What is it about?
Taruma is a very endangered language whose speakers also speak Wapishana, an unrelated language. In these languages, there are grammatical constructions to signal purpose which resemble each other somewhat on the surface but actually differ considerably from each other.
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Why is it important?
The grammatical systems of the world's languages are incredibly diverse, but many languages remain understudied. This is a small contribution to our knowledge of one grammatical topic, the expression of purpose, in two languages that are unrelated but spoken in the same village. It is also the first foray into a grammatical description of Taruma.
Perspectives
Given the prognosis that around half the world's languages will disappear in the coming decades, which will result in the loss of knowledge and cultural heritage, I feel very lucky that I got the opportunity to work with the Taruma speakers on a PhD project aiming to document and describe their language. This is my first publication of an aspect of Taruma grammar, and I hope that this showcase will draw some attention to the importance of documenting and describing endangered languages.
Anna Serke
Radboud Universiteit
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Nominal purposive constructions in Wapishana and Taruma, Nota Bene, October 2025, John Benjamins,
DOI: 10.1075/nb.00041.ser.
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