Arutani, also called Orotani, Urutani, Auake or Uruak, is a nearly extinct language spoken in Roraima, Brazil, and in the Karum River area of Bolivar State, Venezuela, across four Ninam villages in the upper Paragua River valley. As of 2020 only five or six speakers remained among an ethnic Auake population of about 20 people, and UNESCO classifies the language as critically endangered. Most linguists treat Arutani as a language isolate, though Morris Swadesh and Joseph Greenberg proposed grouping it with the neighboring Sape language in a hypothetical Arutani-Sape family, a connection that remains unconfirmed.
Facts
Disputed
Proto-Language StatusNo proto-language; classified as an isolate by most linguists, though grouped with Sape, and later Maku, in a proposed Arutani-Sape family 1 Swadesh and Greenberg proposed an Arutani-Sape family, later expanded by Kaufman to include Maku; not confirmed. Regionsouthern Venezuela and the northern tip of Roraima, Brazil 1 Speaker Count In the Other Atlases
Found In
Also in Geography Atlas: where this subject is found.
Sources
1. Arutani language, Wikipedia
Article text
Traditionally, Arutani was spoken along the Paragua River and Uraricaá River in southern Venezuela and the northern tip of Roraima, Brazil.
Infobox: date
2020
Classification section, first paragraph
The language has been classified as a language isolate by most linguists.
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