Olawsky, Knut J. (2023) Urarina. In: Epps, Patience, and Michael, Lev, (eds.) Amazonian Languages: An International Handbook. Handbooks of Linguistics and Communication Science, 2 . De Gruyter Mouton, Berlin, Germany, pp. 1107-1142.

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Abstract

Urarina (urar1246) is an isolate spoken by fewer than 3,000 people living aroundthe Río Chambira and its tributaries in the Urarinas District in northwestern Peru’sLoreto department. The language exhibits a range of unusual grammatical characteristics that are rare or absent in other languages, such as OVA constituent order. Urarina was originally also spoken between the Urituyacu and Corrientes Rivers, but language shift has contributed to Spanish dominance on the Urituyacu River.While Urarina is still spoken on the Corrientes River, it is subject to increasing pressure from Spanish. Generally, in the more remote areas, Urarina is the first languageof all speakers, including children. At the time of the author’s research and field-work (2000–2005), language contexts and attitudes varied, ranging from monolingual Urarina speakers and positive attitudes towards indigenous language and culture in more remote and secluded areas to Urarina-Spanish bilingualism andideologies favoring Spanish-dominant culture in areas frequently visited by merchants and other external parties. A training program for native Urarina teacherswho operate in most villages of the Chambira basin (central Urarina country) hasproved immensely useful, as it focuses on Urarina as the language of education,contributing to hopes that the language may be maintained efficiently into the future.

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