Cuaiquer | |
---|---|
Awa Pit | |
Native to | Colombia, Ecuador |
Ethnicity | 15,000 Awa-Kwaiker (2007)[1] |
Native speakers | 13,000 (2008)[1] |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | kwi |
Glottolog | awac1239 |
ELP | Awa Pit |
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Located in the region of Colombia and Ecuador, the Awa or Awa Pit speaking people is an indigenous group settled between the Andes Mountains and the Western Coast. Awa Pit or otherwise known as Cuaiquer (Coaiquer, Cuayquer, Kwaiker, Kwayquer, etc.), in both group and name, is classified as part of the Barbacoan language.[2] Another term that this group goes by is the "Inkal Awa" or "the mountain people", to distinguish themselves from other indigenous groups within that region.[2] Awa pit is classified by UNESCO as a severely endangered language.[3] The Awa pit language has a subject–object–verb structure and has adopted the Latin script.[4] Grammatically, Awa pit uses a characteristic conjunct/disjunct system of verb suffixes for person-marking which displays similarities with some Tibeto-Burman languages, such as the Newari language of Kathmandu.[2][5][6]