Nambikwara language

Nambikwara
Southern Nambikwara, Nambiquara
Kitãulhu
Native toMato Grosso, Brazil
EthnicityNambikwara
Native speakers
720 (2006)[1]
Nambikwaran
  • Nambikwara
Language codes
ISO 639-3nab
Glottologsout2994
ELPNambikwara
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Nambikwara (also called Nambiquara and Southern Nambiquara, to distinguish it from Mamaindê) is an indigenous language spoken by the Nambikwara, who reside on federal reserves covering approximately 50,000 square kilometres of land in Mato Grosso and neighbouring parts of Rondonia in Brazil.[2][3] Due to the fact that the Nambikwara language has such a high proportion of speakers (and, one can infer, a high rate of transmission), and the fact that the community has a positive attitude towards the language, it is not considered to be endangered despite the fact that its speakers constitute a small minority of the Brazilian population.[4][5] For these reasons, UNESCO instead classifies Nambikwara as vulnerable.[5]

  1. ^ Nambikwara at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. ^ Price, David (1983), "Cabixi, Nambiquara: A case study in the Western classification of native peoples", Journal de la Société des américanistes, 69: 129–148, doi:10.3406/jsa.1983.2228
  3. ^ Kroeker 2001.
  4. ^ Simons; Fening, eds. (2017), Ethnologue: Languages of the World (12th ed.)
  5. ^ a b Mosley, Christopher, ed. (2010), Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger (3rd ed.), Paris: UNESCO Publishing