Itonama language

Itonama
Itonama
sihni padara
Native to	Bolivia
Region	Beni Department
Ethnicity	2,900 Itonama people (2006)
Extinct	2012–2023
Language family	Language isolate
Writing system	Latin
Official status
Official language in	Bolivia
Language codes
ISO 639-3	ito
Glottolog	iton1250
ELP	Itonama
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Itonama (Itonama: sihnipadara '1PL.EXCL-word'^[2]) is an extinct language isolate once spoken by the Itonama people in the Amazonian lowlands of north-eastern Bolivia. It was spoken on the Itonomas River and Lake^[3] in Beni Department.

Geographic distribution

The Itonama have resided in their current area, corresponding to the current Mamoré and Iténez Provinces in Beni Department, since they were contacted by Spaniards in the 17th century. The last speakers of Itonama resided in the town of Magdalena, located on the western bank of the Itonama River (a tributary of the Iténez River), located in Iténez Province.^[2]

History

Hardly anything of the original Itonama culture remains today, as they have been Christian for the past 300 years. In 2023, only a few elderly people could remember a few words and phrases of the language in Magdalena, thereby rendering Itonama "virtually extinct". In spite of the fact that Itonama has no speakers, a total of 1,249 people claimed to speak the language in 2012.^[2]^: 483

Language contact

Marcelo Jolkesky (2016) identifies lexical similarities with the Nambikwaran languages, which he postulates is due to contact.^[4]

Classification

In his classification of South American languages, American ethnologist Daniel Garrison Brinton (1891) left Itonama unclassified,^[5] followed in this respect by Alexander Francis Chamberlain (1910, 1913)^[6]^[7] and classified as an isolate by Czech linguist Čestmír Loukotka (1968).^[8]^{: 164–165} However, Clements Markham (1910) classified the Itonama as a branch of the Arawakan Moxo,^[9]^: 166 and Loukotka's earlier 1935 classification identified influence from Arawakan languages.^[2] Morris Swadesh (1959, 1962) grouped Itonama with the Quechuan languages. Joseph Greenberg's 1987 classification in his book Language in the Americas grouped Itonama as a member of his universally rejected^[10] "Amerind" language family, within his "Chibchan-Paezan" subgroup.^[11]^[2]

Phonology

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
High	i	ɨ ⟨ï⟩	u
Mid	e ~ ɛ ⟨e⟩		o
Low		a ⟨a⟩

Diphthongs are /ai au/ ⟨ay aw⟩.^[2]

Consonants

		Bilabial	Alveolar	Post- alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal		m	n
Plosive/ Affricate	plain	p	t	tʃ ~ ts ⟨ch⟩	tʲ ⟨ty⟩	k ⟨k⟩	ʔ ⟨’⟩
	ejective		tʼ	tʃʼ ~ tsʼ ⟨chʼ⟩		kʼ ⟨kʼ⟩
	voiced	b	d
Fricative			s				h
Liquid	lateral		l
Liquid	rhotic		ɾ ⟨r⟩
Semivowel		w ~ β ⟨w⟩			j ⟨y⟩

The postalveolar affricates /tʃ tʃʼ/ have alveolar allophones [ts tsʼ]. Variation occurs between speakers, and even within the speech of a single person.

The semivowel /w/ is realized as a bilabial fricative [β] when preceded and followed by identical vowels.^[2]

Morphology

Itonama is a polysynthetic, head-marking, verb-initial language with an accusative alignment system along with an inverse subsystem in independent clauses, and straightforward accusative alignment in dependent clauses.

Nominal morphology lacks case declension and adpositions and so is simpler than verbal morphology (which has body-part and location incorporation, directionals, evidentials, verbal classifiers, among others).^[12]

Vocabulary

The forms cited here are from the Intercontinental Dictionary Series (IDS),^[13] which takes its data from Camp and Liccardi (1967).

gloss	Itonama (IDS)
one	u-kʼaʔne
two	-tʃupa
tooth	oh-womotʼe
tongue	oh-potʃosnila
hand	uh-maʔpara
woman	wabɨʔka
water	wanuʔwe
fire	u-bari
moon	u-ʔtʲahka-ʔkaʔka
maize	u-tʃuʔu, kanasbɨstʃa
house	u-ku

