Reyesano language

{{Short description|Endangered Tacanan language of Bolivia}} {{Expand language|topic=|langcode=es|otherarticle=Idioma maropa|date=February 2025}} {{Infobox language | name = Reyesano | fontcolor = #ffffff | nativename = Chirgua, Chiriba, Sapiboca | states = Bolivia | region = Beni Department | ethnicity = 1,130 (1994 census)<ref name=e18>{{Ethnologue18|rey}}</ref> | speakers = 12–15 | date = 2011 | ref = <ref>{{Cite journal |last=Guillaume |first=Antoine |date=2010 |title=Documentation du reyesano de Bolivie: portraits des derniers locuteurs |url=https://www.academia.edu/7879820 |journal=Faits de Langues |volume=35-36 |issue=1 |pages=265–286 |doi=10.1163/19589514-035-036-01-900000015 |issn=1244-5460}}</ref> | familycolor = pano-tacanan | fam1 = Tacanan | fam2 = Araona–Tacanan | fam3 = Cavinena–Tacana | fam4 = Tacana Proper | nation = {{flag|Bolivia}} | iso3 = rey | glotto = reye1240 | glottorefname = Reyesano }}

'''Reyesano''', or '''Chirigua''' (Chiriba), is a nearly extinct Tacanan language that was spoken by only a few speakers, including children, in 1961 in Bolivia. It is spoken by the Maropa people who number 4,505 in 2012.<ref name="Censo2012">{{cite web |url=http://inecloud.ine.gob.bo/owncloud/index.php/s/w2ZCFwI7qJrwTwD/download |title=Censo de Población y Vivienda 2012 Bolivia Características de la Población |page=29 |website=Instituto Nacional de Estadística, República de Bolivia |access-date=2020-04-01 |archive-date=2021-08-01 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210801173154/https://inecloud.ine.gob.bo/owncloud/index.php/s/w2ZCFwI7qJrwTwD/download |url-status=dead }}</ref>

There still are adult speakers in the largely indigenous community of El Cozar in Reyes. However, it is doubtful that this language will survive much into the 21st century. Such is the margination of the indigenous people in the Beni that very little Reyesano words have entered the popular criollo Spanish, very unlike the situation in Quechua and Aymara influenced areas. There are many indigenous terms in "camba" (Spanish of the Beni) but they are mostly of Guaraní origin carried to the Beni by the original settlers from Santa Cruz.{{Citation needed|date=May 2008}}

Evidently the name ''Reyesano'' comes from the name of the town of Reyes, of the José Ballivián Province in the Department of the Beni in the plains adjacent to the Bolivian Amazon. The language is also known as Sapiboca (Sapibocona), Maropa, Chumana, and perhaps Warisa (Guariza); these may have corresponded to different dialects.

== Phonology == === Consonants === {| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center" ! colspan="2" rowspan="2" | ! rowspan="2" |Labial ! rowspan="2" |Dental/ Alveolar ! rowspan="2" |Retroflex ! rowspan="2" |(Alveolo-) palatal ! colspan="2" |Velar ! rowspan="2" |Glottal |- !plain !lab. |- ! rowspan="2" |Plosive/ Affricate !voiceless |{{IPA link|p}} |{{IPA link|t}} |{{IPA link|tʂ}} |{{IPA link|tɕ}} |{{IPA link|k}} |{{IPA link|kʷ}} | |- !vd./prenasal |{{IPA link|b}} ~ {{IPA link|ᵐb}} | |{{IPA link|dʐ}} ~ {{IPA link|ᶯdʐ}} | | | | |- ! rowspan="2" |Fricative !voiceless | |{{IPA link|s}} | |{{IPA link|ɕ}} | | |{{IPA link|h}} |- !voiced |({{IPA link|β}}) |{{IPA link|ð}} | | | | | |- ! colspan="2" |Nasal |{{IPA link|m}} |{{IPA link|n}} | | | | | |- ! colspan="2" |Rhotic | |{{IPA link|ɾ}} | | | | | |- ! colspan="2" |Approximant |{{IPA link|w}} |{{IPA link|l}} | |{{IPA link|j}} | | | |} Voiced sounds /b, dʐ/ are heard as prenasal [ᵐb, ᶯdʐ], except in word-initial positions, where the nasal component is weak or not heard.<ref>{{cite book |editor-last1 = Crevels |editor-first1 = Mily |editor-last2 = Muysken |editor-first2 = Pieter |last = Antoine |first = Guillaume |date = 2012 |chapter = Maropa (reyesano) |title = Lenguas de Bolivia, tomo II: Amazonía |language = Spanish |publisher = Plural Editores |location = La Paz |pages = 191-232 }}</ref>

/w/ may also be heard as a fricative [β] when before front vowels /i, e/.

=== Vowels === {| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center" ! ! Front !Central ! Back |- ! Close |{{IPA link|i}} | | rowspan="2" |{{IPA link|ʊ}} |- !Mid |{{IPA link|e}} | |- !Open | |{{IPA link|a}} | |} Sounds /i, ʊ/ may also be heard as semivowels [j, w] when in the position of consonants.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Gallinate Soliz |first=Gabriel Alfredo |title=Análisis acústico para la redefinición de los inventarios fonético y fonémico de las consonantes de la lengua Maropa, en el municipio de Reyes, Beni |publisher=Universidad Mayor de San Simón MA thesis |year=2018}}</ref>

==References== {{Reflist}}

==External links== * [http://www.ru.nl/lenguasdebolivia/ Lenguas de Bolivia (online edition)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190904080403/http://www.ru.nl/lenguasdebolivia/ |date=2019-09-04 }}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Reyesano Language}} Category:Languages of Bolivia Category:Endangered Indigenous languages of the Americas