Nadahup Languages

The Nadahup languages, also known as Makú (Macú) or ''Vaupés–Japurá'', form a small language family in Brazil, Colombia, and Venezuela. The name '' Makú'' is pejorative, being derived from an Arawakan word meaning "without speech". ''Nadahup'' is an acronym of the constituent languages.

The Nadahup family should not be confused with several other languages which go by the name '' Makú''. There are proposals linking this unclassified language with Nadahup, but also with other languages.

External relationships

Martins (2005: 342–370) groups the Arawakan and Nadahup languages together as part of a proposed Makúan-Arawakan (Nadahup-Arawakan) family, but this proposal has been rejected by Aikhenvald (2006: 237).

Epps and Bolaños (2017) accept the unity of the four Nadahup languages, but do not consider Puinave to be related.

Language contact

Jolkesky (2016) notes that there are lexical similarities with the Arawa, Guahibo, and Tupi language families due to contact. A discussion of lexical and phonological correspondences between the Nadahup (Vaupés-Japurá) and Tupi languages can be found in Jolkesky and Cabral (2011). Nadahup languages also have various loanwords from Tucanoan languages and Nheengatu.

Languages

Nadahup consists of about four languages, based on mutual intelligibility. Nadeb and Kuyawi, Hup and Yahup, and Nukak and Kakwa, however, share 90% of their vocabulary and are mutually intelligible, and so are separate languages only in a sociolinguistic sense. These four branches are not close: Although the family was first suggested in 1906, only 300 cognates have been found, which include pronouns but no other grammatical forms.

Nadëb may be the most divergent; of the other languages, there is disagreement on the placement of Nïkâk. Martins (1999) propose two classifications, pending further research:

;Martins, proposal A

;Martins, proposal B

However, Epps considers Hup and Yahup to be distinct languages, and maintains that the inclusion of the poorly attested Nukak and Kakwa has not been demonstrated and is in fact highly dubious:

;Epps

Jolkesky (2016)

Internal classification by Jolkesky (2016):Jolkesky, Marcelo Pinho De Valhery. 2016.
Estudo arqueo-ecolinguístico das terras tropicais sul-americanas
'. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Brasília.

( = extinct)

*Puinave-Nadahup
**Nadahup
***Nadëb
****'' Nadëb do Rio Negro''
****'' Nadëb do Roçado''
***Hup-Dâw
****'' Dâw''
****Hup
*****'' Hupda''
*****'' Yuhup''
**Puinave-Kak
***'' Puinave'' (''Wãnsöhöt'')
***Kak
****'' Kakwa''
****''Nukak''

This classification is also repeated in Nikulin (2019).Nikulin, Andrey V. 2019.
The classification of the languages of the South American Lowlands: State-of-the-art and challenges / Классификация языков востока Южной Америки
'. Illič-Svityč (Nostratic) Seminar / Ностратический семинар, Higher School of Economics, October 17, 2019.

Typology

Dâw and Hup—especially Hup—have undergone grammatical restructuring under Tucano influence. They have lost prefixes but acquired suffixes from grammaticalized verb roots. They also have heavily monosyllabic roots, as can be seen by the reduction of Portuguese loan words to their stressed syllable, as in Dâw ''yẽl’'' "money", from Portuguese ''dinheiro.'' Nadëb and Nïkâk, on the other hand, have polysyllabic roots. Nïkâk allows a single prefix per word, whereas Nadëb, which lies outside the Vaupés language area, is heavily prefixing and polysynthetic: Up to nine prefixes per word (which is highly unusual for the Amazon), with incorporation of nouns, prepositions, and adverbs.

Genetic relations

Rivet (from 1920), Kaufman (1994) and Pozzobon (1997) include Puinave within the family. However, many of the claimed cognate sets are spurious.Patience Epps, 2008. ''A Grammar of Hup''. Mouton de Gruyter.

Henley, Mattéi-Müller and Reid (1996) present evidence that the Hodï language (also known as Yuwana) is related.

