Chiquitano (or Tarapecosi) is a group of linguistic varieties, thought to belong to the Macro-Jê languages, spoken in the central region of Santa Cruz Department of eastern Bolivia and the state of Mato Grosso in Brazil.

Name Some Chiquitano also prefer to call themselves Monkóka (plural form for 'people'; the singular form for 'person' is Monkóxɨ).

Classification Chiquitano is sometimes considered to be a language isolate.

Kaufman (1994) suggests a relationship with the Bororoan languages within his Macro-Jê "cluster", a designation he gave to unsubstantiated language family proposals. Adelaar (2008) classifies Chiquitano as a Macro-Jê language,Adelaar, Willem F. H. Relações externas do Macro-Jê: O caso do Chiquitano. In: Telles de A. P. Lima, Stella Virgínia; Aldir S. de Paula (eds.). Topicalizando Macro-Jê. Recife: Nectar, 2008. p. 9–27. while Andrey Nikulin (2020) suggests that Chiquitano is rather a sister of Macro-Jê. More recently, Nikulin (2023) classified Chiquitano as a branch of Macro-Jê instead of as a sister branch of it.

Geographical distribution In Brazil, Chiquitano is spoken in the municipalities of Cáceres, Porto Esperidião, Pontes e Lacerda, and Vila Bela da Santíssima Trindade in the state of Mato Grosso.Santana, Áurea Cavalcante. 2012. Línguas cruzadas, histórias que se mesclam: ações de documentação, valorização e fortalecimento da língua Chiquitano no Brasil. Doutorado, Universidade Federal de Goiás.FUNAI/DAF. Plano de Desenvolvimento de Povos Indígenas (PDPI) – Grupo Indígena Chiquitano, MT. Diretoria de Assuntos Fundiários: Brasília, 2002.

Varieties

Historical Four "dialects" of Chiquitano were spoken at the time of the founding of the Jesuit missions: Tao (or ), Piñoco, Manasí, and Penoquí. Of these dialects, Piñoco and Tao were claimed to be mutually intelligible and thus dialects of a single language. Nikulin (2019) proposes that Camba Spanish has a Piñoco substratum. Camba Spanish was originally spoken in Santa Cruz Department, Bolivia, but is now also spoken in Beni Department and Pando Department. The only documentation of Manasí comes from a manuscript by Lucas Caballero in 1706. It was quickly replaced by the Tao dialect. Penoquí was initially spoken in San José, but was soon replaced by the Piñoco dialect, and was so divergent that Father Felipe Suarez, who authored a Chiquitano grammar, had to translate the catechism and compile a dictionary of it. The document is held at the Archivo de la Sociedad Geográfica de Santa Cruz de la Sierra. Isabelle Combès (2012) has proposed the Penoqui "dialect" to be identical to Gorgotoqui, further proposing a possible relationship to Otuke, a Bororoan language. Otuke was also spoken in some of the missions. Nikulin (2019) considers this plausible.

The following list of Jesuit and pre-Jesuit-era historical dialect groupings of Chiquitano is from Nikulin (2019), after Matienzo et al. (2011: 427–435)MATIENZO, J.; TOMICHÁ, R.; COMBÈS, I.; PAGE, C. Chiquitos en las Anuas de la Compañía de Jesús (1691–1767). Cochabamba: Itinerarios, 2011. and Hervás y Panduro (1784: 30).HERVÁS Y PANDURO, L. Idea dell’Universo che contiene la storia della vita dell’uomo, elementi cos-mografici, viaggio estatico al mondo planetario, e storia della terra, e delle lingue. Vol. XVII: Ca-talogo delle lingue conosciute. Cesena: Gregorio Biasini, 1784. The main dialect groups were Tao, Piñoco, and Manasi.

+ Tao subgroups Subgroup Location(s) Aruporé, Bohococa (Bo(h)oca) Concepción Bacusone (Basucone, Bucofone, Bucojore) San Rafael Boro (Borillo) San José, San Juan Bautista, Santo Corazón Chamaru (Chamaro, Xamaru, Samaru, Zamanuca) San Juan Bautista Pequica San Juan Bautista, afterwards San Miguel Piococa San Ignacio, Santa Ana Piquica east of the Manasicas Purasi (Puntagica, Punasica, Punajica, Punaxica) San Javier, Concepción Subareca (Subarica, Subereca, Subercia, Xubereca) San Javier Tabiica (Tabica, Taviquia) San Rafael, San Javier Tau (Tao, Caoto) San Javier, San José, San Miguel, San Rafael, San Juan Bautista, Santo Corazón Tubasi (Tubacica, Tobasicoci) San Javier, afterwards Concepción Quibichoca (Quibicocha, Quiviquica, Quibiquia, Quibichicoci), Tañepica, Bazoroca unknown

