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Description:
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Tariana is an endangered North Arawak language now spoken by about a
hundred people in the region of the river Vaupes, North-West Amazonia,
Brazil. Though about 1.500 people of the region identify as 'ethnic'
Tariana, the language was virtually lost one or two generations ago.
Tariana is the only Arawak language spoken in the multilingual context of
the Vaupes linguistic area, and it has suffered a heavy areal impact from
Tucanoan languages. Typologically, it is a predominantly head-marking
language with a few elements of dependent marking. It has several types of
classifiers, and two genders, extensive verb serialization; complicated
systems of tense, aspect, mood and evidentiality; and it combines elements
of morphological ergativity and accusativity depending on discourse
structure. The present collection contains twenty texts in Tariana with
translation and interlinear glosses, and a vocabulary. These texts,
collected by the author during three fieldtrips to the North-West Amazonia,
are particularly important for studying the origins of Tarianas, their
migration from the Igana river to the multilingual region of the Vaupes,
and their identity as a people.
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