Piapoco language

Piapoco is an Arawakan language of the Northern Arawak branch's Upper Amazon Arawakan subfamily, spoken in Colombia along the Meta, Vichada and Guaviare rivers and in Venezuela by the Wenaiwika people, whose name Piapoco is itself a Spanish nickname referencing the toucan bird. About 3,000 native speakers remain, based on estimates from 2001 to 2007, and the language is endangered as younger generations increasingly favor Spanish; most remaining speakers are bilingual in both languages. The Piapoco people historically migrated in the eighteenth century to escape settlers and missionaries, and the language itself is a nominative-accusative language with 18 segmental phonemes, 14 consonants and 4 vowels.