Tariana is the only Arawak language spoken in the linguistic area of the Vaupés river basin in the territory of the Upper Rio Negro in northwestern Brazil. All the other languages belong to the East Tucano subgroup of the Tucano family. The main feature of the Vaupés area is its obligatory multilingualism, dictated by the principles of linguistic exogamy (one has to marry someone who speaks a different language). There is a strong inhibition against 'language-mixing', viewed in terms of lexical loans. As the result of a long-term interaction, Tariana combines a few features inherited from Proto-Arawak, with those diffused from East Tucano.
Tariana Articles and Materials
History and Culture
- Mascara (pdf 75kb)
- Texts for Lincom-Europa (pdf 579 kb)
- Stradelli VV (1650kb) (receipt)
- or Stradelli VV (pdf 1686kb)
Language
- Arawak (pdf 134 kb)
- Globalization paper Aikhenvald (pdf 150 kb)
- Grammar - Chapter 1 (pdf 381 kb)
- Imperatives (pdf 200 kb)
- Language Contact in Amazonia - Chapter 1 (pdf 231 kb)
- Le Tariana (pdf 125kb)
- Encyclopedia (pdf 91kb)
- Dictionary 2002 (pdf 1343kb)
- Grammar contents (pdf 185kb)
- Vocabulary for grammar (pdf 125 kb)
Texts
Education
Bibliography
- Aikhenvald CV and publications (pdf 135 kb)
- Language contact Amazonia references (pdf 197kb)
- Grammar references (pdf 129kb)