LINGUIST List 14.2373

Mon Sep 8 2003

Books: Language Description, Maipua: Zamponi

Editor for this issue: Marisa Ferrara <marisalinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. LINCOM.EUROPA, Maipure: Zamponi

Title: Maipure
Series Title: Languages of the World/Materials 192
			
Publication Year: 2003
Publisher: Lincom GmbH 
 www.lincom-europa.com, http://lincom.at		 
			
Author: Raoul Zamponi, Universit� degli Studi di Siena 

Paperback: ISBN: 3895862320, Pages: 96, Price: 38 EURO
			
Abstract:

Before the arrival of European missionaries in the Orinoco basin
region, the Maipure constituted a small ethnic entity in the area of
the upper course of the Orinoco River (Amazonas State,
Venezuela). Their speech-from the Maipuran or Arawakan stock-was also
probably employed in this zone as a medium of communication among
individuals of different languages. But by 1767, most of the Maipure
had been brought together by the Jesuits into two missions along the
middle course of the Orinoco, together with members of other ethnic
groups, in order to facilitate their conversion to Christianity. At
this time the use of Spanish became predominant among this people and
their own language ceased to be spoken. The author's intention with
this contribution is to present all the knowledge that he has been
able to gather from all the surviving material on this little known,
extinct language of South America. The present sketch, therefore,
contains chapters on phonology and morphosyntax, as well as the two
available Maipure texts (with a morpheme-by-morpheme analysis) and
also a word list in the form of an appendix. The introductory sections
deal with the socio- and geolinguistic situations, the genetic
affinities, and issues of languages contact (with neighbouring
languages and Spanish). In these sections, one can also find a
discussion on Avane, a closely related language (or, perhaps, a
co-dialect) once spoken along the banks of the Autana and Sipapo
Rivers that went out of use in the same period, and for the same
reasons, as Maipure. (for more information, please see the LINCOM
webshop : lincom.at).

Lingfield(s): Language Description
			 
Subject Language(s): Maipua (Language Code: IRA)

Written In: English (Language Code: ENG)


 See this book announcement on our website: 
 http://linguistlist.org/get-book.html?BookID=7156.