Yine is the principle variety of Piro, which is a Maipurean language spoken in

Peru Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...

. It belongs to the Piro group which also includes the nearly extinct Iñapari and Apurinã. The Manchineri who live in

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

(

Acre The acre ( ) is a Unit of measurement, unit of land area used in the Imperial units, British imperial and the United States customary units#Area, United States customary systems. It is traditionally defined as the area of one Chain (unit), ch ...

) and reportedly also in

Bolivia Bolivia, officially the Plurinational State of Bolivia, is a landlocked country located in central South America. The country features diverse geography, including vast Amazonian plains, tropical lowlands, mountains, the Gran Chaco Province, w ...

speak what may be a dialect of Yine (Aikhenvald, Kaufman). A vocabulary labeled '' Canamaré'' is "so close to Piro ineas to count as Piro", but has been a cause of confusion with the unrelated Kanamarí language.

Names

This language is also called Contaquiro, Pira, Piro, Pirro, Simiranch, or Simirinche. ''Cushichineri'' has been reported as a language, but is actually a family name used with Whites (Matteson 1965). The name ''Mashco'' has sometimes been incorrectly applied to the Yine. (See

Mashco Piro The Nomole or Cujareño people, also known as the Mashco Piro, are an indigenous tribe of nomadic hunter-gatherers who inhabit the remote regions of the Amazon rainforest. They live in Manú National Park in the Madre de Dios Region in Peru.< ...

Varieties

Varieties of Piro (Yine): *Chontaquiro (Simirinche, Upatarinavo):

Ucayali River The Ucayali River (, ) is the main headstream of the Amazon River. It rises about north of Lake Titicaca, in the Arequipa region of Peru and becomes the Amazon at the confluence of the Marañón river, Marañón close to Nauta city. The city of ...

* Manchineri (Manatinavo):

Purus River The Purus River (Portuguese: ''Rio Purus''; Spanish: ''Río Purús'') is a tributary of the Amazon River in South America. Its drainage basin is , and the mean annual discharge is . The river shares its name with the Alto Purús National Park a ...

* Kushichineri (Kuxiti-neri, Kujigeneri, Cusitinavo): upper

in Peru (in 1886, spoken on the Curumahá River or Curanja River, and probably also on the Cujar River) * Kuniba (Kunibo):

Juruá River The Juruá River ( ; ) is a southern affluent river of the Amazon River west of the Purus River. The Juruá emerges from highlands in east-central Peru, then winds its way through lowlands in Brazil, sharing with this the bottom of the immense in ...

* Katukina:

. Documented by Natterer (1833). Not to be confused with the unrelated Katukina language. * Canamare (Canamirim, Canamary): Iaco River, a tributary of the

. Documented by

Spix Johann Baptist Ritter von Spix (9 February 1781 – 13 March 1826) was a German natural history, biologist. From his expedition to Brazil, he brought to Germany a large variety of specimens of plants, insects, mammals, birds, amphibians and fish. ...

(1819). Not to be confused with the unrelated Kanamarí language. * Mashco-Piro:

Madre de Dios River The Madre de Dios River () is a river shared by Bolivia and Peru which is homonymous to the Peruvian region it runs through. On Bolivian territory, it receives the Beni River, close to the town of Riberalta, which later joins with the Mamore Riv ...

Demographics

As of 2000, essentially all of the 4,000 ethnic

Yine people The Yine (also Piro) are an indigenous people in Peru. In the Cusco Department, Cusco, Department of Loreto, Loreto, and Ucayali Department, Ucayali Departments of Peru, Departments, they live along the Urubamba River. They live along the Madre de ...

speak the language. They live in the Ucayali and Cusco Departments, near the

, and near the

in the Madre de Dios Region in

. Literacy is comparatively high. A dictionary has been published in the language and the language is taught alongside Spanish in some Yine schools. There are also a thousand speakers of Machinere.

Phonology

Vowels

* Vowels are nasalized after .

Consonants

*/w/ is heard as a bilabial approximant when before a close vowel. */n/ is heard as before /k/. */ɾ/ can be trilled when in word-initial position.

Syntax

Piro has an active–stative syntax.Aikhenvald, "Arawak", in Dixon & Aikhenvald, eds., ''The Amazonian Languages'', 1999.

Notes

References

* * Matteson, Esther. (1965). ''The Piro (Arawakan) language''. University of California Publications in Linguistics, 42. Berkeley y Los Angeles: University of California Press. (Es la tesis para doctorado presentada en 1963 a la University of California, Los Angeles.) * Nies, Joyce, compilador. (1986). ''Diccionario piro (Tokanchi gikshijikowaka-steno''). Serie Lingüística Peruana, 22. Yarinacocha: Ministerio de Educación and Instituto Lingüístico de Verano. * Parker, Stephen. (1989). "Un análisis métrico del acento en el piro". ''Estudios etno-lingüísticos'', Stephen Parker (ed.), pp. 114–125. Documento de trabajo 21. Yarinacocha, Pucallpa: Ministerio de Educación e Instituto Lingüístico de Verano. * Solís Fonseca, Gustavo. (2003). ''Lenguas en la amazonía peruana''. Lima: edición por demanda. * * Urquía Sebastián, Rittma. (2006). Yine
''Ilustraciones fonéticas de lenguas amerindias''
ed. Stephen A. Marlett. Lima: SIL International and Universidad Ricardo Palma. * * Urquía Sebastián, Rittma and Wagner Urquía Sebastián. (2009)
''Diccionario yine–castellano''
* Arawakan languages Languages of Peru Mamoré–Guaporé linguistic area {{Arawakan-lang-stub