Sapará language
| Sapará | |
|---|---|
| Zapara | |
| Native to | Brazil |
| Region | Roraima |
| Ethnicity | Sapará |
| Extinct | 1965[1] |
Cariban
| |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | None (mis) |
| Glottolog | sapa1254 |
| Linguasphere | 80-AFB-aa |
Sapará (Zapara)[2] is an extinct and poorly attested Cariban language, last spoken on the Uraricoera River.[1] Its closest relative is the extinct Paravilhana and Pauxiána languages.[3][4] The last two speakers died in 1965.[1] The Sapará were held to arise from the Arekuna and Macushi peoples. William Curtis Farabee (1924) found their language to be closely related to the Macushi language.[5]
Robert Hermann Schomburgk described the Sapara and their language as follows:[2]
The Zaparas have arisen from the intermarriages of Macusis and Arecunas. They inhabit principally the mountains Toupae'eng and Waikamang (latitude 3° 45′ north, longitude 61° 45′ west) ; but there are likewise a few settlements along the banks of the Parima. Their whole number probably amounts to only 300, and their language is the Macusi idiom with very slight and dialectic variations.
References
- 1 2 3 Migliazza, Ernest C. (1985-12-31), "1. Languages of the Orinoco-Amazon Region: Current Status", in Klein, Harriet E. Manelis; Stark, Louisa R. (eds.), South American Indian Languages, University of Texas Press, pp. 15–139, doi:10.7560/775923-002, ISBN 978-1-4773-0025-1, retrieved 2026-05-24
- 1 2 Schomburgk, Robert H. (1848). "Remarks to accompany a comparative vocabulary of eighteen languages and dialects of Indian Tribes inhabiting Guiana". Simmonds's Colonial Magazine. 15: 46–64.
- ↑ Gildea, Spike (2003). "Proposing a new branch for the Cariban language family" (PDF). Amerindia. 28.
- ↑ Kaufman, Terrence (2007). "South America". In Asher, R. E.; Moseley, Christopher (eds.). Atlas of the World's Languages (2nd ed.). London: Routledge. pp. 59–94. ISBN 978-0-415-31074-1.
- ↑ William Curtis Farabee. "The central Caribs" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2020-09-01.