Extinct ca. early 20th century | Language family unclassified | |
ISO 639-3 Either:paz – Pankararúpax – Pankararé Glottolog pank1250 (Pankararu)pank1235 (Pankarare) | ||
Pankararú (Pancaré, Pankaré, Pancaru, Pankaruru, Pankarará, Pankaravu, Pankaroru, Pankarú, Brancararu) is an extinct language of eastern Brazil. There are 6,000 ethnic Pankararú, but they all speak Portuguese. In 1961, only two elders could remember anything of the language.
In the 19th century the people split into two ethnic groups, the Pankararú and the Pankararé. One quarter of the Parkararé retain their traditional religion. Their language, however, is unattested, and can only be assumed to be a dialect of Pankararu.
Classification
Pankararú has no proven relatives and remains unclassified. There are similarities with Tukano and Tupian. Meader (1976) found that of 80 known lexical items, one third (26) are clearly cognate with Tupian languages. He speculates that the last speakers of Pankararú may therefore have been bilingual in Tupi. The identity of the rest of the vocabulary has not been identified, and Pankararú may be a language isolate.