A look at the rokorona language

Abstract

AbstractThis paper presents an analysis of the only remaining documentation of the Rokorona language, a collection of three prayers published in Teza (1868). First, a survey of the various mentions of Rokorona in the ethno-historical literature is presented, allowing for new insights into the original homeland of these people. Then, a number of phonological and grammatical features of the language are identified based on the texts. These features show that Rokorona displays a number of grammatical properties typical of Chapacuran languages, and when combined with the available lexical data, allow for the language to be definitively classified as such.