Cayubaba

Cayubaba is a moribund language isolate of the Bolivian Amazon, spoken by the Cayubaba people west of the Mamoré River and north of Santa Ana del Yacuma in Beni Department, an ethnic community of about 794 people. It has held official status among Bolivia's indigenous languages since 2000, formalized in the country's 2009 constitution, but is critically endangered: only three people could still recall the language in 2005, and by 2012 just 12 people identified it as their primary language out of 1,246 who had learned it as children. Historical proposals connecting Cayubaba to the Arawakan, Bororoan, Tacanan or Tupian families are attributed to contact rather than common descent, and the language is still considered an isolate.