Multilingualism in the Northwest Amazon1

In the central Northwest Amazon, straddling the Brazilian‐Colombian border, there is a complex linguistic situation involving more than 25 linguistic groups with a homogeneous culture. Almost every individual knows fluently three, four, or more languages. Only the Makú and the few non‐Indians are monolingual. There are four linguae francae, but only tribal Tukano, doubling as a lingua franca, covers the entire area. The principal reason for this complexity is the insistence on tribal exogamy and the cultural identification of language with tribe. Consequently, a child begins with a personal linguistic repertoire of fluency in his mother's language as well as in his father's; to this he adds a knowledge of other languages in his vicinity. Contact with civilized people for 75 years has not significantly altered this linguistic situation, and periodic attempts to prohibit Indian languages have failed. The political boundary, which separates Portuguese speakers from Spanish speakers, reinforces the linguistic complex, for only Tukano, as a lingua franca, covers the entire culture area. Polylingualism in the individual, rather than monolingualism, is the cultural norm.