Maipure (Maypure, Mejepure), was a language once spoken along the Ventuari, Sipapo, and Autana rivers of Amazonas and, as a lingua franca, in the Upper Orinoco region. It became extinct around the end of the eighteenth century. Zamponi provided a grammatical sketch of the language and furnished a classified word list, based on all of its extant eighteenth century material (mainly from the Italian missionary Filippo S. Gilij).[1] It is historically important in that it formed the cornerstone of the recognition of the Maipurean (Arawakan) language family.[citation needed]

Maipure
Native toVenezuela
RegionOrinoco
ExtinctLate 18th century[citation needed]
Arawakan
Language codes
ISO 639-3None (mis)
qij
Glottologmaip1246

Kaufman (1994) gives its closest relatives as Yavitero and other languages of the Orinoco branch of Upper Amazon Arawakan. Aikhenvald places it instead in the Western Nawiki branch.[2]

Notes and references

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  1. ^ Zamponi, Raoul (2003). Maipure. Languages of the World. Materials 192. Munich: Lincom Europa. ISBN 978-3-89586-757-6.
  2. ^ Aikhenvald, Alexandra Y. (1999). "The Arawak language family". In Dixon, R. M. W.; Aikhenvald, A. Y. (eds.). The Amazonian languages. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. p. ?. ISBN 978-0-521-57021-3.