OLAC Record
oai:soas.ac.uk:MPI1000865

Metadata
Title:Plural forms
oxx-e121225s
Documentation of Paunaka
Contributor (researcher):Swintha Danielsen
Coverage:Bolivia
Date:2012-12-25
Description:Plural, kinship: eliciting paradigms: mother, field, father, plurals with and without -ji
Summary of deposit This deposit assembles the materials collected by the team of the Paunaka Documentation Project (PDP), a Major Documentation Project funded by ELDP and running from 2011 to 2013. The main language documented in this archive is Paunaka, a critically endangered (cf. Krauss 2007:6) Southern Arawakan language, spoken in Eastern Bolivia, in a region called Chiquitanía. Today, there are only 11 speakers left with competences ranging from fluent to mostly passive knowledge and even one L2 speaker. However, some children of the speakers also understand or even speak a few words. All speakers of Paunaka are trilingual with Spanish and Bésɨro (more widely known as Chiquitano). The youngest speaker is over 50, the oldest over 80 years old. In addition, the archive includes a few data on Paiconeca, the language most closely related to Paunaka, which has been extinct for very long and on two closely related and already extinct Chapacuran languages: Kitemoka and Napeka. The Paunaka people share the same history with these small groups, and people of all three ethnic groups have long lived together in the same small villages since colonization. Group represented Ethnically, the speakers of Paunaka identify as Paunaka, but also as Chiquitano as they share the material culture and religion with speakers of Monkoka (Bésɨro) and speakers of other languages in the region and have had a common history for more than 300 years. The same holds for the Kitemoka and Napeka people. Language information Paunaka, South Arawakan (ISO: pnk) Other languages represented in this deposit: Paiconeca, South Arawakan; Napeka, Chapacuran; Kitemoka, Chapacuran; Bésɨro, Macro-Jê Deposit contents The material on Paunaka has been very scarce up to now. Some small word lists have been compiled in the 18th, 19th and 20th century, but the focus of travellers and researchers in this region has rather been on Bésɨro for the last 300 years. Paunaka was thought to be extinct until Lucrecia Villafañe met some speakers in 2005. The archive contains all information found on Paunaka prior to the PDP and the material collected and produced by the members of the PDP between 2011 and 2013. It includes audio and video recordings, transcriptions and analyses, lexicographic materials, photos, and the language material produced for the Paunaka community. In addition, some material on the languages Paiconeca, Napeka, and Kitemoka can be found here. Material includes: video and audio recordings in Paunaka mainly made by Danielsen and Terhart during the PDP transcriptions of the PDP recordings; analyses in Toolbox (Danielsen, Terhart) video and audio recordings in Spanish mainly made by Villalta during the PDP transcriptions of Villalta's recordings ; translations into English (and/or summaries in English) video and audio recordings in Paunaka made prior to PDP by Danielsen (2008-2010), Riester (1960s) transcriptions and analyses of Riester's and Danielsen's recordings (Danielsen, Terhart) audio recordings of other languages: Napeka, Kitemoka by Riester (1960s) transcriptions of Riester's recordings by Christin Wienold texts collected by Villafañe (2005 and 2006) material for the community: alphabet book, poster, booklets dictionaries and wordlists (divided by source and language) photos other miscellaneous documents Topics range from history of the Paunaka people to narratives, personal narratives and small talk between a speaker and the researcher(s). Special Characteristics In addition to data on Paunaka, this deposit also contains some data on the extinct Chapacuran languages Napeka and Kitemoka, which may be of great importance for researchers working on Chapacuran languages. Other information During early colonial times, most of the Paunaka people were settled in the town of Concepción de Chiquitos (Tomichá 2002:290), where Chiquitano was the general language just like in the other mission towns of the Chiquitanía (Adelaar & Muysken 2004:477; Tomichá 2002:290). Generally, the other languages were only used in private space. For the present-day speakers, the social dominance of Bésɨro (or Monkoka, which is the name they use more often) was established when they lived in Altavista or one of the other manors in a relation of debt bondage to a patron. This is a chapter of Bolivian history that has had little appraisal up to now. However, we were told by Paunaka speakers that in Altavista, the ones who had the power knew Monkoka as dialect (dialecto), but they knew little or nothing about the other languages like Paunaka, Napeka, Kitemoka. Some foremen and other high-status personnel spoke some Bésɨro. The greatest pressure to give up Paunaka or any other minor indigenous language came from the speakers of Bésɨro, who frequently made fun of the Paunaka when they spoke their language. This is despite the – according to assertions of Paunaka speakers – greater number of Paunaka speakers in Altavista in comparison with Bésɨro speakers and the fact that “everybody [= all Paunaka people] spoke Paunaka”. A great number of recordings in the archive refer to this important part of the Paunaka history. The inferior status of their language maintained until recent times, when Paunaka speakers who participated in the meetings of the OICH (Organización Indígena Chiquitana) about linguistic acknowledgment felt ashamed to speak their language in public and did not claim its incorporation into the New Constitution of Bolivia from 2009. Today, Spanish has certainly outranked Bésɨro in social and economic importance and Bésɨro is also endangered (see also the deposit by Sans).
Format:audio/x-wav
Identifier:oai:soas.ac.uk:MPI1000865
Identifier (URI):https://lat1.lis.soas.ac.uk/ds/asv?openpath=MPI1000865%23
Publisher:Swintha Danielsen
University of Leipzig
Subject:Elicitation
Paunaka language
Spanish language
Subject (ISO639):pnk
spa
Type:Audio

OLAC Info

Archive:  Endangered Languages Archive
Description:  http://www.language-archives.org/archive/soas.ac.uk
GetRecord:  OAI-PMH request for OLAC format
GetRecord:  Pre-generated XML file

OAI Info

OaiIdentifier:  oai:soas.ac.uk:MPI1000865
DateStamp:  2018-09-26
GetRecord:  OAI-PMH request for simple DC format

Search Info

Citation: Swintha Danielsen (researcher). 2012-12-25. Swintha Danielsen.
Terms: area_Americas area_Europe country_BO country_ES iso639_pnk iso639_spa

Inferred Metadata

Country: BoliviaSpain
Area: AmericasEurope


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Up-to-date as of: Mon Oct 18 15:28:52 EDT 2021