{{Short description|Proposed language family of Amazon}} {{Infobox language family | name = Puinave–Makú | acceptance = dubious | region = Amazon | familycolor = American | family = Proposed language family | child1 = Nadahup | child2 = ''Puinave'' | child3 = Nukak-Kakwa | glotto = none | child4 = ?''Hodï'' }}
'''Puinave–Makú''' is a proposed language family linking the Puinave and Nukak-Kakwa languages to the Nadahup family.<ref name="Epps"/> Paul Rivet (1920) and other researchers proposed decades ago the hypothesis of a Puinave-Makú family.<ref>Rivet, Paul et Constant Tastevin 1920: "Affinités du Makú et du Puinave"; ''Journal de la Société des Américanistes de París'', n.s. t '''XII''': 69-82. París.</ref> Later, Joseph Greenberg (1987) grouped the Puinave-Makú languages, together with the Tucano family, the Katukinan, Waorani and Ticuna languages in the Macro-Tukano trunk.<ref>Greenberg, Joseph H. 1956: "The general classification of Central and South American languages"; Men and cultures. Selected papers of the 5th International Congress of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences: 791—794. Anthony F. Wallace ed. University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, 1960.</ref>
Puinave-Maku and the language isolate Máku (of Auari) are sometimes connected to the Arutani–Sape languages (yet again also known as ''Maku'') in a ''Kalianan'' branch, a connection which Kaufman (1990) finds "promising", but there is too little data on these languages to know for sure.<ref>Kaufman, Terrence. (1990). Language history in South America: What we know and how to know more. In D. L. Payne (Ed.), ''Amazonian linguistics: Studies in lowland South American languages'' (pp. 13–67). Austin: University of Texas Press. {{ISBN|0-292-70414-3}}.</ref> Hodï has been proposed specifically as a sister of Puinave–Maku as well.<ref>Henley, Paul; Marie-Claude Mattéi-Müller y Howard Reid 1996: "Cultural and linguistic affinities of the foraging people of North Amazonia: a new perspective"; ''Antropológica'' '''83''': 3-37. Caracas.</ref>
Kaufman (1994: 60, 2007: 67–68) also adds Katukinan to the family.<ref>Kaufman, Terrence. 2007. South America. In: R. E. Asher and Christopher Moseley (eds.), ''Atlas of the World’s Languages (2nd edition)'', 59–94. London: Routledge.</ref><ref>Kaufman, Terrence. (1994). The native languages of South America. In C. Mosley & R. E. Asher (Eds.), ''Atlas of the world's languages'' (pp. 46–76). London: Routledge.</ref>
==Language contact== Marcelo Jolkesky (2016) notes that there are lexical similarities with the Tupian, Harakmbet, Katukina-Katawixi, Arawak, and Karaja language families due to contact, pointing to an origin of Proto-Puinave-Nadahup in the Madeira River basin.<ref name="Jolkesky-2016">{{cite thesis|last=Jolkesky |first=Marcelo Pinho de Valhery |date=2016 |url=http://www.etnolinguistica.org/tese:jolkesky-2016-arqueoecolinguistica |title=Estudo arqueo-ecolinguístico das terras tropicais sul-americanas |type=Ph.D. dissertation |location=Brasília |publisher=University of Brasília |edition=2}}</ref>{{rp|439}}
==Criticism== Epps (2008)<ref name="Epps">Patience Epps, 2008. ''A Grammar of Hup''. Mouton de Gruyter.</ref> criticizes the Puinave–Nadahup proposal for relying on inaccurate data, having no clear concept of basic vocabulary, and using an unsystematic mix of Nadahup languages in the comparison. The languages were originally linked simply because they are all called ''Maku'' 'babble' by Arawakans; that is, because they are spoken by hunter-gatherers.
Since then, some linguists have attempted to verify the connection by finding cognates. However, no convincing cognates have yet been found. For example, Rivet and Tastevin claim that the Hup pronoun ''am'' 'I' corresponds to Puinave ''am'' 'I', but the Hup pronoun ''’am'' means 'you'; the Hup pronoun for 'I' is ''’ãh''. Other "strikingly similar" pairs, such as Puinave ''ueyu'' 'day' and Hup ''uerhó'' (''{{IPA|wæd.hɔ́}}'') 'sun', are not particularly convincing, and no regular sound correspondences have been detected.
On other hand, Martins (1999 and 2005) argues that it is possible to relate "eastern Makú" languages with the Nukak-Kakwa group, but he does not find evidence of the relationship with Puinave.<ref>Martins, Silvana and Valteir Martins (1999) "Makú". In R. M. W. Dixon and Alexandra Aikhenvald (eds.) ''The Amazonian Languages''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pag. 251-268.</ref><ref>Martins, Valteir 2005: ''Reconstrução fonológica do Protomaku oriental''. Utrecht: LOT Dissertation Series, 104. (Doctoral dissertation, Netherlands Graduate School of Linguistics) ISBN 90-76864-71-3.</ref> Girón (2008) postulates a genetic relationship of the piave with proto-maku, but also the existence of another phone substrate that is not yet known.<ref>Girón Higuita, Jesús Mario (2008) ''Una Gramática del Wãênsöjöt (Puinave)'' (Doctoral dissertation, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam). Utrecht: LOT. p. 439. {{isbn|978-90-78328-59-9}}.</ref>
==See also== *Arutani–Sape languages *Naduhup languages
==References== {{Reflist}}
{{South American languages}}
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Category:Macro-Puinavean languages Category:Indigenous languages of South America Category:Proposed language families