Panare
just south of the Orinoco River, Estado Bolívar
4,300 Panare people (2001 census)[1]
-
Venezuelan Carib
- Pemóng–Panare
- Panare
- Pemóng–Panare
Classification[edit]
Panare is a member of the Cariban language family, though its sub-grouping within the family is a matter of contention. The first decades of attempted classifications were largely rejected by linguists, a uniform classification of all proposed members of the Cariban family was introduced by Terrence Kaufman (1994).[3] This grouping, still widely used by linguists, classifies Panare as a member of the Southern Amazonian branch, with no cousin languages. However, Spike Gildea has criticized this grouping as relying on faulty data used for earlier classifications by Durbin and Loukotka that have been since rejected. In 2012, Gildea put forth his own classification, which groups Panare as a member of the Venezuelan Carib branch, and in turn, part of the low-level Pemóng-Panare branch.[4] This classification has been considered an improvement by linguists such as Lyle Campbell and Doris & Thomas Payne, but it has yet to replace the Kaufman grouping, largely due to its relative youth.
Panare is best classified as a heavy-agglutinating language that verges on polysynthesis. Many of its morphemes can be clearly identified by roots that remain isolated across inflectional processes, and inflection by multiple affixes is usually light. Words can grow long and complicated, but they can usually be rooted in one firm idea, rather than something akin to a process-based sentence.[7]
However, elements of polysynthesis appear in how roots are initially inflected. Essentially, most roots (that are not complements) are bound morphemes in some way, and require at least one inflectional morpheme until they can be used as units in a sentence. For example:
Distribution[edit]
The speakers of Panare (called E'ñepa (lit. "people") in their own language) live in Bolívar, Venezuela, west of the Cuchivero basin of the Orinoco River.[16] Up until the 21st century, the Panare had few contacts with non-indigenous peoples (the few being explorers and anthropologists). However, increasing interactions with Venezuelans has led to widespread bilingualism with Spanish.[17]