Takanan languages (light green) and Panoan languages (dark green). Spots indicate documented locations.
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 (
a.k.a. Ese’eha, Tiatinagua, Chama, Huarayo, Guacanawa, Chuncho, Eseʼexa, Tatinawa, Ese exa)
Toromono is apparently
extinct. Another possibly extinct Tacanan language is
Mabenaro;
Arasa has been classified as Tacanan, but appears to have more in common with Panoan.
Language contact
Jolkesky (2016) notes that there are lexical similarities with the
Kayuvava,
Tupi, and
Arawak language families due to contact.[1]
Varieties
Below is a full list of Tacanan language varieties listed by
Loukotka (1968), including names of unattested varieties.[2]
Tacana - language with many relationships with the Arawak and Pano languages, spoken on the
Beni River,
Tuichi River, and
Tequeje River, territory of Colonia, Bolivia; now spoken by only a few families. Dialects are:
Tumupasa / Maracáni - spoken on the
Uchipiamona River in the same region.
Isiama / Ydiama - spoken on the
Unduma River and around Ydiama.
Sample vocabulary of four Tacanan languages, along with Proto-Panoan for comparison, from Nikulin (2019):[3]
gloss
Ese Ejja
Araona
Cavineña
Tacana
Proto-Panoan
liver
e-kakʷa
tákʷa
e-takʷa
e-takʷa
*takʷa
tongue
ej-ana
e-ána
j-ana
j-ana
*hana
blood
ami
ami
ami
*himi
you (sg.)
mi-a
mi
mi-
mi
*mi
hand
e-me
e-me
e-me-tuku
e-me
*mɨ-
earth
meʃi
mezizo
metʃi ‘soil’
med’i
*mai
meat
e-jami
e-ami
e-rami
j-ami ‘muscle’
*rami
stone
mahana
makana
*maka
bone
e-sá
e-tsoa
e-tsau
e-tsau
*ʂao
(finger)nail
e-me-kiʃe
Ø-mé-tezi
e-me-tid’i
*mɨ̃-tsis
fat
e-sei
e-tsei
e-tseri
e-tsei
*ʂɨ[n]i
tooth
e-sé
e-tse
e-tse
e-tse
*ʂɨta
Further reading
Girard, Victor (1971). Proto-Takanan Phonology (University of California Publications in Linguistics, 70.) Berkeley/Los Angeles: University of California Press.
Adelaar, Willem F. H.; & Muysken, Pieter C. (2004). The languages of the Andes. Cambridge language surveys. Cambridge University Press.
Campbell, Lyle. (1997). American Indian languages: The historical linguistics of Native America. New York: Oxford University Press.
ISBN0-19-509427-1.
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.
ISBN0-292-70414-3.
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.