El Diccionario Vivo Itonama contiene grabaciones de una de las últimas hablantes itonama, la señora Candelaria Huacama Hualasua. Estas grabaciones fueron realizadas en 2022 por Mariana Huasanilla con el apoyo de Eugenio Osagie del Proyecto Inversor Amazónico, una organización sin fines de lucro en Bolivia. 

Este proyecto cuenta con el soporte técnico del Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages en los Estados Unidos. La entrada de los datos fue realizada por la etnolingüista Anna Luisa Daigneault y su asistente de investigación Valeria Macías. Daigneault y Macías también incluyeron palabras itonamas que se encuentran en el Diccionario IDS para Itonama, y tradujeron las glosas al español para que las palabras sean útiles para los esfuerzos de revitalización de la comunidad Itonama.

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The Itonama Living Dictionary contains recordings by one of the last Itonama speakers, Mrs. Candelaria Huacama Hualasua. These recordings were made in 2022 by Mariana Huasanilla with the support of Eugenio Osagie of the Proyecto Inversor Amazónico, a non-profit organization in Bolivia.

This project is supported by the Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages in the United States. Data entry was done by linguistic anthropologist Anna Luisa Daigneault and her research assistant Valeria Macias. Daigneault and Macías also included Itonama words found in the IDS Dictionary for Itonama, and translated the glosses into Spanish so that the words would be useful for Itonama community revitalization efforts.
 

INFO

This dictionary is a collaboration between:

Living Tongues Institute for Endangered languages (a nonprofit in the US)

Proyecto Inversor Amazónico (a nonprofit in Bolivia)

The Itonama people (an indigenous community located in the Bolivian Amazon)

 

Itonama language info:

Location of speakers: https://goo.gl/maps/mDM22FZrjgxbuxAn7

Number of fluent speakers left: 2

Indigenous Itonama people: approx 6,000 people identify as Itonama

More info in Spanish available here.

 

Why is this language important to document?

Itonama is an under-studied language isolate, meaning that there is little documentation available, and there are no other languages related to Itonama that are known to exist. There are only two native fluent speakers left (see names below), which makes the situation all the more urgent. There are, however, excellent efforts underway to revitalize this language in local schools in Magdalena. There are young people interested in using it in their daily lives. The first-ever Itonama Living Dictionary will assist in bringing this language online, and making information accessible to people who need it. 

 

Fluent Speakers of Itonama

Name: Candelaria Huacama Hualasua

Age: 65 (estimated)

Location: near town of Magdalena, Department of Beni, Bolivia 

 

Name: Simona Sejas Huatiya 

Age: 80 (estimated)

Location: near town of Magdalena, Department of Beni, Bolivia 

 

Semi-speaker (partial fluency)

Mariana Huasanilla Cabao

Age: 75

Location: Magdalena, Department of Beni, Bolivia 

 

Process of documentation

Based on word lists provided by Living Tongues, Mariana Huasanilla Cabao used her mobile phone to make audio recordings of last speaker Mrs. Candelaria Huacama Hualasua in 2022. She sent the audio recordings to Anna Luisa Daigneault at Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages (a nonprofit in the US) and Gene Osagie at Proyecto Inversor Amazónico (a nonprofit in Bolivia) using Whatsapp on her phone. Daigneault and her team of assistants have been painstakingly processing the data and editing the Itonama words one by one, as well as working on translations and transcriptions. Throughout this process, community feedback is done via Whatsapp to answer questions about the Itonama words and verify spelling and other issues. Daigneault then uploads the words and corresponding segmented audio files  for community use in the Itonama Living Dictionary. 

 

Questions & Answers about this project, and links to climate change
 

Do the two last speakers know each other?

Yes, Candelaria and Simona know each other very well and they communicate in Itonama with each other.

Do they live close to one another? 

They live at opposite ends of a Bolivian town named Magdalena, which is quite spread out, so they are a little bit far from each other, but can get in touch.

Are climate effects being felt by the Itonama? Is deforestation an issue? 

Cattle ranchers are causing major deforestation in the region to make areas for cattle grazing. This results in drought that affects plants and animals, and the drying out of the local lands that the Itonama depend on for cultivation. When the cattle ranchers raze trees to the ground and plant grass for cattle to graze upon, the Itonama are left with no cultivation zones for their own crops. They used to rely on hunting as well, but cattle ranching has decimated the species that they traditionally used to hunt.

Are there any wildfires nearby?

In the nearby town of Bella Vista, there were wildfires in 2022. The smoke from wildfires spreads throughout the region and pollutes the air that people breathe. It is known that local indigenous people are experiencing health problems as a result of air pollution.\