Article · Wikipedia archive · Last revised Jul 31, 2026

Opón-Carare language

Opón-Carare (Opone) is an extinct, unusually divergent Cariban language of Colombia. It is most closely related to Yukpa. It is known only from two wordlists, published in 1878 and 1958 respectively. The language was reported to be likely extinct by 1973.

Last revised
Jul 31, 2026
Read time
≈ 2 min
Length
362 w
Citations
3
Source
Opón-Carare
Opón, Opón-Karare, Opone
Native toColombia
RegionOpon River, Santander Department
EthnicityOpón, Carare
Extinctlate 20th century
Cariban
  • Opón–Yukpa
    • Opón-Carare
Dialects
  • Opón
  • Carare
Language codes
ISO 639-3None (mis)
Glottologopon1234
Opon-Carare is classified as Extinct by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger.

Opón-Carare (Opone) is an extinct, unusually divergent Cariban language of Colombia. It is most closely related to Yukpa. It is known only from two wordlists, published in 1878 and 1958 respectively.1 The language was reported to be likely extinct by 1973.2

Phonology

Giraldo and Fornaguera (1958)

Marshall Durbin and Haydée Seijas derive the following phonology for Opón-Carare based on data published in 1958 from Giraldo and Fornaguera.2

Consonants
Bilabial Alveolar Postalveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
Plosive voiceless p t k (ʔ)1
voiced b d g
Fricative s ʃ h
Trill r
Nasal m n ɲ
Approximant w j
  1. [ʔ] may not be phonemic, it appears only at morpheme boundaries.
Vowels
Front Central Back
short long short long short long
Close i u
Mid e ə o
Open a

While common in other Cariban languages, nasal vowels are not recorded in Opón-Carare.

Lengerke (1878)

The following phonology is derived from the data in Lengerke (1878).

Consonant phonemes of Opón
Bilabial Alveolar Postalveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
Plosive voiceless p t k
voiced b
Fricative s (ʃ) h
Affricate
Trill r
Nasal m n
Approximant w j

The phonology is the same in Carare, with the exception that /tʃ/ and /w/ are not present, and /ʃ/ interpreted for the sequence ⟨sy⟩.

Vowels
Front Central Back
Close i u
Mid e (ə) o
Open a
References

References

  1. von Lengerke 1878, p. 306. sfn error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFvon_Lengerke1878 (help)
  2. Durbin, Marshall; Seijas, Haydée (1973). "A note on Opon-Carare". Zeitschrift für Ethnologie. 98 (2): 242–245. ISSN 0044-2666. JSTOR 25841439.
Further reading

Further reading