Endangered Languages Project

ALSO KNOWN AS		Mapoyo-Yavarana, Mapoyo, Mapayo, Mapoye, Mopoi, Nepoye, Wanai
CLASSIFICATION		Cariban, Venezuelan
CODE AUTHORITY		ISO 639-3
LANGUAGE CODE		mcg
VARIANTS & DIALECTS		Pémono
DOWNLOAD		As csv
MORE RESOURCES		OLAC search
ADDITIONAL COMMENTS		Ethnologue (2016) lists 4 languages in its Mapoyo-Yavarana subgroup of Cariban: Mapoyo [mcg] , Pémono [pev], Tamanaku [tmz], Yabarana [yar]. Other sources differ by considering some of these to be dialects of a single Mapoyo-Yawarana language. Gildea (personal communication 2014) reports that until we get some more reliable data, it appears that there are/were 3 languages: †Tamanaku, Mapoyo (ethnonym Wanai, dialect †Pémono), and Yawarana (with alternate names Orechicano, Curachicano, Woquiare). (See also Gildea 2013.) Tamanaku is long extinct, with no attested speakers for at least a century, and therefore does not have an entry of its only in this Catalogue. Mapoyo and Yawarana are often considered separate languages, each with its own entry in this Catalogue. However, there were just some old wordlists for Yawarana and almost nothing for Mapoyo. Marie-Claude Mattéi Muller went to the Mapoyo area in the 1970s and collected some data, from which she extracted a Mapoyo wordlist (Mattéi Muller1977a, 1977b). Mattéi-Muller and Henley (1990) published Mattéi-Muller’s comparative wordlists, comparing her Mapoyo data to the published Yawarana words; they found 80% cognacy between the two and suggested maybe they were dialects of a single language. In 1998, Mattéi-Muller did fieldwork with the Yawarana, where she played a 1970s tape of Mapoyo speakers, and the Yawarana speakers (i) had difficulty understanding, but recognized Mapoyo as very closely related, and (ii) recognized the manner of speech as that of an old woman living in an isolated village far upstream. She went to this old speaker, who turned out to be the last speaker of Pémono, which seems to have been a dialect of Mapoyo (Mattéi Muller 2003).

Compare Sources (5)

Information from: “Personal communication about Mapoyo, Yawarana, Pémono, and Tamanaku” . Gildea, Spike

Critically endangered

100 percent certain, based on the evidence available
3?
Native speakers worldwide
MORE ON SPEAKER NUMBERS
Mapoyo has 2-3 speakers (both Tania Granadillo and Mattéi Muller each claim to know 2-3 surviving elderly speakers, and it is not clear to me that their lists contain all the same speakers).

DATE OF INFO: 2014

DOMAINS OF USE

SPEAKER NUMBER TRENDS

TRANSMISSION

MORE ON VITALITY

Mapoyo has 2-3 speakers (both Tania Granadillo and Mattéi Muller each claim to know 2-3 surviving elderly speakers, and it is not clear to me that their lists contain all the same speakers).

OTHER LANGUAGES USED BY THE COMMUNITY

Spanish

LANGUAGE CONTEXT COMMENTS

Mapoyo has 2-3 speakers (both Tania Granadillo and Mattéi Muller each claim to know 2-3 surviving elderly speakers, and it is not clear to me that their lists contain all the same speakers).

PLACES: Venezuela

Critically endangered

20 percent certain, based on the evidence available
3
Native speakers worldwide

PLACES: Venezuela

Critically endangered

80 percent certain, based on the evidence available
~12
Native speakers worldwide
Ethnic population
365
MORE ON SPEAKER NUMBERS
The 2001 census also registered 12 speakers of Mapoyo, but in this case there are probably actually less than a handful of semi-speakers left.

In 1998 the last elderly female speaker of Pémono lived with the Yabarana in an Upper Majagua village, but the language may be extinct today.

DATE OF INFO: 2001

SPEAKER NUMBER TRENDS

TRANSMISSION

MORE ON VITALITY

The 2001 census also registered 12 speakers of Mapoyo, but in this case there are probably actually less than a handful of semi-speakers left.

