{{Short description|Panoan language}}{{Infobox language | name = Chácobo | fontcolor = #ffffff | states = Bolivia | region = Beni Department | ethnicity = {{circa}}{{sigfig|1,600|2}}–2,000 Chacobo (2018)<ref name=":0" />{{rp|viii}} | speakers = {{circa|1,400}} | date = 2018 | ref = <ref name=":0" />{{rp|viii}} | familycolor = pano-tacanan | fam1 = Panoan | fam2 = Mainline Panoan | fam3 = Nawa | fam4 = Bolivian | nation = {{flag|Bolivia}} | glotto = chac1251 | iso3 = cao }}
'''Chácobo''' is a Panoan language spoken by about 1,400 out of the 1600 to 2000 Chácobo people of the Beni Department northwest of Magdalena, Bolivia. Chácobo children are learning the language as a first language.
== Geographical distribution == Most speakers of Chacobo live in their Native Community Lands (''Tierra Comunitaria de Origen'', TCO), spanning 500,000 hectares in the Beni department of Bolivia. They are estimated to number 1,400. Beginning in the 1990s, many of them have moved to the town of Riberalta, around 100 kilometers north of the Chacobo TCO, where about 300 to 400 now live.<ref name=":0" />
== Classification == It is closely related to, and may form a dialect group with, the moribund Pakawara language,<ref>{{Cite news |title=The last of Bolivia's Pacahuara tribe |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-latin-america-21168061 |access-date=2025-09-13 |work=BBC News |language=en-GB}}</ref> spoken by only three people as of 2018, though mutual intelligibility is low,<ref name=":0" /> as well as the extinct Karipuna, also called Jaunavô (Jau-Navo, {{Lang|kuq|Jaũn Àvo}}) and Éloe. (This Karipuna is distinct from the Karipuna language of Rondônia, a Tupian language, also spoken in Brazil.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Hammarström |first=Harald |date=September 2015 |title=Ethnologue 16/17/18th editions: A comprehensive review: Online appendices |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/593411 |journal=Language |language=en |volume=91 |issue=3 |pages=s1–s188 |doi=10.1353/lan.2015.0049 |issn=1535-0665}}</ref>)
Several unattested extinct languages were reported to have been related, perhaps dialects. These include Capuibo and Sinabo/Shinabo of the Mamoré River. However, nothing is actually known of these purported languages.<ref name="Fleck">{{Cite book |last=Fleck |first=David |url=http://hdl.handle.net/2246/6448 |title=Panoan Languages and Linguistics |date=October 10, 2013 |isbn=978-0-9852016-2-3 |series=Anthropological Papers of the American Museum of Natural History #99 |issn=0065-9452}} </ref>
== History == It is unclear whether or not the Chacobo are identical to the ''Pacahuara'' of historical records. In 1767, Lorenzo Hervás described the ''Pacabara'' language as spoken in San Borja, south of the current location fo Chacobo and Pakawara. The name ''Chacobo'' itself is first mentioned in 1845 by explorer José Agustin Palacios.<ref name=":0" />
== Status == Most Chacobo live in their own communities, maintaining a traditional way of life and teaching the language to children as a first language. Outsiders are generally forbidden from living in the villages, unless they are teahers or married to a Chacobo. Most Chacobo people living in Riberalta do not speak the language, however. It is one of 36 official languages of Bolivia.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite web |title=Justia Bolivia :: Nueva Constitución Política Del Estado > PRIMERA PARTE > TÍTULO I > CAPÍTULO PRIMERO :: Ley de Bolivia |url=https://bolivia.justia.com/nacionales/nueva-constitucion-politica-del-estado/primera-parte/titulo-i/capitulo-primero/ |access-date=2026-05-05 |website=bolivia.justia.com}}</ref>
== Phonology == === Consonants === {| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center" ! !Bilabial !Alveolar !Retroflex !Post-alv./<br>Palatal !Velar !Glottal |- !Nasal |m |n | | | | |- !Stop |p |t | | |k |ʔ |- !Affricate | |t͡s | |t͡ʃ | | |- !Fricative |β |s |ʂ |ʃ | |h |- !Tap | | |ɽ | | | |- !Approximant |w | | |j | | |}
* Sounds /t͡ʃ, ʃ/ may also be heard as palatalized [t͡ʃʲ, ʃʲ] when before vowels in free variation. * /k/ may be heard as a voiced fricative [ɣ] when in between the positions of /ɨ/. * /t͡ʃ/ assimilates to a retroflex [t͡ʂ] when /ʂ/ is in the following syllable. * /n/ can be heard as [ɲ] as a realization of the sequence /ni/.
=== Vowels === {| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center" ! !Front !Central !Back |- !High |i |ɨ | rowspan="2" |o |- !Mid | | |- !Low | |a | |}
*/o/ may be heard as [u] when occurring within the environment of high vowels.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Tallman |first=Adam J. R. |title=A Grammar of Chácobo, a southern Pano language of the northern Bolivian Amazon |publisher=University of Texas at Austin |year=2018|url=https://repositories.lib.utexas.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/98d6a310-e105-4ee6-9796-48deff55556e/content}}</ref>
==Vocabulary== Some Chácobo words are given below.<ref>Montaño Aragon, M. ''Guía etnográfica lingüística de Bolivia'''' La Paz: Editorial Don Bosco, 1987</ref> ===Numerals=== {| class="wikitable" !Chácobo !Gloss |- |{{lang|cao|nicatsu}} |1 |- |{{lang|cao|dafuira}} |2 |- |{{lang|cao|unamarana}} |3 |- |{{lang|cao|atchayuna}} |4 |- |{{lang|cao|chayuna}} |5 |}
===Pronouns=== {| class="wikitable" !Chácobo !Gloss |- |{{lang|cao|hiasro}} |I |- |{{lang|cao|miani}} |you |- |{{lang|cao|zonihua}} |he/she/it/they |- |{{lang|cao|noquirzo}} |we |- |{{lang|cao|zunimato}} |you (pl.) |}
===Vocabulary=== {| class="wikitable" !Chácobo !Gloss |- |{{lang|cao|chii}} |fire |- |{{lang|cao|huisruhuaina}} |rain |- |{{lang|cao|jini}} |water |- |{{lang|cao|mai}} |earth |- |{{lang|cao|oriquiti}} |food |- |{{lang|cao|osse}} |moon |- |{{lang|cao|rsepo}} |chicha |- |{{lang|cao|rsiqui}} |maize |- |{{lang|cao|vari}} |sun |- |{{lang|cao|vistima}} |star |}
==References== {{reflist}} * {{Cite thesis |last=Tallman |first=Adam J. |title=A grammar of Chácobo, a southern Pano language of the northern Bolivian Amazon |date=2018 |degree=Ph.D. |publisher=The University of Texas at Austin |hdl=2152/74212 |hdl-access=free |doi=10.26153/tsw/1343 |doi-access=free}}
==External links== * [http://www.ru.nl/lenguasdebolivia/ Lenguas de Bolivia] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190904080403/http://www.ru.nl/lenguasdebolivia/ |date=2019-09-04 }} (online edition) * [https://www.bible.com/bible/235/MAT.1 New Testament in Chácobo] * [https://ids.clld.org/contributions/279 Chácobo] (Intercontinental Dictionary Series) * [https://ids.clld.org/contributions/280 Pacahuara] (Intercontinental Dictionary Series)
{{Languages of Bolivia}} {{Pano-Tacanan languages}}
{{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Chacobo Language}} Category:Indigenous languages of the Andes Category:Panoan languages Category:Mamoré–Guaporé linguistic area