Betoi

Betoi was once spoken by a people of the same name who located in an area of the extensive region of the llanos of the Orinoco, bounded on the south by the Sarare River and on the north by the Uribante. The area is today included in the western extremity of the Apure State of Venezuela not far from the border of that country with Colombia. Betoi is a dialect of an extinct language (an isolate) spoken at contact in the same area and along the nearby Arauca River by numerous other tribes and peoples.
The author's intention with this brief monograph is to present for Betoi all the knowledge that he has been able to gather from all of its surviving material. The present work therefore includes chapters on phonology, morphology, and syntax, as well as the two available texts (with morphemic analysis), and a word list. The introductory chapter deals with the sources attesting Betoi and the socio- and geolinguistic situations. In this chapter, one can also find a discussion on Betoi co-dialects. (Also see the abstract of Maipure by Raoul Zamponi in the LINCOM webshop).