Betoi language
Betoi or Betoi-Jirara is an extinct language of Colombia and Venezuela, south of the Apure River near the modern border with Colombia. The names Betoi and Jirara are those of two of its peoples/dialects; the language proper has no known name. At contact, Betoi was a local lingua franca spoken between the Uribante and Sarare rivers and along the Arauca. Enough was recorded for a brief grammatical monograph to be written.
Classification
Betoi is generally seen as an isolate, though Kaufman included it in Macro-Paesan.Zamponi finds enough lexical resemblances between Betoi and the Saliban languages to conclude that a genealogical relationship is plausible.
Historically, Betoi was considered a Tucanoan language, hence the original name Betoyan for the family.
Varieties
Historically a dialect cluster, varieties include Betoi, Jirara, Situfa, Ayrico, Ele, Lucalia, Jabúe, Arauca, Quilifay, Anabali, Lolaca, and Atabaca.Below is a full list of Betoi varieties listed by Loukotka, including names of unattested varieties.
- Betoi / Guanero / Isabaco - extinct language once spoken on the Casanare River, Cravo Norte River, and Apure River, Arauca territory, Colombia.
- Situfa / Cituja - extinct language once spoken on the Casanare River in the Arauca region.
- Airico - once spoken at the sources of the Manacacías River.
- Jirara - spoken once in the upper Manacacías River region.
- Atabaca - once spoken in the upper Manacacías River region.
- Lolaca - once spoken on the confluence of the Arauca River and Chitagá River.
- Quilifay - once spoken around the confluence of the Arauca River and Chitagá River.
- Anabali - spoken south of the Atabaca tribe around the confluence of the Arauca River and Chitagá River.
- Ele - spoken on the Ele River.
- Betoi-Jirara
- *Nuclear
- **Betoi
- **Jirara
- **Lolaca
- **Mafilito
- **Quilifay
- *Situfa-Ayrico
- **Ayrico
- **Situfa
Phonology
Consonants
- may be present in the words cuivivì 'duck' and quaja 'forest'. It is also present in the nearby Saliban languages and Tunebo.
Vowels
Betoi appears to have a 5-vowel system, as illustrated below.| Front | Central | Back | |
| High | |||
| Mid | |||
| Low |
was written as as a part of diphthongs.