Project summary

The project documents the Baure language group with its three dialects: Baure, Carmelito, and Joaquiniano, spoken in the Bolivian Amazonia. Data were collected for a preceding project from 2003 till 2006 and incorporated to the archive. From 2007 till 2013 the current documentation project is collecting data.

The archive contains audio and video data, historical written data, and current and historical images. The language data are annotated in Toolbox and/or Elan. Furthermore, the doctoral dissertation by Danielsen (2007) on the Baure grammar, the dissertation “Von Geistern, Steinen und anderen Leuten: Das Weltbild der Baure im boivianischen Tiefland” (Ghosts, stones, and other people: The worlds view of the Baure in the Bolivian lowlands) by Franziska Riedel (2012), the MA thesis on the Baure nominal classifier system by Lena Terhart (2010), and a number of research articles are available. The project also developed language learning materials in books and digital form.

The Documentation Team

The PI of the project is Swintha Danielsen. Researchers in the team are Franziska Riedel, Femmy Admiraal, Lena Terhart and some more student assistants. Read more …

List of language materials for the Baure communities

2010 El idioma de los Joaquinianos. Booklet of the Baure project; Swintha Danielsen.

2010 Chinepinev − Cuentos de los Baure; book with Baure songs and stories, illustrated by students of two arts’ colleges in Berlin; (together with the Baure team: Danielsen, Terhart, Admiraal, Riedel, Sell)

2011 El Carmen del Iténez: Monografía de un pueblo beniano. Santa Cruz: APCOB; Gilmar Vidal Céspedez & Danielsen, Swintha.

2011 Baure-Spanish memory game: play to learn; bilingual memory game with matching cards in Baure and Spanish, based on children’s drawings (funded by the Endangered Language Fund), Femmy Admiraal.

2012 Shi vikarow to vekori – Libro de enseñanza del idioma baure. Santa Cruz: APCOB; Baure language course book for primary school children (funded by the Foundation for Endangered Languages), Femmy Admiraal, Katja Leichsnering, Frank Landsbergen.

2012 Reviving voices of the past: Baure audio teaching materials; audio CD accompanying the Baure course book (funded by the Alice Cozzi Heritage Language Foundation), Femmy Admiraal.

in prep. Tiow te nowoyikwon to nen anenev – Historia y cultura de los Baure; course book for primary school children on Baure history and culture (funded by National Geographic’s Genographic Legacy Fund), Femmy Admiraal, Franziska Riedel.