Catuquinaru language

Catuquinarú
Catuquinaru-Bach
Native toBrazil
RegionAmazonas
EthnicityCatuquinaru
Eraattested 1890s
Language codes
ISO 639-3None (mis)
Glottologcatu1242

Catuquinaru or Catuquinarú is the extinct and unclassified language of the Catuquinaru tribe of Brazil, preserved in a few words collected by Jose Bach and published by G. E. Church in 1898. The name is a common derivative of Catuquina. Loukotka,[1] among others,[2] includes it among the Tupi languages, describing the people as Tupinized Catuquina. However, the little preserved vocabulary does not resemble that of the Tupi languages, Catuquinan languages, or Panoan languages (compare Panoan Catuquina).

Vocabulary

[edit]

Loukotka (1968)

[edit]

The following words are given by Loukotka:[1]

Gloss Catuquinarú
head taka-su
tooth saña
hand punü
water uhehü

Church (1898)

[edit]

The original vocabulary is as follows:

Catuquinarú vocabulary[3]
Gloss Catuquinarú
head tacasú
hair anahé
eyes cesá
nose tinoá
mouth agahó
teeth canha
neck yayoruá
breast putia
shoulders copey
arm yanó
stomach maricau
eyebrows namÿ
legs getemaupú
feet pihú
hands punÿ
house/maloca ocausú
white man/Christian carynosú
large boat moracatÿ
hammock/net ouÿsauarusú
arrows uhÿnasú
bow uhÿnarasúcó
poison for arrows orarÿ
earthen pot comatÿnú
copal gum ananÿ
water uhehÿ

Some recorded phrases are as follows:

Guabila-guateli-téna? 'What tribe do you belong to?'

Amago-hépÿ 'We belong to this'

Acó 'No, I don't want it, I am not agreed'

Honaytÿ 'I want it, I accept'

Bach reported that the Catuquinaru used a coded version of their language to communicate over distances of up to 1.5 km via drums called cambarysus.[4][5]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b Loukotka, Čestmír (1968). Wilbert, Johannes (ed.). Classification of South American Indian Languages (PDF) (4th ed.). Latin American Center, UCLA: Latin American Center, University of California Los Angeles. p. 239. ISBN 9780879031077.
  2. ^ Moseley, Christopher; Asher, Ronald E. (1994). Atlas of the world's languages. London: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-01925-5.
  3. ^ Church, George Earl (1898). "Notes on the Visit of Dr. Bach to the Catuquinarú Indians of Amazonas". The Geographical Journal. 12 (1): 63–67. doi:10.2307/1774499. ISSN 0016-7398.
  4. ^ Indian wireless system of communication, in Telegraph and Telephone Age: Telegraphy-telephony-radio (1917), page 380
  5. ^ Richard Hennig, Telegraphensysteme der Naturvoelker, in Prometheus: Illustrierte Wochenschrift über die Fortschritte, volume 20, number 1013 (24 March 1909)