Chamicuro

Chamicuro is a nearly extinct language of Peru, spoken by the Chamicuro people in the Amazonian lowlands of the country. In recent decades the number of fluent speakers has dwindled to a small group of elderly individuals, and intergenerational transmission has largely ceased. The language is primarily associated with several riverine communities in the Peruvian Amazon, though precise settlements have shifted over time due to migration and population pressures. Spanish is now the dominant language in most Chamicuro households.

Classification: The genetic affiliation of Chamicuro is uncertain. It is commonly described as a language isolate, but a few scholars have proposed distant ties to other South American families, including Arawakan, Chapacuran, or unclassified macrofamilies. The scarcity of data means there is no widely accepted classification.

Documentation and status: Chamicuro has been sparsely documented. Early fieldwork produced word lists and brief grammars; later work has expanded some descriptive material but the overall corpus remains small. International sources such as Ethnologue and UNESCO classify the language as critically endangered, reflecting the very small speaker base and limited intergenerational use.

Preservation and resources: Efforts to document and preserve Chamicuro include linguistic fieldwork, archiving of recordings and texts, and occasional community initiatives to maintain vocabulary and oral storytelling. These efforts face resource constraints but contribute to language maintenance and potential revitalization.