The Borôroan languages of Brazil and Bolivia are Borôro and the extinct Umotína, Kovareka, Kuruminaka and Otuke. They are sometimes considered to form part of the proposed Macro-Jê language family, though this has been disputed.

They are called the Borotuke languages by Mason (1950), a portmanteau of Bororo and Otuke.

Languages The relationship between the languages is, Umotina (†) Otuke–Bororo Borôro ? Bororo of Cabaçal (Aravirá) (†) Otuke (†) Kovareka–Kuruminaka (†)

Gorgotoqui may have also been a Bororoan language.Combès, Isabelle. 2010. Diccionario étnico: Santa Cruz la Vieja y su entorno en el siglo XVI. Cochabamba: Itinera-rios/Instituto Latinoamericano de Misionología. (Colección Scripta Autochtona, 4.)

Bororo of Cabaçal, which has been documented by Johann NattererFeest, Christian. 2014. Johann Natterer. Bororo Wordlists and Ethnographic Notes. Bororo Wordlists and Ethnographic Notes. The Ethnographic Collection of Johann Natterer. and Francis de Castelnau,Castelnau, Francis de. 1850-59. Expédition dan les parties centrales de l'Amérique du Sud : de Rio de Janeiro à Lima, et de Lima au Para exécutée par ordre du gouvernement français pendant les années 1843 à 1847, sous la direction de Francis de Castelnau. P. Bertrand. Paris has been identified by Camargo (2014) as a separate language distinct from Bororo proper.Camargo, Gonçalo Ochoa. 2014. Boe ewadaru = A língua bororo : breve histórico e elementos de gramática. Campo Grande, MS: Universidade Católica Dom Bosco (UCDB).

Loukotka (1968) Loukotka (1968) lists the following languages of the Boróro stock: Boróro / Coroados / Biribocone - extinct language once spoken on the Cabaçal and Jauru Rivers, state of Mato Grosso. Aravirá – extinct language once spoken on the Cabaçal River and Sepotuba River in Mato Grosso. [Is a synonym of Bororo of Cabaçal.] Orari / Eastern Boróro / Orarimugodoge - language spoken by an ancient warlike tribe on the Valhas River, Garças River, and Madeira River, Mato Grosso. [Is a dialect of Bororo proper.] Umutina / Barbudo - spoken by a few families between the Paraguai and Bugres Rivers, Mato Grosso. Otuque / Loushiru - spoken at the ancient mission of Santo Corazon in the Bolivian Chaco, now by a few individuals. Covare - extinct language once spoken at the ancient mission of Santa Ana de Chiquitos, Bolivia. Curumina - extinct language from the ancient mission of Casalvasco. Curucane / Carruacane - extinct language once spoken at the ancient mission of San Rafael, Bolivia. (Unattested.) Curave / Ecorabe - extinct language once spoken at the ancient mission of Santo Corazon, Bolivia. (Unattested.) Tapii - extinct language from the ancient mission of Santiago de Chiquitos, Bolivia. Possibly a Zamucoan language. (Unattested.)

Mason (1950) The following are listed as Bororo varieties by Mason (1950):

Bororo

Eastern: Orarimugudoge Western: Cabasal; Campanya Acioné Aravira Biriuné Coroa (?) Coxipo (?)

Proto-language For a list of Proto-Bororo reconstructions by , see the corresponding Portuguese article.

External relations The Bororoan languages are commonly thought to be part of the Macro-Jê language family.,

Ceria & Sandalo (1995) note parallels between Bororo and the Guaicuruan languages. Kaufman (1994) has suggested a relationship with the Chiquitano language,Kaufman, Terrence. 1994. The native languages of South America. In: Christopher Moseley and R. E. Asher (eds.), Atlas of the World’s Languages, 59–93. London: Routledge. which Nikulin (2020) considers to be a sister of Macro-Jê. Furthermore, Nikulin (2019) has suggested that Bororoan has a relationship with the Cariban and Kariri languages:

{| class="wikitable sortable" ! gloss !! Proto-Bororo !! Kariri !! Proto-Cariban |- ! tooth | *ɔ || dza || *(j)ə |- ! ear | *bidʒa || beɲe || *pana |- ! go | *tu || || *tə |- ! tree | *i || dzi || *jeje |- ! tongue | || nunu || *nuru |- ! root | || mu || *mi(t-) |- ! hand | || (a)mɨsã || *əmija |- ! fat (n.) | *ka || || *ka(t-) |- ! seed | *a || || *a |- ! fish | *karo || || *kana |- ! name | *idʒe || dze || |- ! heavy | *motɨtɨ || madi ||

An automated computational analysis (ASJP 4) by Müller et al. (2013)Müller, André, Viveka Velupillai, Søren Wichmann, Cecil H. Brown, Eric W. Holman, Sebastian Sauppe, Pamela Brown, Harald Hammarström, Oleg Belyaev, Johann-Mattis List, Dik Bakker, Dmitri Egorov, Matthias Urban, Robert Mailhammer, Matthew S. Dryer, Evgenia Korovina, David Beck, Helen Geyer, Pattie Epps, Anthony Grant, and Pilar Valenzuela. 2013. ASJP World Language Trees of Lexical Similarity: Version 4 (October 2013). also found lexical similarities between Bororoan and Cariban.

Language contact Jolkesky (2016) notes that there are lexical similarities with the Guato, Karib, Kayuvava, Nambikwara, and Tupi language families due to contact.

Cariban influence in Bororoan languages was due to the later southward expansion of Cariban speakers into Bororoan territory. Ceramic technology was also adopted from Cariban speakers. Similarly, Cariban borrowings are also present in the Karajá languages. Karajá speakers had also adopted ceramic technology from Cariban speakers.

Similarities with Cayuvava are due to the expansion of Bororoan speakers into the Chiquitania region.

References

Further reading