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Ashaninka Indian Language (Asháninka, Campa)

Language: Ashaninka is an Arawakan language of South America, spoken by more than 60,000 people in Peru and Brazil today. Ashaninka is polysynthetic and has VSO word order. Actually, there are between two and nine Ashaninka languages, depending on the linguist doing the categorizing-- there are many different varieties of the Ashaninka language, but little agreement about which are dialects and which are separate languages. The two main linguistic groupings are Ashaninka, which is spoken in communities further to the south, and Asheninka, which is spoken further to the north. One of the Asheninka languages, Gran Pajonal Asheninka, is usually considered a distinct language, and three other Asheninka variants, Perene, Pichis, and Ucayali, are considered by some to be distinct languages and by others to be dialects of Pajonal. Other people consider all four of these to be Asheninka dialects. A far northern dialect called Apurucayali is sometimes also considered distinct, and some linguists class the related languages Nanti and Nomatsiguenga as Ashaninka languages as well. Speakers of these different tongues can often understand each other, but not very well. The similarity between different Ashaninka languages can be compared to the similarity between closely related European languages such as Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese.

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Names: The tribal name Ashaninka means "our relatives" in the Ashaninka language. (The same word is pronounced Asheninka or Ashininka, in other dialects, and is spelled in a great variety of ways, including Asháninka, Ashéninka, Ashaninca, Asheninca, Ashéninca, Ajyininka, Ajyeninka, Axininca, Axaninca, Ashaninga, Asheninga, Ashenica, Ashaninta, Ashninca, and Asaninga.) The Ashaninka Indians are also commonly known as the Campa, a name for their tribe that probably came from the neighboring Quechua or Panoan languages. Though some Ashaninka communities refer to themselves as Campas, many Ashaninkas dislike this term, considering it derogatory. Other names they have been known by are Anti, Chascoso, and Chuncho, and the names of Ashaninka subgroups include Atsiri, Gran Pajonal, Tambo, Perené, Pichis, Ucayali, Apurucayali, and Cutivireni. Alternate spellings of these names include Kampa, Kompa, Camba, Thampa, Thamba, Campiti, Komparia, Kuruparia; Andi, Ande; Chunchu, Chunco; Atiri; and Chascoco.


Ashaninka Language
Ashaninka language samples and resources.

Ashaninka Culture and History
Information and links about the Ashaninka tribe past and present.


Ashaninka Language Resources

Our Online Ashaninka Materials

Ashaninka Vocabulary:
    Vocabulary words in the Ashaninka and Asheninka languages, with comparison to words in other Arawakan languages.
Ashaninka Pronunciation Guide:
    How to write and pronounce Ashaninka words.
Ashaninka Animal Words:
    Illustrated glossary of animal words in the Ashaninka Campa language.
Ashaninka Body Parts:
    Online and printable worksheets showing parts of the body in the Ashaninka language.
Ashaninka Colors:
    Worksheet showing color words in the Ashaninka language.
Ashaninka Numbers:
    Worksheet showing how to count in Ashaninka.
Ashaninka Food:
    Worksheet with pictures of food words in the Ashaninka language.

Ashaninka Dictionaries and Language Books for Sale
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A Grammar of Alto Perené Ashéninka:
    Thorough linguistic description of the Alto Perené language.
Diccionario Ashéninca-Castellano * Idioma Ashéninca:
    Ashaninka dictionary and language learning book. Both books in Spanish.
Ashéninka Stories of Change:
    Sociolinguistics book for sale on the Ashéninka language.
Upper Perené Arawak Narratives of History, Landscape, and Ritual:
    Bilingual book of legends, written literature, and oral history from the Ashéninka Perene Arawaks.
Antroponimia Asháninka:
    Spanish-language book on Ashaninka personal names and naming traditions.
The phonology and morphology of Axininca Campa:
    Book on the Axininca language.
Comparative Arawakan Histories: Rethinking Language Family and Culture Area in Amazonia:
    Anthropology book on the Ashaninka and other Arawakan-speaking tribes of the Amazon.

Ashaninka Language Lessons and Linguistic Descriptions

Peru Linguistic Map * Tribes and Languages of Peru * Western Central Brazil
    Maps showing the areas in South America where Ashaninka is spoken.
Asháninka Alphabet and Pronunciation:
    Phonological inventory of the Ashaninka language, with a sample text and a folk song.
Ashaninka * Ashéninka Apurucayali * Ashéninka Perene * Asheninka Pichis:
    Linguistic chart of phonemes in the Ashaninka and Asheninka languages.
Asheninca Alphabet * Stories in Asheninca:
    Digitized language materials from the Rosetta Project. Information in Spanish.
Asháninga * Ashéninga:
    Ashaninka language information including a linguistic map of Peru. Page in Spanish.
Palabras en Ashaninka
    Video by an Ashaninka speaker demonstrating how to pronounce each word.
Language House: Ashanincas * Language House: Ashenincas:
    Information about Ashaninka language usage.
Wikipedia: Asháninka:
    Encyclopedia entry on the Ashaninka language.
Campa Language Tree:
    Theories about Ashaninka's language relationships compiled by Linguist List.
Pajonal Asheninca Language Structures * Axininca Language Structures:
    Ashaninka linguistic profiles and academic bibliographies.

Literature and Texts in the Ashaninka Language

Relatos Orales Ashaninkas:
    Folklore and traditional stories in the Ashaninka language with Spanish translation.
UDHR: Ashàninca * UDHR: Ashéninca * UDHR: Campa pajonalino:
    The Universal Declaration of Human Rights translated into the Ashaninka language.
Ashaninka Prayers * Campa Prayers:
    Ashaninka translation of the Lord's Prayer and other Christian prayers.
The Bible in Ashaninka: * Asheninka Perene: * Asheninka Pajonal: * Asheninka Pichis: * Ajyíninka Apurucayali:
    Tower of Babel in Asheninka: * Satipo Ashaninca Words of Life: * Apurimac Ashaninka: * Asheninka Pajonal:
    Translation of Bible passages into Ashaninka dialects.

Ashaninka Linguistics Research

Asháninka Papers * Ashéninka Pajonal * Ajyninka Papers: * Asheninka Perene:
    Archive of linguistics papers on Ashaninka/Campa, in English and Spanish.
Axininca Campa:
    Linguistics paper about reduplication in Ashaninka.
Constraint-Ranked Derivation
    Linguistics study of the Tepehuan and Pichis languages.
Toponimia Ashaninka en el Gran Pajonal:
    Linguistics paper about indigenous Ashaninka place names in Peru. In Spanish.

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Links, References, and Additional Information

Ashaninka: * Asheninka:
Bibliography of language resources in different Ashaninka dialects.
OLAC: Ashaninka: * Ajyininka Apurucayali: * Asheninka Pajonal: * Asheninka Perene:
Reference list of Ashaninka language materials.
La Lengua Asháninka * Lengua Ashaninka * Lengua Asheninka * Idioma Asháninca:
Information about the Ashaninka language in Spanish.
Ashaninka:
Ashaninca language links.



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