Ese Ejja (Ese'eha, Eseʼexa, Ese exa), also known as Tiatinagua (Tatinawa), is a

Tacanan language Tacanan is a family of languages spoken in Bolivia, with Ese’ejja also spoken in Peru. It may be related to the Panoan languages. Many of the languages are endangered. Family division *Tacanan ** Ese Ejja ( Ese’eha, Tiatinagua, Chama, H ...

of Bolivia and Peru. It is spoken by

Ese Ejja people The Ese Ejja are an indigenous people of Bolivia and Peru, in the southwestern Amazon basin. 1,687 Ese Ejja live in Bolivia, in the Pando and Beni Departments, in the foothills along the Beni and the Madre de Dios Rivers. In Peru, they live alo ...

of all ages. Dialects are Guacanawa (Guarayo/Huarayo), Baguaja, Echoja, and possibly extinct Chama, Chuncho, Huanayo, Kinaki, and Mohino. Chunene is "similar" to Ese Ejja, though whether a dialect or a separate language is not clear.

Historical, social and cultural characteristics

Ese Ejja is spoken in the

La Paz La Paz, officially Nuestra Señora de La Paz (Aymara language, Aymara: Chuqi Yapu ), is the seat of government of the Bolivia, Plurinational State of Bolivia. With 755,732 residents as of 2024, La Paz is the List of Bolivian cities by populati ...

, Beni, and Pando departments of Bolivia (in the provinces of Iturralde, Ballivián, Vaca Diez, and Madre de Dios) on the Beni and Madre de Dios rivers; and in the Madre de Dios and

Puno Puno ( Aymara and ) is a city in southeastern Peru, located on the shore of Lake Titicaca. It is the capital city of the Puno Region and the Puno Province with a population of approximately 140,839 (2015 estimate). The city was established in ...

departments of Peru. According to Alexiades & Peluso (2009), there are approximately 1,500 Ese Ejja, distributed among different communities in Peru and Bolivia. The Bolivian Ese Ejja are divided into two clans: the Quijati, around the Riberalta region; and the Hepahuatahe in the Rurenabaque region. Crevels & Muysken (2009:15) write that in Bolivia there were 518 Ese Ejja speakers (of four years of age and older), and therefore is an endangered language. Some names used to refer to the language are Ese'eha, Chama, and Warayo; Chama is a pejorative regional name, and Guarayo is also the name of a Tupí-Guaraní language group. In Peru, the Ese Ejja language (Guacanahua, Echoja, Chuncho) is spoken along the Madre de Dios and Tambopata rivers and at their sources in three locations: Sonene, Palma Real, and Infierno. Ese Ejja is also seriously threatened in Peru, with 840 speakers in an ethnic group of the same size.

Phonology

Ese Ejja has 17 consonant phonemes and four vowels. A practical orthography is shown between angled brackets in the table below. Ese Ejja has ejective consonants such as as well as voiceless implosives such as . * Nasal sounds may range to prenasalized stops in free variation in initial position, as well as be heard as voiced plosives in free variation. may also be heard as an allophone of in free variation. * is heard as when in between front vowels , and is heard as labialized when following . Elsewhere, it is most commonly heard as uvular or velar . * can be palatalized as in free variation. * may also be heard as voiced in free variation. * may also be heard as voiced in free variation. * may become palatalized as when before or between . * can also be heard as an ejective or a uvular among emphatic speech. Three diphthongs occur: , , and ; these are represented as , , and in the practical orthography to prevent confusion with vowel sequences. Syllables have the structure (C)V.

Grammar

Notes

Bibliography

* **

External links

* ELAR archive o
Documentation of the Ese Ejja language of the Amazonian region of BoliviaEse Ejja
(

Intercontinental Dictionary Series The Intercontinental Dictionary Series (commonly abbreviated as IDS) is a large database of topical vocabulary lists in various world languages. The general editor of the database is Bernard Comrie of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary An ...

)
Ese Ejja (Huarayo)
(

) {{DEFAULTSORT:Ese Ejja Language Tacanan languages Languages of Bolivia Languages of Peru