Arauan (also Arahuan, Arawan, Arawán, Madi, Arawa) is a family of languages spoken in western Brazil (Amazonas, Mato Grosso) and Peru.

Family division

Arauan consists of 9 languages:

1. Arua (also known as Arauan, Arawá, Madi, Arawa) (†)

2. Culina (also known as Culina-Madijá, Kulina)

3. Dení

A. Jamamadí group

4. Jamamadí (also known as Yamamadi)

5. Kanamantí (?)

6. Jarawara (also known as Jaruára, Yarawara)

7. Banawá

8. Paumarí

9. Zuruahá (also known as Suruahá)

The entire ethnic group that spoke Arua became extinct in 1877 due to measles.

Kanamantí is listed in Kaufman (1994) with a question mark. Gordon (2005) does not list a Kanamantí language but does list the terms Kanamanti and Canamanti as alternate names for Jamamadí. Buller et. al. (1993) does not list Kanamantí in their list of Arawan languages.

Zuruahá is listed in (Gordon 2005) and mentioned in Kaufman (1994) from personal communication from Dan Everett — first contact with the community (a 3-day hike from the Dení's territory in Amazonas) was made in 1980. The language had not been studied as of 1994, but seems most similar to Dení.

External links

• Ethnologue: Arauan
• Proel: Sub-tronco Arawán

Bibliography

• Buller, Barbara; Buller, Ernest; & Everett, Daniel L. (1993). Stress placement, syllable structure, and minimality in Banawá. International Journal of American Linguistics, 59 (1), 280-293.
• Campbell, Lyle. (1997). American Indian languages: The historical linguistics of Native America. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-509427-1.
• Gordon, Raymond G., Jr. (Ed.). (2005). Ethnologue: Languages of the world (15th ed.). Dallas, TX: SIL International. ISBN 1-55671-159-X. (Online version: http://www.ethnologue.com).
• 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. ISBN 0-2927-0414-3.
• 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.

Arauan languages