Tariana language

Tariana is an Upper Amazon Arawakan language of the Eastern Nawiki branch of the Maipurean family, spoken along the Vaupes River in Brazil's Amazonas state and formerly also in Colombia, where it holds official status. Only about 100 native speakers remained as of 2003 out of roughly 1,500 ethnic Tariana, most of whom no longer speak the language fluently, because generations shifted to the unrelated Tucano language after Salesian missionaries arriving in the 1920s promoted Tucano exclusively and economic pressures disrupted the traditional patrilineal transmission of Tariana from father to child. The language has a relatively large phoneme inventory for the region, 24 consonants and 6 vowels with complex phonotactic restrictions, and since 2003 a secondary school in Iauarete has offered regular Tariana classes as part of revitalization efforts.