Ecuadorian Siona is a Western Tucanoan language spoken by about 250 people in the Cuyabeno Reserve in Sucumbíos Province in the northeast of Ecuador, and by about 25 people in southern Colombia. In particular, it is spoken in the villages of Puerto Bolívar and Tarabëaya on the Cuyabeno river, and Sototsiaya, Orahuëaya, Aboquëhuira and Bi'aña on the Aguarico River. In Colombia it is spoken in Buenavista, Nuevo Amanecer and Mocoa.
Some children acquire Ecuadorian Siona at home, and speak nothing else until they go to school, where they are taught in Spanish. In other families, children are raised in Spanish, and is some areas, only people over 50 speak Ecuadorian Siona. As a result, it is considered an endangered language.
Speakers of Ecuadorian Siona call their language Ba̠icoca, which means "the language of the people". It is closely related to Colombian Siona and to Secoya, which are spoken in the same region. These three languages are more or less mutually intelligible, and are classified as part of the Baicoca-Siecoca or Siona-Secoya language cluster by some scholars.
A way to write Ecuadorian Siona with the Latin alphabet was developed in the 1950s by Maria and Orvilla Johnson, missionaries from the Summer Institute of Linguistics. They based their orthography on Spanish, and it is still used in Ecuador.
Download an alphabet chart for Ecuadorian Siona (Excel)
Sia’bai̠ aideo’yë goa’ye beoye gu̠i’ne sia’yë’quë maca bai’ye gu̠i’ne quëco baye co̠ni, ja̠je̠ goachase’sëte goa’ju̠i’ñe beoye ñese saiye bai’ji co̠caijë yequë bai̠reje.
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
(Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights)
Information about Ecuadorian Siona
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecuadorian Siona
https://cultureincrisis.org/projects/documenting-and-describing-ecuadorian-siona
https://www.elararchive.org/dk0184/
https://phondata.org/index.php/pda/article/view/44
Carapana, Cubeo, Desano, Guanano, Secoya, Siona (Colombian), Siona (Ecuadorian), Tucano, Tuyuca, Yurutí
Languages written with the Latin alphabet
Page created: 04.12.12. Last modified: 04.12.24
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