Saraveca language

Saraveca
Sarave
Saraveca
Native to	Bolivia
Region	Eastern lowlands
Ethnicity	Sarave(ca)
Extinct	after 2000 possibly some rememberers
Language family	Arawakan Southern ? Paresí–Xingu Paresí Saraveca
Language codes
ISO 639-3	sar
Glottolog	sara1331
ELP	Saraveca

Saraveca is an extinct Arawakan language once spoken in Bolivia by the Sarave.^[1][2] By 1962, most people has switched to Chiquitano.^[3]

Numbers

It is said^[4][5] to be the only language with a numeral system based exclusively on five, although quinary systems exist. To some extent this is also an areal feature of other South American languages; many form their numbers 6–9 as "five + one", "five + two" and so on.

Saraveca numerals^[1]

Number	Saraveca
one	atia
two	iñama
three	anahama
four	azarakapa
five	ara-piaiče

References

1. de Créqui-Montfort, G.; Rivet, P. (1913). "Linguistique Bolivienne. La Langue Saraveka". Journal de la Société des américanistes. 10: 497–540. ISSN 0037-9174.
2. Danielsen, Swintha (January 2013). "Evaluating historical data (wordlists) in the case of bolivian extinct languages". STUF - Language Typology and Universals. 66 (3). doi:10.1524/stuf.2013.0014. ISSN 2196-7148.
3. Saraveca language at Ethnologue (17th ed., 2013)
4. Wells, David (1997). The Penguin Dictionary of Curious and Interesting Numbers. Penguin UK. p. 60. ISBN 978-0-14-026149-3.
5. "Numerals and numeral systems | Examples & Symbols | Britannica". www.britannica.com. Retrieved 2025-01-01.