Yine is the principle variety of Piro, which is a Maipurean language spoken in Peru. It belongs to the Piro group which also includes Iñapari (†) and Apurinã. The Manchineri who live in Brazil (Acre) and reportedly also in Bolivia speak what may be a dialect of Yine (Aikhenvald, Kaufman). A vocabulary labeled Canamaré is "so close to Piro [Yine] as to count as Piro", but has been a cause of confusion with the unrelated Kanamarí language.

Names

This language is also called Contaquiro, Pira, Piro, Pirro, Simiranch, or Simirinche. Cushichineri has been reported as a language, but is actually a family name used with Whites (Matteson 1965). The name Mashco has sometimes been incorrectly applied to the Yine. (See Mashco Piro.)

Varieties

Extinct varieties of Piro (Yine):

Demographics

As of 2000, essentially all of the 4,000 ethnic Yine people speak the language. They live in the Ucayali and Cusco Departments, near the Ucayali River, and near the Madre de Dios River in the Madre de Dios Region in Peru. Literacy is comparatively high. A dictionary has been published in the language and the language is taught alongside Spanish in some Yine schools. There are also a thousand speakers of Machinere.

Phonology

Vowels

Consonants

Syntax

Piro has an active–stative syntax.