View source for Chamicuro language

{{Short description|Dormant Arawakan language of Peru}}
{{Expand Portuguese|Língua chamicuro|date=October 2020}}
{{Infobox language
| name             = Chamicuro
| altname          = Chamicolo, Chamicura
| nativename       = {{lang|ccc|Chamekolo}}
| states           = [[Peru]]
| region           = [[Pampa Hermosa District, Ucayali|Pampa Hermosa]]
| ethnicity        = 100 Chamicuro (2015)<ref name=e26/>
| extinct          = early [[2000s (decade)|2000s]]
| ref              = e26
| familycolor      = arawakan
| fam1             = [[Arawakan languages|Arawakan]]
| fam2             = Southern
| fam3             = Western
| script           = [[Latin script]] (alphabet)
| iso3             = ccc
| glotto           = cham1318
| glottorefname    = Chamicuro
| notice           = IPA
| speakers2        = 2 (2008)
}}

'''Chamicuro''' is an extinct [[South American language]] formerly spoken in [[Peru]]. The language was used by the Chamicuro people, who number around one hundred people. The Chamicuros currently live on a tributary of the [[Huallaga river]], in Peru, in an area called [[Pampa Hermosa District, Ucayali|Pampa Hermosa]], though many had been dislocated to the [[Javary River|Yavarí]] and [[Napo River]]s and to Brazil.<ref name="e26" />

As with all native languages in Peru, Chamicuro was by default an official language in the area in which it was spoken. A dictionary has been published by the Chamicuro, however no children can speak the language as the community has shifted to [[Spanish language|Spanish]].

There is dispute as to whether the unattested [[Aguano language|language]] of the [[Aguano people]] was the same language as Chamicuro. Loukotka (1968)<ref name="Loukotka">{{cite book |last=Loukotka |first=Čestmír |authorlink=Čestmír Loukotka |title=Classification of South American Indian languages |url=https://archive.org/details/classificationof0007louk |url-access=registration |publisher=UCLA Latin American Center |year=1968 |location=Los Angeles}}</ref> had identified it with Chamicuro, but the Chamicuro report that the Aguano people spoke [[Quechua language|Quechua]].<ref>Wise, 1987</ref>{{incomplete citation|date=March 2023}}

== Phonology ==
Chamicuro has five vowels: /a, e, i, o, u/. All vowels have both short and long forms.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://linguistics.berkeley.edu/~saphon|title=SAPhon – South American Phonological Inventories|website=linguistics.berkeley.edu|language=en|access-date=2018-08-17|archive-date=2021-04-18|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210418091102/https://chart.googleapis.com/chart?chst=d_map_pin_shadow|url-status=live}}</ref>
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
|+Consonants in Chamicuro
!
![[Bilabial consonant|Bilabial]]
![[Alveolar consonant|Alveolar]]
![[Palato-alveolar consonant|Palato-<br>alveolar]]
![[Retroflex consonant|Retroflex]]
![[Palatal consonant|Palatal]]
![[Velar consonant|Velar]]
![[Glottal consonant|Glottal]]
|-
![[Plosive]]
|{{IPA link|p}}
|{{IPA link|t}}
|
|
|
|{{IPA link|k}}
|{{IPA link|ʔ}}
|-
![[Affricate]]
|
|{{IPA link|t͡s}}
|{{IPA link|t͡ʃ}}
|{{IPA link|ʈʂ}}
|
|
|
|-
![[Fricative]]
|
|{{IPA link|s}}
|{{IPA link|ʃ}}
|{{IPA link|ʂ}}
|
|
|{{IPA link|h}}
|-
![[Nasal consonant|Nasal]]
|{{IPA link|m}}
|{{IPA link|n}}
|
|
|{{IPA link|ɲ}}
|
|
|-
![[Lateral consonant|Lateral]]
|
|{{IPA link|l}}
|
|
|{{IPA link|ʎ}}
|
|
|-
![[Flap consonant|Flap]]
|
|{{IPA link|ɾ}}
|
|
|
|
|
|-
![[Semivowel]]
|
|
|
|
|{{IPA link|j}}
|{{IPA link|w}}
|
|}

==See also==
*[[Language death]]

==References==
{{wiktionarycat}}
{{Reflist}}

{{Languages of Peru}}
{{Arawakan languages}}

[[Category:Languages of Peru]]
[[Category:Arawakan languages]]
[[Category:Indigenous languages of the South American Northwest]]


{{Arawakan-lang-stub}}