On the Pre-Columbian Origin of Proto-Omagua-Kokama

Abstract

Cabral (1995, 2007, 2011) and Cabral and Rodrigues (2003) established that Kokama and Omagua, closely-related indigenous languages spoken in Peruvian and Brazilian Amazonia, emerged as the result of intense language contact between speakers of a Tupí-Guaraní language and speakers of non-Tupí-Guaraní languages. Cabral (1995Cabral ( , 2007 further argued that the language contact which led to the development of Kokama and Omagua transpired in the late 17th and early 18th centuries, in the Jesuit mission settlements located in the provincia de Maynas (corresponding roughly to modern northern Peruvian Amazonia). In this paper I argue that Omagua and Kokama were not the product of colonial-era language contact, but were rather the outcome of language contact in the Pre-Columbian period. I show that a close examination of 17th and 18th century missionary chronicles, Jesuit texts written in Omagua and Kokama, and modern data on these languages, make it clear that Omagua and Kokama already existed in a form similar to their modern forms by the time European missionaries arrived in Maynas in the 17th century. Moreover, I show that several key claims regarding ethnic mixing and Jesuit language policy that Cabral adduces in favor of a colonial-era origin for Kokama are not supported by the available historical materials. Ruling out a colonial-era origin for Omagua and Kokama, I conclude that Proto-OmaguaKokama, the parent language from which Omagua and Kokama derive, was a PreColumbian contact language.

The genomic landscape of western South America: Andes, Amazonia and Pacific Coast

“…2A). Archaeological and ethnohistorical evidence indicates that the ancestors of the Cocama and Omagua were widespread in pre-Columbian times, inhabiting large stretches of the Amazon Basin and several of its upper tributaries 65,66 .…”

La arqueología del río Napo: noticias recientes y desafíos futuros

“…Incluidos aquí están los Omagua-Yeté ('Omagua verdaderos'), que mantenían asentamientos más permanentes entre las desembocaduras de los ríos Coca y Aguarico a lo largo del río Napo (Chaumeil & Fraysse-Chaumeil 1981;) y los habitantes de Aparia la Menor, una aldea registrada por Gaspar de Carvajal (2011Carvajal ( [1542) en el curso medio del río Napo. Estos grupos tendrían un sustrato lingüístico común con los Omaguas del río Amazonas (la Aparia Mayor de Carvajal 2011de Carvajal [1542), con los Cocama de la cuenca del Ucayali, con los Cocamillas del río Huallaga, y con grupos Yurimaguas del río Solimões (Michael 2014). Durante el siglo XVIII los Omagua del Amazonas occidental fueron diezmados por la acción misionera, el esclavismo, y las epidemias (Myers 1989), en tanto que los Omaguas-Yeté del río Napo (probablemente los de 'cabezas chatas' que Laureano de la Cruz (1900 [1653], p. 77) menciona aguas arriba de la boca del río Aguarico), acabaron refugiándose en las cabeceras de los tributarios del Napo ecuatoriano (Oberem 1967-8).…”

A Bayesian Phylogenetic Classification of Tupí-Guaraní

“…Some TG varieties exhibit significant mutual intelligibility; others, in contrast, diverge from the typical TG grammatical profile, as in the case of Kokama-Kokamilla (Cabral 1995), Omagua (Michael 2014), Aché , and Xetá (Rodrigues 1978).…”