Jaikó language

Jaikó (Jeicó, Jeikó, Yeico, Geico, Eyco, Zyeikó) is an extinct language of southeastern Piauí, Brazil, known only from a 19th-century wordlist with interference from neighboring languages. It is considered a Macro-Jê language, but not always in the Jê language branch.

Classification

Based on a 67-word list from the early 19th century in von Martius (1867, v. 2, p. 143), it appears to be a Jê language.

However, Ramirez et al. (2015: 260–261) doubts the accuracy of von Martius' list, and notes that the word list may actually consist of a wide mixture of languages spoken in Piauí, including from Pimenteira (Cariban) and Masakará (Kamakã). Nevertheless, Nikulin (2020) still finds convincing evidence that Jaikó was a Macro-Jê language, but does not consider it to be within the Jê branch. At least 13 words from Martius' wordlist belong to a Macro-Jê language.

Loukotka (1968) lists some other languages, all unattested, supposedly spoken in Piauí and Pernambuco states and related to Jaikó.

• Eastern Timbirá – once spoken in the state of Piauí between the Itaim and Parnaíba Rivers.
• Aruá – once spoken in Piauí state between the Itaim and Jaguariba Rivers.
• Pontá – once spoken on an island in the São Francisco River near the city of Quebrobó, Pernambuco state; Portuguese is now spoken.

Geographical distribution

Jaikó was spoken around the aldeia (village) of Cajueiro, located in what is now southeastern Piauí state. The name is derived from the town of Jaicós, which was located in the Jaikó people's territory around the Canindé River and Gurgueia River.

Vocabulary

The full Geicó word list from von Martius (1867), with both the original Latin glosses and translated English glosses, is reproduced below.

References