Yine language

Yine is also called Chontaquiro, Pira, Piro, Pirro, Simiranch, or Simirinche. The name Mashco, a derogatory name for the linguistically unrelated Harakmbut, has sometimes been incorrectly applied to the Yine and other similar groups, such as the Mashco Piro.^[2] The name Piro is apparently derived from a Panoan-language name for a species of Megalodoras catfish.^[1]

The Manchineri who live in Brazil (Acre) and reportedly also in Bolivia speak Machinere, which may be a dialect of Yine,^[3][4] though the Yine are reported to require a month of practice before they can communicate with the Machinere.^[5] A vocabulary of a language labeled Canamaré is "so close to Piro [Yine] as to count as Piro", but has been a cause of confusion with the unrelated Kanamarí language.^[6] Yine belongs to the Piro group which also includes the nearly extinct Iñapari and Apurinã.^[3] The Kuniba language is a "co-dialect" of Yine.^{[7][8][9][10]}

Varieties of Piro (Yine):^[11]: 244

• Chontaquiro (Simirinche, Upatarinavo): Ucayali River
• Manchineri (Manatinavo): Purus River
• Kushichineri (Kuxiti-neri, Kujigeneri, Cusitinavo): upper Purus River in Peru (in 1886, spoken on the Curumahá River or Curanja River, and probably also on the Cujar River)
• Kuniba (Kunibo): Juruá River
• Katukina: Juruá River. Documented by Natterer (1833). Not to be confused with the unrelated Katukina language.
• Canamare (Canamirim, Canamary): Iaco River, a tributary of the Purus River. Documented by Spix (1819). Not to be confused with the unrelated Kanamarí language.
• Mashco-Piro: Madre de Dios River

As of 2000, essentially all of the 4,000 ethnic Yine people speak the language.^[12]

They live in the Ucayali and Cusco Departments, near the Ucayali River, and near the Madre de Dios River in the Madre de Dios Region in Peru.^[12]

Literacy is comparatively high. A dictionary has been published in the language and the language is taught alongside Spanish in some Yine schools.^[12]

Piro has an active–stative syntax.^[14]