Moxo
Mojos
Native toBolivia
RegionBeni Department
Ethnicity21,000 Moxo people (2004)[1]
Native speakers
10,000 (2000–2004)[1]
Arawakan
  • Southern
    • Bolivia–Parana
      • Moxos languages
        • Moxo
Language codes
ISO 639-3Either:
ign – Ignaciano Moxos
trn – Trinitario Moxos
Glottologmoxo1234  Mojeno
magi1242  Magiana
ELP

Moxo (also known as Mojo, pronounced 'Moho') is any of the Arawakan languages spoken by the Moxo people of the Llanos de Moxos in northeastern Bolivia. The two extant languages of the Moxo people, Trinitario and Ignaciano, are as distinct from one another as they are from neighboring Arawakan languages. The extinct Magiana was also distinct.

Moxo languages have an active–stative syntax.[2]

Sociolinguistic background

The languages belong to a group of tribes that originally ranged through the upper Mamoré, extending east and west from the Guapure (Itenes) to the Beni, and are now centered in the Province of Moxos, Department of Beni, Bolivia.[3] They form part of the Mamoré-Guaporé linguistic area.[4][5]

Moxo was also the primary lingua franca (Spanish: lengua general) used in the Jesuit Missions of Moxos.[6]

Ignaciano is used in town meetings unless outsiders are present, and it is a required subject in the lower school grades, one session per week. Perhaps half of the children learn Ignaciano. By the 1980s there were fewer than 100 monolinguals, all older than 30.

Classification

The Moxo languages are most closely related to Bauré, Pauna, and Paikonéka. Together, they form the Mamoré-Guaporé languages (named after the Mamoré River and Guaporé River). Classification by Jolkesky (2016):[7]: 8 

  • Mamoré-Guaporé languages
    • Bauré
      • Bauré
      • Carmelito
      • Joaquiniano
      • Muxojeóne
    • Moxeno
      • Ignaciano
      • Trinitário
      • Loretano
      • Javierano
    • Paikonéka
      • Paikonéka
    • Paunáka
      • Paunáka

Classification by Danielsen (2011) and Danielsen & Terhart (2014: 226):[8][9]

Phonology

Consonants

Consonants in Ignaciano Mojeno[10]
Labial Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
Nasal m n ɲ
Stop p t k ʔ
Affricate ts tʃ
Fricative β s ʃ x
Rhotic r
Approximant w l j
Consonants in Trinitario Mojeno
Labial Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
plain pal. lab. plain pal. plain pal. plain pal. lab.
Nasal m mʲ mʷ n ɲ
Stop p pʲ t c k kʲ ʔ ʔʲ
Affricate ts tsʲ tʃ
Fricative s sʲ ç h hʲ hʷ
Liquid ɾ ɾʲ
Approximant w β̞ʲ j
  • /h/ can be voiced as [ɦ] between vowels.
  • /w/ can be heard as [β] before a front vowel, and as [ɥ] when preceding /j/.[11]

Vowels

Vowels in Ignaciano Mojeno[10]
Front Central Back
High i u
Mid e
Low a
  • /e/ can also have an allophone of [ɛ].
Vowels in Trinitario Mojeno[11]
Front Central Back
High i iː u uː
Mid e eː ə͡e ə͡eː o oː
Low a aː

Word lists

The following is a wordlist containing sample words from English to Moxos:

English-Moxos
English Moxos
One Ikapia
Two Apisá
Three Impúse
Man Ehiro
Woman Eseno
Sun Sáche
Water Uni
Fire Yuku
Head Nuxuti
Hand Nubupe
Corn Suru

Magíana word list from the late 1700s published in Palau and Saiz (1989):[12]: 170 

Spanish glossEnglish glossMagíana
buenogoodshiomá
malobadshiomallama
el padrefatherpapá
la madremotherkay
el hermanobrothernomasqui
unoonehuestiche
dostwoheravetá

See also

Further reading

  • Carvalho, Fernando O. de; Françoise Rose. Comparative reconstruction of Proto-Mojeño and the phonological diversification of Mojeño dialects. LIAMES, Campinas, v. 18, n. 1, p. 3–44, Jan./Jun. 2018. doi:10.20396/liames.v1i1.8648804
  • Key, Mary Ritchie. 2015. Ignaciano dictionary. In: Key, Mary Ritchie & Comrie, Bernard (eds.) The Intercontinental Dictionary Series. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
  • Gill, Ruth, and Wayne Gill. 2015. Trinitario dictionary. In: Key, Mary Ritchie & Comrie, Bernard (eds.) The Intercontinental Dictionary Series. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.

References

  1. 1 2 Ignaciano Moxos at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
    Trinitario Moxos at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. ↑ Aikhenvald, "Arawak", in Dixon & Aikhenvald, eds., The Amazonian Languages, 1999.
  3. ↑ http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/10606b.htm, New Advent, Moxos Indians, Retrieved February 10, 2011.
  4. ↑ Crevels, Mily; van der Voort, Hein (2008). "4. The Guaporé-Mamoré region as a linguistic area". From Linguistic Areas to Areal Linguistics. Studies in Language Companion Series. Vol. 90. pp. 151–179. doi:10.1075/slcs.90.04cre. ISBN 978-90-272-3100-0. ISSN 0165-7763.
  5. ↑ Muysken, Pieter; Hammarström, Harald; Birchall, Joshua; Van Gijn, Rik; Krasnoukhova, Olga; Müller, Neele (2014). Linguistic areas: bottom-up or top-down? The case of the Guaporé-Mamoré. In: Comrie, Bernard; Golluscio, Lucia. Language Contact and Documentation / Contacto lingüístico y documentación. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 205-238.
  6. ↑ Crevels, Mily. 2002. Speakers shift and languages die: An account of language death in Amazonian Bolivia. In Mily Crevels, Simon van de Kerke, Sérgio Meira & Hein van der Voort (eds.), Current Studies on South American Languages [Indigenous Languages of Latin America, 3], p. 9-30. Leiden: Research School of Asian, African, and Amerindian Studies (CNWS).
  7. ↑ Jolkesky, Marcelo. 2016. Uma reconstrução do proto-mamoré-guaporé (família arawák). LIAMES 16: 7-37.
  8. ↑ Danielsen, Swintha (2011). The personal paradigms in Baure and other South Arawakan languages. In Antoine Guillaume; Françoise Rose (eds.). International Journal of American Linguistics 77(4): 495-520.
  9. ↑ Danielsen, Swintha; Terhart, Lena (2014). Paunaka. In Mily Crevels; Pieter Muysken (eds.). Lenguas de Bolivia, vol. III: Oriente, pp. 221-258. La Paz: Plural Editores.
  10. 1 2 Jordá, Enrique (2014). Mojeño Ignaciano. In Mily Crevels and Pieter Muysken (eds.), Oriente: La Paz: Plural Editores. pp. 21–58.
  11. 1 2 Rose, Françoise (2021). Mojeño Trinitario. Illustrations of the IPA: Journal of the International Phonetic Association.
  12. ↑ Palau, Mercedes and Blanca Saiz. 1989. Moxos: Descripciones exactas e historia fiel de los indios, animales y plantas de la provincia de Moxos en el virreinato del Perú por Lázaro de Ribera, 1786-1794. Madrid: El Viso.
Wiktionary has a list of reconstructed forms at Appendix:Proto-Mojeño reconstructions
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