The Rikbaktsa language, also spelled ''Aripaktsa, Erikbatsa, Erikpatsa'' and known ambiguously as ''Canoeiro'', is a language spoken by the

Rikbaktsa people The Rikbaktsa are an indigenous ethnic group from the Mato Grosso region of Brazil. Name ''Rikbaktsa'' (Rikbaktsa ''rik'', person + ''bak'', human being + ''tsa'' lural suffix, the group's self-denomination, can be translated as "the human be ...

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 ...

, Brazil, that forms its own branch of the Macro-Gê languages. As in other languages of the area, word endings indicate the gender of the speaker.Arruda, Rinaldo S.V
"Rikbaktsa: Language."
In ''

Encyclopedia of Indigenous Peoples in Brazil The ''Encyclopedia of Indigenous Peoples in Brazil'' is a specialized encyclopedia about the indigenous peoples in Brazil, published online since 1998 by the Instituto Socioambiental (ISA). It presents over 200 articles with ethnographic informat ...

''. Instituto Socioambiental (November 1998). Rikbaktsa is a subject-object-verb language. Most Rikbaktsa can speak both Rikbaktsa and Portuguese. Younger individuals tend to speak Portuguese more frequently and fluently than their elders, but older individuals generally struggle with Portuguese and use it only with non-indigenous Brazilians. Jolkesky (2016) also notes that there are lexical similarities with the

Cariban languages The Cariban languages are a family of languages indigenous to northeastern South America. They are widespread across northernmost South America, from the mouth of the Amazon River to the Colombian Andes, and they are also spoken in small pock ...

Locations

The 22nd edition of Ethnologue reports that it is spoken around confluence of the

Sangue River The Sangue River is a river of Ceará state in eastern Brazil. It is a tributary of the Jaguaribe River. See also *List of rivers of Ceará List of rivers in Ceará ( Brazilian State). The list is arranged by drainage basin from east to west, ...

and

Juruena River The Juruena River ( pt, Rio Juruena) is a long river in west-central Brazil, in the state of Mato Grosso. Course The Juruena originates in the Parecis plateau. Within Mato Grosso the river defines the eastern boundary of the Igarapés do Jurue ...

in: *Japuira on the east bank of the

, between the

Arinos River The Arinos River is a river in Brazil. It is located east of, and empties into, the Juruena River. Some of the Suyá Indians, a Gê-speaking people of central Brazil, migrated from the state of Maranhão Maranhão () is a state in Brazil. L ...

and

*Posto Escondido on the west bank of the

(9 villages, 14 settlements)

Phonology

* /i, u/ can be heard as �, ʊwhen in syllable-final position. * /e, o/ can be heard as �, ɔwhen in unstressed syllables. * /a/ is heard as �in final unstressed syllables, as �when following /tʃ/ heard as ʃʲ and as �when occurring after the sequence /ku/. * A glottal stop �can also be heard in initial and final position when before and after vowels. * /d/ can be palatalized as ʲwhen before /i/. * /t͡ʃ/ can be palatalized as ͡ʃʲwhen in front of /a/. * /p, k/ can be heard as aspirated ʰ, kʰwhen before an accented syllable. * /k/ can be heard as voiced �when before voiced consonants. * /w/ can be heard as �when in stressed syllable before front vowels. * Sounds /ɾ, w, h/ can be heard as nasal �̃, w̃, h̃when in nasal vowel positions.

Vocabulary

Loukotka (1968) lists the following basic vocabulary items. :

References

{{South American languages Nuclear Macro-Jê languages Languages of Brazil Indigenous languages of South America (Central) Rikbaktsa Subject–object–verb languages Endangered indigenous languages of the Americas Mamoré–Guaporé linguistic area