Mura, or the Mura-Matanawi family, is the traditional language grouping of the Mura people of Amazonas, Brazil, though the family classification is disputed. It historically comprised three named varieties: Bohura, or Mura proper, spoken on the Autaz River and now extinct; Yahahi, formerly spoken on the Branco River and unattested beyond ethnographic mention; and Pirahã, the family's only surviving member. In the 19th century the family had an estimated 30,000 to 60,000 speakers across its dialects; today it survives only through Pirahã, spoken by about 300 people in eight villages along the Maici River, a tributary of the Amazon. The Mura language gained official recognition in Brazil's Amazonas state in 2023.
Facts
Speaker CountCurrent figure for the sole surviving dialect, Pirahã; a 19th century estimate for the wider Mura grouping ran to 30,000-60,000 speakers. Proto-Language StatusNo proto-language has been reconstructed. A genetic relationship to Matanawi is proposed on lexical grounds but not universally accepted; Kaufman (1994) separately suggested a broader Macro-Warpean connection to Huarpe. 1 In the Other Atlases
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Mura Language
Wikimedia FoundationLead section
Mura is a language of Amazonas, Brazil.
Classification section
Mura is often proposed to be related to Matanawí.
Lead section, final sentence
It is now spoken by only 300 Pirahã people in eight villages.
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