+ Piñoco subgroups Subgroup Location(s) Guapa, Piñoca, Piococa San Javier Motaquica, Poxisoca, Quimeca, Quitaxica, Zemuquica, Taumoca ? San Javier, San José, San José de Buenavista or Desposorios (Moxos)

+ Manasi subgroups Subgroup Location(s) Manasica, Yuracareca, Zibaca (Sibaca) Concepción Moposica, Souca east of the Manasicas Sepe (Sepeseca), Sisooca, (?) Sosiaca north of the Manasicas Sounaaca west of the Manasicas Obariquica, Obisisioca, Obobisooca, Obobococa, Osaaca, Osonimaca, Otaroso, Otenenema, Otigoma northern Chiquitanía Ochisirisa, Omemoquisoo, Omeñosisopa, Otezoo, Oyuri(ca) northeastern Chiquitanía Cuzica (Cusica, Cusicoci), Omonomaaca, Pichasica, Quimomeca, Totaica (Totaicoçi), Tunumaaca, Zaruraca unknown Modern The Churapa variety of Chiquitano was documented by Erland Nordenskiöld and the engineer Antonio Pauly. The Sansimoniano "dialect", particularly divergent from the others, known from a single wordlist published in 1935, has also been proposed to be a Chapacuran language, though this is erroneous according to the only wordlist of the dialect. The modern dialects of Chiquitano still spoken today, Bésɨro (Lomeriano), Migueleño, Ignaciano, and Santiagueño, the latter two tentatively proposed by Nikulin to form an Eastern subgroup, spoken in San Ignacio de Velasco, Santiago de Chiquitos, and Brazil, are all found in the area occupied by the Tao dialect; Nikulin (2019) thus considers these dialects, the proto-language of which he reconstructs as Proto-Chiquitano, to be descended from Tao. Chiquitano Tao Bésɨro (also known as Lomeriano Chiquitano), spoken in the Lomerío region and in Concepción, Ñuflo de Chávez Province. Co-official status and has a standard orthography. Migueleño Chiquitano (in San Miguel de Velasco and surroundings), moribund with fewer than 30 speakers Eastern? Ignaciano Chiquitano (in San Ignacio de Velasco and surroundings)CIUCCI, L.; MACOÑÓ TOMICHÁ, J. 2018. Diccionario básico del chiquitano del Municipio de San Ignacio de Velasco. Santa Cruz de la Sierra: Ind. Maderera “San Luis” S. R. L., Museo de Historia. U. A. R. G. M. 61 f. Santiagueño Chiquitano (in Santiago de Chiquitos) Sansimoniano (spoken in the far northeast of Beni Department) Piñoco (formerly spoken in the missions of San José de los Boros, San Francisco Xavier de los Piñoca, and San José de Buenavista/Desposorios; see also Jesuit Missions of Chiquitos)

Vocabulary For a vocabulary list of Chiquitano by Santana (2012),Santana, Áurea Cavalcante. 2012. Línguas cruzadas, histórias que se mesclam: ações de documentação, valorização e fortalecimento da língua Chiquitano no Brasil. Goiânia: Universidade Federal de Goiás. see the Portuguese Wiktionary.

Language contact Chiquitano has borrowed extensively from an unidentified Tupí-Guaraní variety; one example is Chiquitano takones [takoˈnɛs] ("sugarcane"), borrowed from a form close to Paraguayan Guaraní takuare'ẽ ("sugarcane"). There are also numerous Spanish borrowings.

Chiquitano (or an extinct variety close to it) has influenced the Camba variety of Spanish. This is evidenced by the numerous lexical borrowings of Chiquitano origin in local Spanish. Examples include bi ("genipa"), masi ("squirrel"), peni ("lizard"), peta ("turtle", "tortoise"), jachi ("chicha leftover"), jichi ("worm"; "jichi spirit"), among many others.

Further reading Galeote Tormo, J. (1993). Manitana Auqui Besüro: Gramática Moderna de la lengua Chiquitana y Vocabulario Básico. Santa Cruz de la Sierra: Los Huérfanos. Santana, A. C. (2005). Transnacionalidade lingüística: a língua Chiquitano no Brasil. Goiânia: Universidade Federal de Goiás. (Masters dissertation). Nikulin, Andrey. 2019. ¡Manityaka au r-ózura! Diccionario básico del chiquitano migueleño: El habla de San Miguel de Velasco y de San Juan de Lomerío.

References

External links

Lenguas de Bolivia (online edition)