Dzubukuá language: Difference between revisions

Extinct Karirian language of Brazil

Dzubukuá (or Kariri), referred to by the community as Kariri-Xocó,^[3] is an extinct Karirian language of Brazil. It is sometimes considered a dialect of a single Kariri language. Since 1989, there is a process of linguistic revitalization underway; the Tingui-Botó people claim to use Dzubukuá, their ancestral language, in their secret Ouricuri ritual.^[4]

It was spoken on the São Francisco River islands, in the Cabrobó area of Pernambuco.^{[page needed]}

There are only two known primary sources containing the Dzubukuá language. One is a manuscript dated 1702,^[a] and the other is a 1709 catechism,^[b] both by the French Capuchin missionary Bernardo de Nantes. In the preface of the catechism, Nantes attests to the distinction between the way the Dzubukuá and Kipeá speak (“One language is as different from the other as Portuguese is from Castilian“).