Yine ( 'Yine people's language') is a Maipurean language spoken in Peru by about 4,000 people.

Names

Yine is also called Chontaquiro, Pira, Piro, Pirro, Simiranch, or Simirinche. The name Mashco, a derogatory name for the linguistically unrelated Harakmbut, has sometimes been incorrectly applied to the Yine and other similar groups, such as the Mashco Piro. The name Piro is apparently derived from a Panoan-language name for a species of Megalodoras catfish.

Classification

The Manchineri who live in Brazil (Acre) and reportedly also in Bolivia speak Machinere, which may be a dialect of Yine, though the Yine are reported to require a month of practice before they can communicate with the Machinere. A vocabulary of a language labeled Canamaré is "so close to Piro [Yine] as to count as Piro", but has been a cause of confusion with the unrelated Kanamarí language. Yine belongs to the Piro group which also includes the nearly extinct Iñapari and Apurinã. The Kuniba language is a "co-dialect" of Yine.

Varieties

Varieties of Piro (Yine):

• Chontaquiro (Simirinche, Upatarinavo): Ucayali River

• Manchineri (Manatinavo): Purus River

• Kushichineri (Kuxiti-neri, Kujigeneri, Cusitinavo): upper Purus River in Peru (in 1886, spoken on the Curumahá River or Curanja River, and probably also on the Cujar River)

• Kuniba (Kunibo): Juruá River

• Katukina: Juruá River. Documented by Natterer (1833). Not to be confused with the unrelated Katukina language.

• Canamare (Canamirim, Canamary): Iaco River, a tributary of the Purus River. Documented by Spix (1819). Not to be confused with the unrelated Kanamarí language.

• Mashco-Piro: Madre de Dios River

Demographics

As of 2000, essentially all of the 4,000 ethnic Yine people speak the language.

Geographical distribution

They live in the Ucayali and Cusco Departments, near the Ucayali River, and near the Madre de Dios River in the Madre de Dios Region in Peru.

Phonology

Vowels

Vowels are phonetically nasalized after .

Consonants

is phonetically nasalized. /w/ becomes a bilabial approximant before a close vowel. /n/ assimilates to before /k/. /ɾ/ can be trilled when in word-initial position. The palatal stop varies in articulation between a stop and an affricate.

Writing system

Literacy is comparatively high. A dictionary has been published in the language and the language is taught alongside Spanish in some Yine schools.

Syntax

Piro has an active–stative syntax.

Notes

Further reading

References

• Matteson, Esther. (1965). The Piro (Arawakan) language. University of California Publications in Linguistics, 42. Berkeley y Los Angeles: University of California Press. (Es la tesis para doctorado presentada en 1963 a la University of California, Los Angeles.)

• Nies, Joyce, compilador. (1986). Diccionario piro (Tokanchi gikshijikowaka-steno). Serie Lingüística Peruana, 22. Yarinacocha: Ministerio de Educación and Instituto Lingüístico de Verano.

• Parker, Stephen. (1989). "Un análisis métrico del acento en el piro". Estudios etno-lingüísticos, Stephen Parker (ed.), pp.114–125. Documento de trabajo 21. Yarinacocha, Pucallpa: Ministerio de Educación e Instituto Lingüístico de Verano.

• Solís Fonseca, Gustavo. (2003). Lenguas en la amazonía peruana. Lima: edición por demanda.

• Urquía Sebastián, Rittma. (2006). Yine. , ed. Stephen A. Marlett. Lima: SIL International and Universidad Ricardo Palma.

• Urquía Sebastián, Rittma and Wagner Urquía Sebastián. (2009).