The Vaupes Melting Pot: Tucanoan Influence on Hup

Abstract The Vaupe´s region of the Brazilian and Colombian Amazon is relatively well established as a linguistic area, characterized by considerable indirect diffusion of grammatical categories and patterns, but little direct borrowing of forms (cf. Sorensen 1967; Gomez-Imbert 1996; Aikhenvald 1996, 2002: ch. 10). To date, most of the discussion regarding the ffaupe´s area has focused on the contact that has taken place among languages of the East Tucanoan and Arawak families (particularly Tariana). This contact has been shaped by the cultural practice of linguistic exogamy, which fosters sociolinguistic norms of multilingualism on the one hand, and strong inhibitions against overt language mixing on the other.