Saraveca language

Saraveca (Xaray)¹ is an extinct Arawakan language once spoken in Bolivia by the Sarave. The language is known from about 400 words and a short text, and is closest to the Paresi language, spoken in Brazil.

Saraveca is closest linguistically to the still-spoken Paresi language of Brazil.² Its connection with the other languages of the Arawakan language family was first recognized by Daniel Garrison Brinton (1891).³ It is rather divergent from the other Arawakan languages spoken in Bolivia.⁴

The language was spoken on the Rio Verde in Bolivia, "very close" to the Brazilian border.⁴ To its northwest was the Tupian Warázu (Pauserna), to its west were the Paunaka and Paiconeca languages, to its south were the Kuruminaka, Curucaneca, and Chiquitano languages, and to its north and east were the Arawakan Paresi and Kabixi.²

By 1962, most of the Sarave people had switched to Chiquitano,⁵ though they had been assimilating into local society since the 18th century.⁴

The only documentation of Saraveca includes a "very short" text recorded by Hugh Weddell and published in 1851, a 23-word list recorded by Alcide d'Orbigny (1839),² and 400 or so words and phrases compiled by Georges de Crequi-Montfort and Paul Rivet (1913), as well as unpublished materials, including those gathered by Johann Natterer (152 words) and Fuß (25 words).⁴

It is said to be the only language with a numeral system based exclusively on five.⁶⁷

According to d'Orbigny, some of these numerals correspond to the words for fingers:²

He also gives an alternative word for 'thumb', nu-kaxi-axi-če.²

The Saraveka text collected by Weddell is presented below, with interlinear glosses provided by Crequi-Montfort and Rivet (1913).²