A Study of Verbs in Southern Amazonian Bakairi (original) (raw)

Bakairi is a language spoken in 12 tribes in the Southern Amazonia, The language is divided in two dialectal groups: Pakuera Bakairi, the Eastern speakers who have already devised a writing system; and a Western group (Bakairi de Santana), of more than 300 speakers. These two groups live some 150 kilometers apart separated by jungles, rivers and mountains. Neither dialect has had any formal documentation of their grammar. The authors wish to remedy this situation by describing how this Carib language typifies verbs. In an environment where they do not possess Western notions of hours, days of week, years as we normalize our lives, the Bakairi clarify indispensable cultural notions in highly agglutinative verbal paradigms.