Puinavean forms part of a hypothetical Macro-Puinavean family along with the Arutani–Sape families and the Máku language.

Macro-Puinavean is included in Joseph Greenberg's larger ''Macro-Tucanoan'' stock, but this is universally rejected. Another spurious larger grouping is Morris Swadesh's ''Macro-Makú''.

Vocabulary

Loukotka (1968) lists the following basic vocabulary items for the Macú languages.

Proto-language

For a list of selected Proto-Eastern Makú reconstructions by Martins (2005),Martins, Valteir. 2005. ''Reconstrução Fonológica do Protomaku Oriental''. LOT Dissertation Series. 104. Utrecht: LOT Netherlands Graduate School of Linguistics. (Doctoral dissertation, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam). see the corresponding Portuguese article.

Bibliography

* Campbell, Lyle. (1997). ''American Indian languages: The historical linguistics of Native America''. New York: Oxford University Press. .
* Greenberg, Joseph H. (1987). ''Language in the Americas''. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
* Henley, Paul; Marie-Claude Mattéi-Müller and Howard Reid (1996): "Cultural and linguistic affinities of the foraging people of North Amazonia: a new perspective"; ''Antropológica ''83: 3–37. Caracas.
* Kaufman, Terrence. (1990). Language history in South America: What we know and how to know more. In D. L. Payne (Ed.), ''Amazonian linguistics: Studies in lowland South American languages'' (pp. 13–67). Austin: University of Texas Press. .
* Kaufman, Terrence. (1992) Guta
* Kaufman, Terrence. (1994). The native languages of South America. In C. Mosley & R. E. Asher (Eds.), ''Atlas of the world's languages'' (pp. 46–76). London: Routledge.
* Pozzobon, Jorge (1997). Langue, société et numération chez les Indiens Makú (Haut Rio Negro, Brésil). ''Journal de la Société de Américanistes de París'' 83: 159–172. París.
* Rivet, Paul and Constant Tastevin 1920: "Affinités du Makú et du Puinave"; ''Journal de la Société des Américanistes de París'', n.s. t XII: 69–82. París.
* Rivet, Paul; P. P. Kok and C. Tastevin 1925: "Nouvele contributión a l'étude de la langue Makú; International ''Journal of American Linguistics'', vol. 3, n. 24, p.p. 129–132. New York.

;Lexicons
*Bolaños, K. (2010). ''Kakua phonology: first approach''. University of Texas at Austin.
*Conduff, K. W. (2006). ''Diccionario situacional del idioma Nukak''. Bogotá: Iglesia Cristiana Nuevos Horizontes.
*Erickson, T.; Erickson, C. G. (1993). ''Vocabulario Jupda-Español-Português''. Santafé de Bogotá: Asociación Summer Institute of Linguistics.
*Maciel, I. (1991). ''Alguns aspectos fonológicos e morfológicos da língua Máku''. Masters dissertation''. Brasilia: Universidade de Brasília.
*Martins, V. (1999). ''Dicionário Nadëb Português / Português Nadëb''. (Manuscript).
*Martins, V. (2005). ''Reconstrução Fonológica do Protomaku Oriental''. Amsterdam: Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. (Doctoral dissertation).
*Ramirez, H. (2006). ''A Língua dos Hupd'äh do Alto Rio Negro: dicionário e guia de conversação''. São Paulo: Associação Saúde Sem Limites.
*Migliazza, E. C. (1965). Fonología Makú. ''Boletim do MPEG''. Antropología, 25:1-17.
*Mattei-Müller, M. (n.d.). ''Vocabulario Comparativo Castellano-Kakwa Vaupes-Guaviare-Hodï''. (Manuscript).

References

External links

Hup Vocabulary List
(from the World Loanword Database)

{{South American languages

Languages of Venezuela
Languages of Brazil
Languages of Colombia
Language families
Macro-Puinavean languages