Language name and locationː Sapé, Bolivar State, Venezuela [Refer to Ethnologue]

语言名称和分布地区: 萨佩语, 委内瑞拉南部与巴西交界卡伦河和巴拉瓜河流域地区

1. koka

2. kiria

3. komoña

Linguist providing data and dateː Mr. Mark Rosenfelder, The Author of the website "Numbers from 1 to 10 in over 5000 languages", Chicago, USA, October 7 2023.

提供资料的语言学家: Mr. Mark Rosenfelder, 2023 年 10 月 7 日.

Other comments: Sapé, also called Kaliana or Caliana, is a language isolate traditionally spoken along the Karún and Upper Paragua rivers and their tributaries in the Bolivar State of Venezuela. While the Sapé have been a small group since their first mention in the historical record, the population has dwindled in the last few decades and as of 2011, only nine individuals self-identified as Sapé. The causes for this decrease are tied to intermarriages with larger groups in the area as well as to (introduced) diseases and, possibly, prior interethnic conflicts. Documentation of the language is scant but recent work has uncovered unpublished materials that might enrich the record. Fieldwork carried out in 2017 established that, in addition to two unconfirmed semi-speakers, there remained only one speaker of Sapé; it also expanded on previously-collected materials and gathered additional data. There may be other (semi-)speakers along the Karún River but this is still unconfirmed.

Venezuela. There were only about a few dozen speakers in the mid-1900s, and by the 2000s, only a few elderly speakers were found. Sapé may be a language isolate. Sape is one of the most poorly attested extant languages in South America, and there is no comprehensive linguistic description of the language other than scattered word lists. Word lists have been collected by Armellada & Matallana (1942), Migliazza (1978),Walter Coppens, and Francia Medina. There are unpublished field notebooks by Fèlix Cardona i Puig from the 1930s-1940s containing linguistic data of Sapé.[
Perozo et al. (2008: 175-176) was also able to collect 44 words and 5 short phrases from semi-speakers living in the Ninam villages of Boca de Ichún and Kavamaikén and the Pemon village of Karunkén in Venezuela. Some of the Sapé semi-speakers have since moved to Yuwapí Merú, a village located on the Middle Paragua. There may also be semi-speakers of Sapé living in the Pemon village of Venevené (Benebené, Veneveken). Sapé has recorded traditional numerals from 1 to 3 only.