ELP ID
30326
ELP Language
Sapé
Speaker Number
None
Semi Speakers
4?
Public Comment
In 1964 only 10 adults could speak some Sapé; Migliazza recorded Sapé materials from one of the last speakers in that year. Walter Coppens (1970a) found a speaker who was married to two women of Uruák origin, though everyone in the family spoke only Pemón. From Coppens’’ description, this consultant seems to have been a semi-speaker. Coppens (1970a) collected a small unpublished vocabulary list from him. By 1977 there were reported to be only 5 speakers (Migliazza 1978). Francia Medina (2008) reported that the last speaker of Sapé passed away in 2004; she had lived in the community of Boca de Karún. Nevertheless, Laura Perozo et al. (2008:175) report that in fieldwork in 2005 four speakers (apparently semi-speakers) of Sapé were found, two in the community of Karunken (río Karún), one in Boca de Ichún, and one in the community of Kawaimaken. One of these, Carolina Torres Capote of Karunken was over 60 years old in 2005 (Medina 2008:740), from whom Perozo et al. were able to obtain a short wordlist.
Source
Three critically endangered language isolates, Mako, Sape, and Uruak
Preferred
Off
Speaker Number Text
0?
Speaker Number Range
Nada