Jivaroan (also Hívaro, Jívaro, Jibaroana, Jibaro) is a small language family of northern Peru and eastern Ecuador.

Family division

Jivaroan consists of 2 languages:

1. Jívaro (a.k.a. Jivaro, Hívaro, Hívaro proper, Maina, Shuar, Achuar-Shiwiar, Huambisa)

2. Aguaruna (a.k.a. Awajún, Awahũn, Awaruna)

Some linguists consider Jivaroan to a single language with Aguaruna being the most divergent dialect.

Jívaro is spoken in Loreto, Peru and the Oriente region of Ecuador. It has 3 regional varieties: Shuar (a.k.a. Shuara), Achuar-Shiwiar (a.k.a. Achuara, Achual), and Huambisa (a.k.a. Wambisa). Gordon (2005) lists these varieties as separate languages.

Aguaruna is spoken in 4 of Peru's Regions: Amazonas, Cajamarca, Loreto, and San Martin.

Genetic relations

The Palta language was classified by Čestmír Loukotka as Jivaroan. This language has so little linguistic documentation that classification is not possible. Kaufman (1994) states that there is "little resemblance".

The unclassified Candoshi language is often included within the Jivaroan family or related to the family as a whole (such as, within Joseph Greenberg's Jibaro-Candoshi sub-stock). (However, Candoshi has also been linked with Zaparoan and Arawakan.)

Another proposal (e.g., of Jorge Suárez) groups Jivaroan together with Cahuapanan within a Jívaro-Cahuapana (or Hívaro-Kawapánan) stock (contrary to Greenberg's classification).

A larger hypothetical grouping is Andean (or Macro-Andean) which includes Jívaro-Cahuapana, Urarina, and the extinct Puelche. Greenberg's Andean stock includes even more languages.

Morris Swadesh's Macro-Jíbaro is another larger grouping, which includes Jívaro-Cahuapana, Urarina, Puelche, and Huarpe.

External links

• Ethnologue: Jivaroan
• Proel: Familia Jibaroana
  • Lengua Jíbaro

Bibliography

• 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).
• Greenberg, Joseph H. (1987). Language in the Americas. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
• Greene, Landon Shane. (2004) Paths to a Visionary Politics. PhD dissertation. University of Chicago.
• 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.
• Dean, Bartholomew (1990). The State and the Aguaruna: Frontier Expansion in the Upper Amazon, 1541-1990. M.A. thesis in the Anthropology of Social Change and Development, Harvard University.
• 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.

Jivaroan languages