas de Bolivia(online edition)
{{Authority control
Languages of Bolivia
Indigenous languages of South America (Central)
Language isolates of South America
Jesuit Missions of Chiquitos
Mamoré–Guaporé linguistic area