Cayubaba (Cayuvava, Cayuwaba, Kayuvava) is a moribund language of the Bolivian Amazon. The Cayubaba people inhabit the Beni region to the west of the Mamoré River, North of the Santa Ana Yacuma, with a population of 794 inhabitants. Since the declaration of the Supreme Decree N.º 25894 on September 11, 2000, Cayubaba has been one of the official indigenous languages of Bolivia, which was included in the Political Constitution, which was introduced on February 7, 2009.

History

The first to establish contact with the Cayubaba was the Jesuit missionary priest, P. Agustín Zapata in 1693. As Crevels and Muysken (2012) point out, it was during this first visit to Cayubaba territory that Father Zapata saw seven villages, of which six had approximately 1,800 inhabitants and one had more than 2,000. At the beginning of the 18th century, P. Antonio Garriga funded the Mission of Exaltation of the Holy Cross, which was primarily inhabited by the Cayubaba. Later the Missions of San Carlos, Conception, and Peñas were founded. At the beginning of the 19th century, when Swedish geologist and paleontologist Erland Nordenskiold visited Cayubaba, there were only 100 people from the group, who apart from their language, kept very little of their native culture. The Cayubaba region was famous for growing tobacco. At the time of the exploitation of rubber, the commercialization of tobacco was intense throughout the country, and Exaltación became a busy port on the Mamoré River. In the mid- 20th century, however, the cultivation of tobacco was almost stopped by the mass emigration of Cayubaba to Exaltación, who were fleeing the measles epidemic that almost decimated the population.

Current situation

As shown by Crevels and Muysken (2012), the territory of Cayubaba forms part of a region historically known as Mojos (or Moxos), that covers approximately 200,000 square kilometers of what is currently the Department of Beni. Above all, the Cayubaba focus on traditional farming, growing rice, yucca, corn, bananas, sugar cane, beans, pumpkins, sweet potatoes, etc. They also raised livestock, although on a small scale. The Cayubaba community meets at the Subcentral Indígena Cayubaba, which is affiliated to the Indigenous Peoples Center of Beni (CPIB) and is, therefore, a member of the Confederation of Indigenous Peoples of Eastern Bolivia (CIDOB). As of 2005, Mily Crevels reported that only two elderly speakers remain in the village of Exaltación, located on the left bank of the Mamoré River. One elderly speaker was also found in the city of Trinidad. According to the 2012 Bolivian census, there were 2,203 of Cayubaba, of whom 1,246 learned speak Cayubaba language in their childhood and for only 12 Cayubaba was their main language.

Language contact

Jolkesky (2016) notes that there are lexical similarities with the Arawak, Bororo, Takana, and Tupi language families due to contact.

Genetic classification

As indicated by Crevels and Muysken (2012), despite all the tentative proposals to genetically classify Cayubaba (see, for example, Greenberg, 1987); Kaufman, 1990, 1994; Suárez, 1974), the language is still considered a language isolate.

Phonology

Cayubaba presents the following system of consonantal phonemes (taken from Crevels and Muysken, 2012) based on (Key 1961), 1962, 1967). The consonant phoneme represented below with /r/ has allophones that include [ɾ~ l~ d̥]. In the second table, we are presented with the system of vowel phonemes (taken from Crevels and Muysken, 2012) and based on (Key, 1961).

Grammar

Word classes

Regarding the vocabulary and word classes in Cayubaba, the following can be pointed out (Crevels and Muysken, 2012):

Morphology

Regarding the morphology of Cayubaba, the following is presented from Crevels and Muysken: The plural nominal is expressed through the proclitic me = as observed in (Figure 1). In nominal sentences, the proclitic me, is appended to the first element of the sentence, as seen in (Figure 2). 'the men' ‘new oars' mara-h-i-bachari-dya FUT.HIP-1SG-CL-inform-2SG.OI ‘(I) would inform you.’ mera-h-i-bekerere-ë FUT-1SG-CL-learnCAUS.INC-2SG.OD ‘I will teach.’

Syntax

With regard to the syntax of Cayubaba, the following is seen (Crevels and Muysken, 2012): {CMPL-INTL-to bring} water ART-woman COM.LOC-3SG-house-3SG.POS ‘The woman brought water to her house.’ ãree a-poërëre-ha karata toro-takorako mitia takorako PRO:3SG {CL-to buy-RES} one M-rooster two hens 'He buys a rooster and two hens.’ mitia tò̃rene two women ‘two women’ father {ART-my wife} ‘the father of my wife' mera-h-i-dïkï-ñika ãrehidya FUT-1SG-CL-make-house PRO:2SG.OI ‘I will build the house.’ ye-pe-h-a-ve-dya ki-h-i-hudyuhi-a {NEG-always-1SG-CL-to say-2SG.OI} {SUB-1SG-CL-to leave-2SG.OD} 'I tell you, I will never leave you.’ ki-t-i-bòechò k-a-ukuku-che {SUB-3SG-CL-to sell} ART-3SG-pork-3SG.POS ‘when he sold his pig’ chu h-i-bachari-e because {1SG-CL-to tell-3SG.O} 'Because I told him’

Vocabulary

Loukotka (1968) lists the following basic vocabulary items for Cayuvava. ! gloss !! Cayuvava