Macro-Puinavean is a hypothetical proposal linking some very poorly attested languages to the
Nadahup family.
The
Puinave language
Puinave, Waipunavi (Guaipunabi) or Wanse ( pui, Wãnsöhöt) is an indigenous language of Colombia and Venezuela. It is generally considered to be an unclassified language.
Varieties
Varieties listed by Mason (1950):
*Puinave (Epined)
**Western ...
is sometimes linked specifically with the Nadahup languages and
Nukak-
Kakwa group, as Puinave–Maku.
Paul Rivet (1920) and other researchers proposed decades ago the hypothesis of a Puinave-Makú family. Later,
Joseph Greenberg (1987) grouped the Puinave-Makú languages, together with the
Tucano family, the
Katukinan, Waorani and Ticuna languages in the Macro-Tukano trunk.
Punave-Maku and the
Máku language (''Maku of Auari'') is sometimes connected to the
Arutani–Sape languages (yet again also known as ''Maku'') in a ''Kalianan'' branch, a connection which Kaufman (1990) finds "promising", but there is too little data on these languages to know for sure.
Hodï has been proposed specifically as a sister of Puinave–Maku too.
Kaufman (1994: 60, 2007: 67–68) also adds Katukinan to the family.
Language contact
For the Puinave-Nadahup languages, Jolkesky (2016) notes that there are lexical similarities with the
Tupian,
Harakmbet,
Katukina-Katawixi,
Arawak, and
Karaja language families due to contact, pointing to an origin of Proto-Puinave-Nadahup in the
Madeira River basin.
Criticism
Epps (2008)
[Patience Epps, 2008. ''A Grammar of Hup''. Mouton de Gruyter.] criticizes the Puinave–Nadahup proposal for relying on inaccurate data, having no clear concept of basic vocabulary, and using an unsystematic mix of Nadahup languages in the comparison. The languages were originally linked simply because they are all called ''Maku'' "babble" by