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Piratapuyo Indian Language (Paicoca)

Language: Piratapuyo is a Tucanoan language of South America. It is closely related to Guanano, and some people consider them to be dialects of a single language, but speakers of Guanano and Piratapuyo cannot understand each other well. Piratapuyo is spoken by 1000 people in Brazil and Colombia. It is a tone language with SOV word order.

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Names: The people's own name for themselves is Waikana, meaning "fish people"; Piratapuyo is the translation of this tribal name the Lingua Geral, an indigenous language which was commonly spoken by many Brazilian tribes as a second language. Alternate spellings for these names include Piro-Tapuyo, Pira-Tapuya, Waikena, Wa'ikana, Wa'ikhana, Waikhana, Waikina, Waikino, Uaikena, Uaicana, Uiquina, and Waikhara.

Piratapuyo Language Resources

Languages of Northwestern Brazil:
    Map showing where in Brazil the Piratapuyo language is spoken.
Piratapuyo Linguistic Description * Piratapuyo Orthography * Piratapuyo Phonology:
    Scanned-in Piratapuyo language materials from the Rosetta Project.
La Lengua Piratapuya:
    Information on Piratapuyo including linguistic maps of South America. Page in Spanish.
Piratapuyo Prayers:
    Translation of the Lord's Prayer into Piratapuyo.
Language Museum: Piratapuyo * Genesis in Piratapuya:
    Translations of Bible passages into Piratapuyo.
House of Languages: Piratapuyo:
    Information about Piratapuyo language usage.
Piratapuyo Language:
    Demographic information on Piratapuyo from the Ethnologue of Languages.
Wanano-Piratapuyo Language Tree:
    Theories about Piratapuyo's language relationships compiled by Linguist List.
Piratapuyo Language Structures:
    Piratapuyo linguistic profile and academic bibliography.

Piratapuyo Culture and History Links

The Pira-Tapuya of Brazil:
    Online ethnography of the Pira-Tapuya tribe.
The Fish People: Linguistic Exogamy and Tukanoan Identity in Northwest Amazonia:
    Anthropology book on the social structures of the Piratapuya and other Tucanoan tribes. (Amazon affiliate link.)

Links, References, and Additional Information

  Pueblo Piratapuyo * Los Piratapuyo:
  Information about the Piratapuyos in Spanish.
  Povo Pira-Tapuya * Os Piratapuias:
  Information about the Piratapuyas in Portuguese.



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