Arikapú language
Arikapú is an endangered Yabutian language, historically spoken by the Arikapú people in the upper reaches of the Amazon basin. The language is moribund, with only two living speakers, and no one actively learning the language. A bilingual Arikapú-Portuguese dictionary with approximately 1350 words has been compiled, along with a Latin script writing system for the language.
Speakers
As of 2018, only two people still speak Arikapú. The language was more widely spoken by the Arikapú people, who lived in the Brazilian state of Rondônia, along the upper reaches of the Rio Branco, a tributary of the Guaporé River. Beginning in the early 20th century, Brazilian colonization displaced the Arikapú people, with many of them moving downstream to work in rubber plantations.The number of Arikapú speakers has been dropping over time. Prior to colonization, there were likely thousands of speakers. A 2007 study estimated less than 50 people still spoke Arikapú, and by 2015, the number of speakers was down to two. By 2018, the two known speakers were living in different Indigenous Territories, with no one in the younger generations learning the language. Ethnic Arikapú people living in the Indigenous Territories now speak Tuparí, Makuráp, or Portuguese, and share aspects of their culture with the other peoples of the local Marico cultural complex.
Classification
Arikapú is closely related to the nearby Djeoromitxí language, and the two languages are grouped together as the Yabutian (or Jabutí) languages. Though originally thought to be unrelated to other indigenous languages, they are likely a branch of the Macro-Jê language family. The linguistic differences between Arikapú and Djeoromitxí suggest that their speakers separated around 2,000 years ago, after moving from the east. The Yabutian languages are the westernmost members of the Macro-Jê family.Historically, there have been some reports of a third language related to Arikapú, called Mashubi or Maxubí. These include a 1914 wordlist by explorer Percy Fawcett and Čestmír Loukotka's 1968 classification of South American languages. However, follow-up research suggests that this was an erroneous label; indigenous groups had never heard of Mashubi and the wordlist largely overlapped with Arikapú. As a result, it is now believed that Mashubi is not a separate language but an alternative name for Arikapú.
Phonology
Consonants
Arikapú has eleven consonantal phonemes:Vowels
Arikapú has fourteen vowels, with distinctions in vowel quality and nasality. Eight are oral vowels, and six of them are nasalized versions of the oral vowels:| Front | Central | Back | |
| Close | |||
| Near-close | |||
| Mid | |||
| Open-mid | |||
| Open |
Minimal pairs exist between oral and nasal vowels. For instance, means 'wrist', while means 'chair'. However, there is some variation in nasalization, and nasalization may spread to the left. Diphthongs also exist in Arikapú, and may contrast with two consecutive monophthongs, as in 'head' versus 'hair'. Vowels may also become diphthongized in stressed syllables, with a off-glide.
Writing system
The Arikapú language is written using the same orthography as its sister language, Djeoromitxí. It is based on applying the International Phonetic Alphabet to Arikapú's phonological system, with a few changes. The vowels /,,,, / are written as, respectively. Nasalisation is indicated by a tilde on the vowel:. The consonants and are written as and. The writing system also writes out the predictable allophones as separate letters to reflect their actual pronunciation: underlying is written as or, and underlying is written as,, or depending on context.For alphabetization, the nasal marker is ignored, so and are grouped together. The vowels with the diacritic are treated as separate letters, and are alphabetized immediately after their bare equivalents. The resulting alphabet has the following characters, in this order:
| a/ã | ä/ä̃ | b | d | dj | e/ẽ | h | i/ĩ | ï | k | ' | m | n | o/õ | p | r | t | tx | u/ũ | ü | y | w |