Chiquitano language

Chiquitano is an indigenous language isolate, possibly one of the Macro-Jê languages spoken in the central region of Santa Cruz Department of eastern Bolivia and the state of Mato Grosso in Brazil.

Classification

Chiquitano is usually considered to be a language isolate. Joseph Greenberg linked it to the Macro-Jê languages in his proposal, but the results of his study have been later questioned due to methodological flaws.
Kaufman suggests a relationship with the Bororoan languages. Adelaar classifies Chiquitano as a Macro-Jê language, while Nikulin suggests that Chiquitano is rather a sister of Macro-Jê. More recently, Nikulin classified Chiquitano as a branch of Macro-Jê instead of as a sister branch of it.

Varieties

Mason (1950)

lists:

Chiquito
*North
**Manasí
**Penoki
**Pinyoca; Kusikia
**Tao; Tabiica
*Churapa

The Sansimoniano dialect has also been proposed to be a Chapacuran language.

Loukotka (1968)

According to Čestmír Loukotka, dialects are Tao, Piñoco, Penoqui, Kusikia, Manasi, San Simoniano, Churapa.

Tao - spoken at the old missions of San Rafael, Santa Ana, San Miguel, San Ignacio, San Juan, Santo Corazón, and Concepción, Bolivia.
Piñoco - spoken at the missions of San Xavier, San José, and San José de Buenaventura.
Penoqui - spoken at the old mission of San José.
Cusiquia - once spoken north of the Penoqui tribe.
Manasi - once spoken at the old missions of San Francisco Xavier and Concepción, Santa Cruz province.
San Simoniano - now spoken in the Sierra de San Simón and the Danubio River.
Churapa - spoken on the Piray River, Santa Cruz province.

Otuke, a Bororoan language, was also spoken in some of the missions.

Nikulin (2020)

Chiquitano varieties listed by Nikulin :

Chiquitano
*Bésɨro , spoken in the Lomerío region and in Concepción, Ñuflo de Chávez Province. Co-official status and has a standard orthography.
*Migueleño Chiquitano, moribund with fewer than 30 speakers
*Eastern
**Ignaciano Chiquitano
**Santiagueño Chiquitano
Divergent varieties
*Sansimoniano
*Piñoco

Nikulin 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.
Some Chiquitano also prefer to call themselves Monkóka.
Nikulin also tentatively proposes an Eastern subgroup for the varieties spoken in San Ignacio de Velasco, Santiago de Chiquitos, and Brazil.
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.

Historical subgroups

The following list of Jesuit and pre-Jesuit-era historical dialect groupings of Chiquitano is from Nikulin, after Matienzo et al. and Hervás y Panduro. The main dialect groups were Tao, Piñoco, and Manasi.

Subgroup	Location
Aruporé, Bohococa	Concepción
Bacusone	San Rafael
Boro	San José, San Juan Bautista, Santo Corazón
Chamaru	San Juan Bautista
Pequica	San Juan Bautista, afterwards San Miguel
Piococa	San Ignacio, Santa Ana
Piquica	east of the Manasicas
Purasi	San Javier, Concepción
Subareca	San Javier
Tabiica	San Rafael, San Javier
Tau	San Javier, San José, San Miguel, San Rafael, San Juan Bautista, Santo Corazón
Tubasi	San Javier, afterwards Concepción
Quibichoca, Tañepica, Bazoroca	unknown

Subgroup	Location
Guapa, Piñoca, Piococa	San Javier
Motaquica, Poxisoca, Quimeca, Quitaxica, Zemuquica, Taumoca	? San Javier, San José, San José de Buenavista or Desposorios

Subgroup	Location
Manasica, Yuracareca, Zibaca	Concepción
Moposica, Souca	east of the Manasicas
Sepe, 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	northeastern Chiquitanía
Cuzica, Omonomaaca, Pichasica, Quimomeca, Totaica, Tunumaaca, Zaruraca	unknown

Peñoquí, possibly a Bororoan language, was spoken in San José. It 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 dictionary is held at the Archivo de la Sociedad Geográfica de Santa Cruz de la Sierra.

Phonology

Consonants

Vowels

Nasal assimilation

Chiquitano has regressive assimilation triggered by nasal nuclei and targeting consonant onsets within a morpheme.

→ 'parrot '
Syllable structure

The language has CV, CVV, and CVC syllables. It does not allow complex onsets or codas. The only codas allowed are nasal consonants.

Vocabulary

lists the following basic vocabulary items for different dialects of Chiquito.
For a vocabulary list of Chiquitano by Santana, see the Portuguese Wiktionary.

Language contact

Chiquitano has borrowed extensively from an unidentified Tupí-Guaraní variety; one example is Chiquitano takones ‘sugarcane’, borrowed from a form close to Paraguayan Guaraní takuare'ẽ ‘sugarcane’. There are also numerous Spanish borrowings.
Chiquitano 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.