Abstract
<p>This paper presents a first approach at the genetic relation between two Arawakan languages, Mawayana and Wapishana, which have been claimed to form a subgroup in all recent classifications of the family. On the basis of 149 proposed cognate sets, based on data from the available literature and field research on both languages, correspondences are set up and reconstructed proto-phonemes are proposed for the proto-language of what is here called the Pidjanan sub-branch of the Negro-Roraima branch of Arawakan. In conclusion, a description of the historical phonology and of selected aspects of the historical morphology of these languages is offered.</p>
Highlights
The Arawakan language family is one of the largest linguistic groupings in the American continent, with over 50 languages distributed from Central America (Garifuna) to the Brazil-Paraguay border (Terena) and maybe Argentina (Chané), and from Eastern Peru (Campan languages) to the Xingu river in Central Brazil (Wauja-Mehinaku, Yawalapiti), and to the Brazil-French Guiana border (Palikur)
Most Arawakan languages are severely endangered: the vast majority of their over 500,000 speakers belong to one single language, Guajiro (Wayuu), spoken in the peninsula of La Guajiria, shared between Colombia and Venezuela
The neighboring Cariban languages (Makushi, Taurepang, Ingariko) average 70-75%; even if one includes less closely related languages to the southeast of the Rio Branco (Waiwai, Hixkaryana), shared cognacy still remains at 50% or more. This suggests that, in this area, Arawakan groups have lived for a significant longer period of time than Cariban groups, agreeing with current theories on the Arawakan and Cariban expansions
Summary
The Arawakan language family is one of the largest linguistic groupings in the American continent, with over 50 languages distributed from Central America (Garifuna) to the Brazil-Paraguay border (Terena) and maybe Argentina (Chané), and from Eastern Peru (Campan languages) to the Xingu river in Central Brazil (Wauja-Mehinaku, Yawalapiti), and to the Brazil-French Guiana border (Palikur). Within Arawakan, two languages are placed together in the most recent classifications, forming (together with other presumably extinct languages) a small sub-branch: Mawayana 314) has briefly noted the close relation between Mawayana and Wapishana. 524–531), the first comparison of these languages) and proposes the term Pidjanan (from Wapishana pidan ‘people’, found both in ‘Wapishana’ and in ‘Mao-pidian’) for the sub-branch that includes them, and probably Atorad/Atorai. The final Appendix contains a list of all 149 cognate sets found in the available data
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