The Rikbaktsa language, also spelled Aripaktsa, Erikbatsa or Erikpatsa and known ambiguously as Canoeiro, is a language spoken by the Rikbaktsa people of Mato Grosso, Brazil, that forms its own branch of the Macro-Gê languages. As in other languages of the area, word endings indicate the gender of the speaker. Rikbaktsa is a subject-object-verb language. Most Rikbaktsa can speak both Rikbaktsa and Portuguese. Younger individuals tend to speak Portuguese more frequently and fluently than their elders, but older individuals generally struggle with Portuguese and use it only with non-indigenous Brazilians. Jolkesky (2016) also notes that there are lexical similarities with the Cariban languages.

Locations

The 22nd edition of Ethnologue reports that it is spoken around confluence of the Sangue River and Juruena River in:

Phonology

Vocabulary

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