Information from: “Language endangerment in South America: The clock is ticking” (167-234) . Crevels, Mily (2012) , Lyle Campbell and Veronica Grondona · Mouton de Gruyter
Critically endangered
80 percent certain, based on the evidence available
A few
Taruma was thought to be extinct, since it was believed that the ethnic group had disappeared or had been assimilated into other indigenous groups by the mid-nineteenth century. Carlin, however, mentions a few speakers in Maruranau, a Wapishana village in the Rupanuni, Guyana.
SPEAKER NUMBER TRENDS
TRANSMISSION
OTHER LANGUAGES USED BY THE COMMUNITY
Waiwai
Wapishana
PLACES
Brazil, Guyana
Information from: “Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger” . Christopher Moseley (ed.) (2010) UNESCO Publishing
Information from: “Feeling the Need: The Borrowing of Cariban Functional Categories into Mawayana (Arawak)” . Eithne B. Carlin (2006) , Alexandra Aikhenvald and R.M.W. Dixon ·
Critically endangered
20 percent certain, based on the evidence available
3
"In the early 1920s, the anthropologist/archaeologist Walter Roth claimed that the Taruma had all but become extinct as a separate group, which is corroborated by the missionary Father Cary-Elwes’s statements that in mid-1922 he had advised the Taruma to intermarry with the Waiwai: ‘Last time I was here [1919, EBC], I told the Tarumas that they were a sickly lot and clearly dying out, due probably to their in-marriage, and their only chance of survival was for them to take unto themselves Waiwai wives’ (Butt, Colson and Morton 1982:240; see also Rivière 1963:164). In spite of their incessant precarious situation over the last two centuries, there are still three Taruma speakers in Guyana, living among the Wapishana."
Information from: “Ethnologue: Languages of the World, 19th Edition (2016)” . Lewis, M. Paul, Gary F. Simons, and Charles D. Fennig · SIL International
Critically endangered
80 percent certain, based on the evidence available
3
DATE OF INFO
2006
SPEAKER NUMBER TRENDS
TRANSMISSION
PLACES
Guyana
ADDITIONAL COMMENTS
Southern East Berbice-Corentyne and Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo regions, Guyana-Brazil border area, in the Wapishana [wap] language area.