Apiaká language
language
Apiaká is a recently extinct Tupi language of the Apiacá people of the upper Rio Tapajos area of Mato Grosso, Brazil. It has been supplanted by Portuguese, and only 3 people have some knowledge of the language.
Classification
The Apiaká language belongs to subgroup VI of the Tupi-Guarani languages. It is very close to Kagwahiva and may be a dialect of that language.
History
After coming into contact with the Neo-Brazilians, the Apiaca language changed with combined elements of the Lingua Geral, A Tupi-based trade jargon. Today, Portuguese or Munduruku are more widely spoken as opposed to the Apiaca language, though these people have always been known by the name "Apiaca."
All the Apiacá speak Portuguese and those married to members of the Munduruku and Kaiabi tribes speak their spouse's language fluently or have the ability to understand them fully. Although the Munduruku and Kaiabi languages and idioms are spoken on a day-to-day basis in the Apiaca villages, they are, however, limited to domestic spaces and informal conversations. The language used in formal conversations is Portuguese, due to contact with the Neo-Brazilians and Portuguese settlers. Although they cannot impose their own language on the co-resident Munduruku and Kaiabi people, due to such a small number of them who actually speak the Apiaca language, the Apiaca manage to impede the languages of these peoples from becoming the official languages in their villages. This allows Portuguese to function as an instrument of resistance employed by the Apiaca to prevent their cultural absorption by the Munduruku and Kaiabi tribes.
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This entry incorporates text from “Apiaká language” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.