References

1 2 Itonama at Ethnologue (28th ed., 2025)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Crevels, Mily (2023-01-30), "11 Itonama", in Epps, Patience; Michael, Lev (eds.), Volume 1 Language Isolates I: Aikanã to Kandozi-Shapra: An International Handbook, De Gruyter Mouton, pp. 483–546, doi:10.1515/9783110419405-011, ISBN 978-3-11-041940-5, retrieved 2025-10-20
↑ Loukotka, Čestmír (1968). Classification of South American Indian languages. Los Angeles: UCLA Latin American Center.
↑ Jolkesky, Marcelo Pinho de Valhery (2016). Estudo arqueo-ecolinguístico das terras tropicais sul-americanas (Ph.D. dissertation) (2 ed.). Brasília: University of Brasília.
↑ Brinton, Daniel Garrison (1901). The American race: a linguistic classification and ethnographic description of the native tribes of North and South America. Robarts - University of Toronto. Philadelphia, D. McKay.
↑ Chamberlain, Alexander Francis (1910). "Sur quelques familles linguistiques peu connues ou presques inconnues de l'Amérique du Sud". Journal de la société des américanistes. 7 (1): 179–202. doi:10.3406/jsa.1910.3579.
↑ Chamberlain, Alexander F. (1913). "Linguistic Stocks of South American Indians, with Distribution - Map". American Anthropologist. 15 (2): 236–247. ISSN 0002-7294.
↑ Loukotka, Čestmír (1968). Wilbert, Johannes (ed.). Classification of South American Indian Languages (PDF) (4th ed.). Latin American Center, UCLA: Latin American Center, University of California Los Angeles. ISBN 9780879031077.
↑ Markham, Clements R. (1865). "A List of the Tribes in the Valley of the Amazon, Including Those on the Banks of the Main Stream, and of All Its Tributaries". Transactions of the Ethnological Society of London. 3: 140–196. doi:10.2307/3014163. ISSN 1368-0366.
↑ Campbell, Lyle (2024-06-25), "Distant Linguistic Relationships", The Indigenous Languages of the Americas (1 ed.), Oxford University PressNew York, pp. 339–387, doi:10.1093/oso/9780197673461.003.0006, ISBN 978-0-19-767346-1, retrieved 2026-05-22
↑ Greenberg, Joseph Harold (1987). Language in the Americas. Stanford, Calif: Stanford university press. ISBN 978-0-8047-1315-3.
↑ Crevels, Mily (October 2011). "Who Did What to Whom in Magdalena (Itonama)". International Journal of American Linguistics. 77 (4): 577–594. doi:10.1086/662157. ISSN 0020-7071.
↑ Key, Mary Ritchie (2023). Key, Mary Ritchie; Comrie, Bernard (eds.). "Itonama dictionary". Intercontinental Dictionary Series. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. Retrieved 2025-10-20.

Crevels, Mily (2002). "Itonama o Sihnipadara, Lengua no clasificada de la Amazonía Boliviana" (PDF). Estudios de Lingüística (in Spanish). 16.

External links

Sample of Itonama fragment
Lenguas de Bolivia Archived 2019-09-04 at the Wayback Machine (online edition)

[e28-1] 1 2 Itonama at Ethnologue (28th ed., 2025)

[crev23-2] 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Crevels, Mily (2023-01-30), "11 Itonama", in Epps, Patience; Michael, Lev (eds.), Volume 1 Language Isolates I: Aikanã to Kandozi-Shapra: An International Handbook, De Gruyter Mouton, pp. 483–546, doi:10.1515/9783110419405-011, ISBN 978-3-11-041940-5, retrieved 2025-10-20

[Loukotka-3] Loukotka, Čestmír (1968). Classification of South American Indian languages. Los Angeles: UCLA Latin American Center.

[Jolkesky-2016-4] Jolkesky, Marcelo Pinho de Valhery (2016). Estudo arqueo-ecolinguístico das terras tropicais sul-americanas (Ph.D. dissertation) (2 ed.). Brasília: University of Brasília.

[5] Brinton, Daniel Garrison (1901). The American race: a linguistic classification and ethnographic description of the native tribes of North and South America. Robarts - University of Toronto. Philadelphia, D. McKay.

[6] Chamberlain, Alexander Francis (1910). "Sur quelques familles linguistiques peu connues ou presques inconnues de l'Amérique du Sud". Journal de la société des américanistes. 7 (1): 179–202. doi:10.3406/jsa.1910.3579.

[7] Chamberlain, Alexander F. (1913). "Linguistic Stocks of South American Indians, with Distribution - Map". American Anthropologist. 15 (2): 236–247. ISSN 0002-7294.

[8] Loukotka, Čestmír (1968). Wilbert, Johannes (ed.). Classification of South American Indian Languages (PDF) (4th ed.). Latin American Center, UCLA: Latin American Center, University of California Los Angeles. ISBN 9780879031077.

[9] Markham, Clements R. (1865). "A List of the Tribes in the Valley of the Amazon, Including Those on the Banks of the Main Stream, and of All Its Tributaries". Transactions of the Ethnological Society of London. 3: 140–196. doi:10.2307/3014163. ISSN 1368-0366.

[10] Campbell, Lyle (2024-06-25), "Distant Linguistic Relationships", The Indigenous Languages of the Americas (1 ed.), Oxford University PressNew York, pp. 339–387, doi:10.1093/oso/9780197673461.003.0006, ISBN 978-0-19-767346-1, retrieved 2026-05-22

[11] Greenberg, Joseph Harold (1987). Language in the Americas. Stanford, Calif: Stanford university press. ISBN 978-0-8047-1315-3.

[12] Crevels, Mily (October 2011). "Who Did What to Whom in Magdalena (Itonama)". International Journal of American Linguistics. 77 (4): 577–594. doi:10.1086/662157. ISSN 0020-7071.

[13] Key, Mary Ritchie (2023). Key, Mary Ritchie; Comrie, Bernard (eds.). "Itonama dictionary". Intercontinental Dictionary Series. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. Retrieved 2025-10-20.

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