PLACES: Venezuela

Critically endangered

100 percent certain, based on the evidence available
12
Native speakers worldwide
Ethnic population
365
SEMI SPEAKERS
a few
MORE ON SPEAKER NUMBERS
Data for the number of native speakers comes from the 2001 census.
(Unchanged 2016.)

DATE OF INFO: 2001

DOMAINS OF USE

SPEAKER NUMBER TRENDS

TRANSMISSION

MORE ON VITALITY

The number of speakers is decreasing.

PLACES: Venezuela;

			World Oral Literature Project							http://www.oralliterature.org		"World Oral Literature Project." Online: http://www.oralliterature.org.			3		1-9					Critically Endangered (20 percent certain, based on the evidence available)
			Personal communication about Mapoyo, Yawarana, Pémono, and Tamanaku				Personal communication.				Gildea, Spike	Gildea, Spike. 2014. Personal communication about Mapoyo, Yawarana, Pémono, and Tamanaku			3?	2014	1-9	Mapoyo has 2-3 speakers (both Tania Granadillo and Mattéi Muller each claim to know 2-3 surviving elderly speakers, and it is not clear to me that their lists contain all the same speakers).		Spanish	Mapoyo has 2-3 speakers (both Tania Granadillo and Mattéi Muller each claim to know 2-3 surviving elderly speakers, and it is not clear to me that their lists contain all the same speakers).	Critically Endangered (100 percent certain, based on the evidence available)	15	Mapoyo has 2-3 speakers (both Tania Granadillo and Mattéi Muller each claim to know 2-3 surviving elderly speakers, and it is not clear to me that their lists contain all the same speakers).	14	15	Venezuela
0199255911		2005	The World Atlas of Language Structures			Bernard Comrie and David Gil and Martin Haspelmath and Matthew S. Dryer		Oxford University Press	New York			2005. "The World Atlas of Language Structures." edited by Bernard Comrie et al. Oxford University Press.															Venezuela	6.0,-67.0
		2012	Language endangerment in South America: The clock is ticking	The Indigenous Languages of South America: A Comprehensive Guide	167-234	Lyle Campbell and Veronica Grondona		Mouton de Gruyter	Berlin		Crevels, Mily	Crevels, Mily. 2012. "Language Endangerment in South America: The Clock Is Ticking." In The Indigenous Languages of South America: A Comprehensive Guide, edited by Hans Henrich Hock et al.. 167-234. Mouton de Gruyter.		365	~12	2001	10-99	The 2001 census also registered 12 speakers of Mapoyo, but in this case there are probably actually less than a handful of semi-speakers left. In 1998 the last elderly female speaker of Pémono lived with the Yabarana in an Upper Majagua village, but the language may be extinct today.				Critically Endangered (80 percent certain, based on the evidence available)	15	The 2001 census also registered 12 speakers of Mapoyo, but in this case there are probably actually less than a handful of semi-speakers left.		15	Venezuela
	16	2009	Ethnologue: Languages of the World, 16th Edition (2009)			M. Paul Lewis		SIL International	Dallas, TX	http://www.ethnologue.com/		Lewis, M. Paul (ed.). 2009. Ethnologue: Languages of the World, 16 edn. http://www.ethnologue.com/home.asp. (15 February, 2011.)	ll_pub	365	12	2001	10-99	Data for the number of native speakers comes from the 2001 census. (Unchanged 2016.)	a few			Critically Endangered (100 percent certain, based on the evidence available)	15	The number of speakers is decreasing.	14	15	Venezuela;

Mapoyo

Language metadata

Language information by source

Critically endangered

100 percent certain, based on the evidence available

3?

Critically endangered

20 percent certain, based on the evidence available

3

Critically endangered

80 percent certain, based on the evidence available

~12

Critically endangered

100 percent certain, based on the evidence available

12

Discussion

Mapoyo

Language metadata

Language information by source

Critically endangered

100 percent certain, based on the evidence available

3?

Critically endangered

20 percent certain, based on the evidence available

3

Critically endangered

80 percent certain, based on the evidence available

~12

Critically endangered

100 percent certain, based on the evidence available

12

Discussion

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