Záparo is a nearly dead language spoken by the Sápara or Záparo people of

Ecuador Ecuador ( ; ; Quechuan languages, Quechua: ''Ikwayur''; Shuar language, Shuar: ''Ecuador'' or ''Ekuatur''), officially the Republic of Ecuador ( es, República del Ecuador, which literally translates as "Republic of the Equator"; Quechuan ...

. As of 2000, it was spoken by only one person out of a total population of 170 in

Pastaza Province Pastaza () is a province in the Oriente of Ecuador located in the eastern jungle. The capital is Puyo, founded on May 12, 1899 and which has 36,700 inhabitants. The city is now accessible by paved roads, a recent development; the main road from ...

, between the

Curaray River The Curaray River (also called the Ewenguno River or Rio Curaray) is a river in eastern Ecuador and Peru. It is a tributary of the Napo River, which is a part of the Amazon basin. The land along the river is home to several indigenous people group ...

and Bobonaza Rivers. Záparo is also known as Zápara and Kayapwe. The members of the Záparo ethnic group now speak Quichua, though there is a language revival effort beginning. Záparo is sometimes confused with Andoa, though the two languages are distinct. Záparo has a subject–verb–object word order.

History

The Zaparos were one of the most numerous peoples of western

Amazonia The Amazon rainforest, Amazon jungle or ; es, Selva amazónica, , or usually ; french: Forêt amazonienne; nl, Amazoneregenwoud. In English, the names are sometimes capitalized further, as Amazon Rainforest, Amazon Forest, or Amazon Jungle. ...

, and it is thought the language was spoken by more than 100,000 people at some point. The number of speakers steadily declined after the arrival of

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located enti ...

ans under the effect of old world diseases and wars with other Amazonian people driven off by the progress of European settlement. At the beginning of the 20th century, Zaparos fell victims to the

rubber boom The Amazon rubber boom ( pt, Ciclo da borracha, ; es, Fiebre del caucho, , 1879 to 1912) was an important part of the economic and social history of Brazil and Amazonian regions of neighboring countries, being related to the extraction and comm ...

. As with many Amazonian peoples, they were virtually enslaved and used as cheap labor to collect rubber. As a result, their communities were heavily disrupted, and their scattered members began to intermarry with neighboring tribes. The use of the Záparo language was progressively discontinued in favor of

Quechua Quechua may refer to: *Quechua people, several indigenous ethnic groups in South America, especially in Peru *Quechuan languages, a Native South American language family spoken primarily in the Andes, derived from a common ancestral language **So ...

. Only 150–170 ethnic Zaparos remain today, most of them in the Loreto Canton, and all of them are Quechua speakers. Very few people have some command of Zaparo, and those are elderly and isolated. The language is no longer used in everyday conversations, even though a language revival is currently underway. Brenda J. Bowser, a professor of anthropology at CSUF, is working to capture the linguistic and oral history of the Záparo of Ecuadorian Amazonia with the help of a grant by the

National Science Foundation The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent agency of the United States government that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National ...

. She hopes to fill a large gap in the understanding of the precolonial social and cultural history of the upper

Amazon Amazon most often refers to: * Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek mythology * Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin * Amazon River, in South America * Amazon (company), an American multinational technolog ...

. The Záparo have also collaborated with Juan Casco, an Ecuadorian type designer, in discussing a syllabary system that facilitates in writing their language.

Phonology

Zaparo phonology is relatively simple, with only four vowels and 15 consonants. Consonant clusters are disallowed, except when they involve .

Bibliography

*Moya, R. (2009). Pana sápara atupama, Nuestra lengua sápara: Diccionario trilingüe Sápara-Castellano-Quichua (Colección Runakay, Diccionario Escolar Intercultural Bilingüe de las Lenguas Ancestrales, 1.). Ecuador: Ministerio de Educación. * Peeke, Catherine M.. 1991. ''Bosquejo Gramatical del Zaparo'', Cuadernos Etnolingüisticos, n°14, Quito: Instituto Lingüistico de Verano, * Peeke, Catherine. 1962. "Structural Summary of Zaparo," in SEIL I, 125–216.

History

Phonology

Bibliography

References

External links