Alternate Names: Carib Motilón, Macoíta, Northern Motilón, Yuco, Yucpa, Yuko, Yupa
Dialects: Coyaima, Río Casacará (Iroka), Río Maracas, Yukpa sur (Caño Padilla-La Laguna). At least 5 extant dialects including 2 in Venezuela. Río Cascará and Río Maracas dialects are probably largest, and may be separate languages. Venezuela dialects seem more similar to Río Maracas. Unrelated to Barí ,. Lexical similarity: 60% with Japreria , of Venezuela (2008 W. Largo).
Genealogy:
Demographics: 3,000 in Colombia (2009 W. Largo). Population total all countries: 6,020. 600 monolinguals. Ethnic population: 3,530 (Arango Ochoa 1998).
Language Use: Vigorous. Inside protected areas the language is used all the time; outside those areas, it is only spoken when there are no outsiders present (Crevels 2007). Men use Spanish [spa] for buying and selling only.
Language Development: Literacy rate in L1: 50%. Literacy rate in L2: 70%. Taught in primary schools. New media. Dictionary.
Typology: SOV; postpositions; possessives and common nouns marked with prefixes, human gender with suffixes; up to 2 prefixes, 3 suffixes; clause constituents indicated by word order; verbal affixation marks person and number; non-ergative; both tense and aspect; passives and voice; 13 consonant and 5 vowel phonemes; nontonal.
Writing System: Latin
Nation of Origin: Colombia
Other Comments: Traditional religion.