The Huaorani language, commonly known as Sabela (also Wao, Huao, Auishiri, Aushiri, Ssabela ; autonym: Wao Terero; pejorative: Auka, Auca) is a language isolate

Language isolate

A language isolate, in the absolute sense, is a natural language with no demonstrable genealogical relationship with other languages; that is, one that has not been demonstrated to descend from an ancestor common with any other language. They are in effect language families consisting of a single...

 spoken by the Huaorani

Huaorani

The Huaorani, Waorani or Waodani, also known as the Waos, are native Amerindians from the Amazonian Region of Ecuador who have marked differences from other ethnic groups from Ecuador. The alternate name Auca is a pejorative exonym used by the neighboring Quechua Indians, and commonly adopted by...

 people, an indigenous

Indigenous peoples

Indigenous peoples are ethnic groups that are defined as indigenous according to one of the various definitions of the term, there is no universally accepted definition but most of which carry connotations of being the "original inhabitants" of a territory....

 group living in the Amazon Rainforest

Amazon Rainforest

The Amazon Rainforest , also known in English as Amazonia or the Amazon Jungle, is a moist broadleaf forest that covers most of the Amazon Basin of South America...

  between the Napo

Napo River

The Napo is a tributary to the Amazon River that rises in Ecuador on the flanks of the volcanoes of Antisana, Sincholagua and Cotopaxi.The total length of 1075 km. Catchment area of ​​100,518 square kilometers...

 and Curaray River

Curaray River

The Curaray River is a river in eastern Ecuador and is part of the Amazon River basin. The land along the river is home to several indigenous people groups including the Quechua and Huaorani...

s. A small number of speakers with so-called uncontacted groups may live in Peru

Peru

Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....

.

Phonology

Syllable structure is V and CV, with frequent vowel clusters.

p	t		k
b	d~ɾ	ɟ~j	ɡ
m	n	ɲ	ŋ
w

i
e	ɵ~o~ɣ
æ	a

ĩ
ẽ	ɵ̃~õ~ɣ̃
æ̃	ã

Regional variation

Huaorani has 3 varieties

Variety (linguistics)

In sociolinguistics a variety, also called a lect, is a specific form of a language or language cluster. This may include languages, dialects, accents, registers, styles or other sociolinguistic variation, as well as the standard variety itself...

:

1. Tiguacuna (also known as Tiwakuna)
2. Tuei (also known as Tiwi Tuei, Tiwi)
3. Shiripuno

Genetic relations

Various hypothetical groupings have included Huaorani:

• Terrence Kaufman
  Terrence Kaufman
  Terrence Kaufman is an American linguist specializing in documentation of unwritten languages, Mesoamerican historical linguistics and language contact phenomena. He is currently a professor at the department of anthropology at the University of Pittsburgh....
  
  's Yawan
  Saparo–Yawan languages
  Saparo–Yawan is a language family proposal uniting two small language families of the western Amazon. It was first proposed by Swadesh , and continues through Payne and Kaufman ....
  
   proposal
• Joseph Greenberg
  Joseph Greenberg
  Joseph Harold Greenberg was a prominent and controversial American linguist, principally known for his work in two areas, linguistic typology and the genetic classification of languages.- Early life and career :...
  
  's Andean grouping
• Morris Swadesh
  Morris Swadesh
  Morris Swadesh was an influential and controversial American linguist. In his work, he applied basic concepts in historical linguistics to the Indigenous languages of the Americas...
  
  's Macro-Jíbaro
  Macro-Jibaro
  The Macro-Jibaro proposal, also known as Andean, is a language proposal of Morris Swadesh and other historical linguists. The two families, Jivaroan and Cahuapanan are most frequently linked, the isolates less often. Documentation of Urarina is underway as of 2006, but Puelche and Huarpe are extinct...
  
  
• Jorge Suárez
  Jorge Suarez
  Jorge "Calero" Suárez was a former Salvadoran footballer. He is considered to be one of the best goalkeepers El Salvador has ever produced....
  
  's Hívaro–Kawapana
  Macro-Jibaro
  The Macro-Jibaro proposal, also known as Andean, is a language proposal of Morris Swadesh and other historical linguists. The two families, Jivaroan and Cahuapanan are most frequently linked, the isolates less often. Documentation of Urarina is underway as of 2006, but Puelche and Huarpe are extinct...
  
  

External links

• Entry for Huaorani at Rosetta Project
• Lengua Sabela
• Huaorani - Spanish Dictionary
• Waorani language dictionary online from IDS (select simple or advanced browsing)