Chimane language

Chimane
Tsimané
Spoken in	Bolivia
Region	western Amazon
Native speakers	5,320  (2000)
Language family	Moseten–Chonan ? Chimane
Dialects	Tsimané (90%) Santa Ana Mosetén Covendo Mosetén
Language codes
ISO 639-3	cas

Chimané (Tsimané), also known as Mosetén, is a language of the western Bolivian lowlands spoken by the Moseten and Tsimane peoples along the Beni River. Sometimes classified as two languages, they reportedly have no trouble communicating (Ethnologue 16), and were evidently a single language separated recently through cultural contact (Campbell 2000).

Classification

Tsimane has no obvious relatives among the languages of South America. There is some lexicon shared with Puquina and the Uru–Chipaya languages, but these appear to be borrowings. Morris Swadesh suggested a Moseten–Chon relationship, which Suárez provided evidence for in the 1970s, and with which Kaufman (1990) is sympathetic.

References

• Adelaar, Wilhem (2004). The Languages of the Andes. Cambridge University Press. 
• Sakel, Jeanette (2003). A Grammar of Mosetén (Thesis). University of Nijmegen.