Betoi-Jirara, Sáliban, and Hod i: Relationships among Three Linguistic Lineages of the Mid-Orinoco Region

Abstract

Abstract:A significant number of lexical and grammatical similarities exist among three linguistic lineages of the mid-Orinoco region in Venezuela usually regarded as independent: Betoi-Jirara, an extinct isolate, the small Sáliban family, and Hod i, an isolate still actively spoken. While a genealogical connection of Sáliban and Hod i appears unfounded—the similarities here gathered are better attributed to contact than to genetic inheritance—a distant genealogical relationship between Betoi-Jirara and the Sáliban languages seems plausible, although the evidence is not conclusive. Perhaps due to the meagerness of the Betoi-Jirara corpus, the Betoi-Sáliban lexical resemblances are not particularly numerous, while several of their structural similarities seem to be mid-Orinoco regional traits or the result of contact.