ISO 639-3 cax | Language family Language isolate | |
Ethnicity 47,100 Chiquitano people (2004) Glottolog chiq1248 (Chiquitano)sans1265 (Sansimoniano) | ||
Chiquitano (also Bésiro or Tarapecosi) is an indigenous language isolate of eastern Bolivia, spoken in the central region of the Santa Cruz province.
Contents
Classification
Chiquitano is a language isolate. Greenberg linked it to the Macro-Jê languages in his discredited proposal, which was never substantiated.
According to traditional sources, dialects were tao (yúnkarirsh), piñoco, penoqui, kusikia, manasi, san simoniano, churapa.
Phonology
Consonants
Vowels
Nasal assimilation
Chiquitano has regressive assimilation triggered by nasal nuclei / ɨ̃ ĩ ũ õ ã ẽ/ and targeting consonant onsets within a morpheme.
Syllable structure
The language has CV, CVV, and CVC syllables. It does not allow complex onsets or codas. The only codas allowed are nasal consonants.
References
Chiquitano language Wikipedia(Text) CC BY-SA