The Waorani (''Huaorani'') language, commonly known as Sabela (also ''Wao, Huao, Auishiri, Aushiri, Ssabela'' ; autonym: Wao Terero; pejorative: ''Auka, Auca'') is a vulnerable

language isolate A language isolate is a language that has no demonstrable genetic relationship with any other languages. Basque in Europe, Ainu and Burushaski in Asia, Sandawe in Africa, Haida and Zuni in North America, Kanoê in South America, and Tiwi ...

spoken by the Waorani people, an indigenous group living in the

Amazon rainforest The Amazon rainforest, also called the Amazon jungle or Amazonia, is a Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests, moist broadleaf tropical rainforest in the Amazon biome that covers most of the Amazon basin of South America. This basin ...

between the Napo and Curaray Rivers in

Ecuador Ecuador, officially the Republic of Ecuador, is a country in northwestern South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. It also includes the Galápagos Province which contain ...

. A small number of speakers with so-called uncontacted groups may live 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 ...

Classification

Sabela is not known to be related to any other language. However, it forms part of

Terrence Kaufman Terrence Kaufman (1937 – March 3, 2022) was an American linguist specializing in documentation of unwritten languages, lexicography, Mesoamerican historical linguistics and language contact phenomena. He was an emeritus professor of linguistic ...

's Yawan proposal. Jolkesky (2016) also notes that there are lexical similarities with Yaruro.

Geographical distribution

Waorani is primarily spoken in Waorani Ethnic Reserve, which is the largest indigenous reserve in Ecuador. Other areas where it is spoken include Pastaza and Napo provinces (including the towns of Puyo and

Coca Coca is any of the four cultivated plants in the family Erythroxylaceae, native to western South America. Coca is known worldwide for its psychoactive alkaloid, cocaine. Coca leaves contain cocaine which acts as a mild stimulant when chewed or ...

Yasuní National Park Yasuní National Park () is a protected area comprising roughly between the Napo River, Napo and Curaray Rivers in Pastaza Province, Pastaza and Orellana Province, Orellana Provinces within Amazon basin, Amazonian Ecuador. The national park lie ...

, and the Taromenani

Tagaeri The Tagaeri are an eastern Waorani people living in Yasuni National Park, in the Ecuadorian Amazon Basin, named after one of their members, Tagae. Nearby Kichwa communities sometimes refer to them as Awashiri, or "high-ground people". They live ...

Intangible Zone. Waorani is considered endangered due to growing bilingualism in Quechua and Spanish and diminishing Waorani usage among youth.

Dialects

Waorani has three dialects: ''Tiguacuna'' (''Tiwakuna''), ''Tuei'' (''Tiwi Tuei'', ''Tiwi''), and ''Shiripuno.''

Phonology

Waorani distinguishes

nasal vowel A nasal vowel is a vowel that is produced with a lowering of the soft palate (or velum) so that the air flow escapes through the nose and the mouth simultaneously, as in the French vowel /ɑ̃/ () or Amoy []. By contrast, oral vowels are p ...

s from oral ones. Syllable structure is (C)V, with frequent vowel clusters. The allophones of range from and the allophones of have a similar range, , and allophones of can be heard as . The

alveolar tap The voiced alveolar tap or flap is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents a dental consonant, dental, alveolar consonant, alveolar, or postalveolar consonant, p ...

is an allophone of and the

palatal glide The voiced palatal approximant is a type of consonant used in many spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ; the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is j, and in the Americanist phonetic notation i ...

is an allophone of .

Vocabulary

Loukotka (1968) lists the following basic vocabulary items for Sabela and Tiwituey. :

References

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. * 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. (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. * Peeke, M. Catherine. (2003). ''A Bibliography of the Waorani of Ecuador''. SIL International. Retrieved 2021 April 4 from https://www.sil.org/resources/archives/7801 *Pike, Evelyn G and Rachel Saint. 1988. Workpapers Concerning Waorani discourse features. Dallas, TX: SIL. * Rival, Laura. ''Trekking through History: The Huaorani of Amazonian Ecuador'', Columbia University Press, 2002.

External links

Lengua SabelaWaorani language dictionary online from IDS
(select simple or advanced browsing)
Waorani
(

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 ...

) {{Authority control Language isolates of South America Languages of Ecuador Indigenous languages of the South American Northern Foothills Endangered Indigenous languages of the Americas Endangered language isolates Huaorani