User:Daniela marinp/Zaparo language

Záparo is a nearly extinct language spoken by the Sápara or Záparo people and is spoken in scattered areas of Ecuador and Peru. Záparo is also known as Zápara, Kayapwe, Kayapi, Záparo-Conambo, Sáparo-Konambo, and Sápara. It is one of the seven distinct Zaparoan languages and is the only Zaparoan language still spoken in Ecuador.

There are various answers of how many people still speak Záparo today with sources ranging from 1 native speaker, to about 20 native speakers , but the most consistent answer is that there are approximately 3 speakers in their nineties and in frail health. There are also thought to be around 5 semi-fluent speakers who can understand but not speak the language fluently since it is undocumented and quickly dying.

Záparo is culturally and orally very rich in regards to the extremely biodiverse environment the language thrived in. A lot of the vocabulary of Záparo is based of the Amazonian flora and fauna and other natural aspects. Sharing of the cultural was typically done through oral story-telling, myths, rituals, artistic practices, an the Záparo language itself.

History
The Záparo language could previously be found most in Ecuador and Peru, with most of its speakers extending from the Pastaza, Tigre an Napo Rivers, to the North of the Mañón River in the early seventeenth century. By 1850, there was about 20,000 speakers of Záparo. Towards the end of the nineteenth century, the Záparos had split into two groups and settled away from each other, barely communicating. The lack of communication, created distinct dialectal differences in the Záparo language.

At the beginning of the 20th century, Zaparos fell victims to the rubber boom. Rubber trees thrive in tropical climates, making the Amazon a prime spot to produce rubber, and as a result, many Amazonian indigenous groups were used as cheap labor and many were wiped out.

With the continuous scattering of the Záparo people, they had less availability to marry within ther ethnic group and began to intermarry into neighboring tribes adopting their culture and language.

The members of the Záparo ethnic group now primarily speak Quichua, though there is a language revival effort beginning where the remaining speakers are gathered and their conversations and oral narratives are recorded with the end goal being a Záparo-Spanish-Quichua Dictionary. This dictionary and archived audios of the language, will help enrich language and cultural activities within the Záparo people, including the revival of teaching Záparo, the language.

Phonology
Záparo phonology only consists of 4 vowels and 15 consonants.