The Tanimuca (Ũ'páirã or Yairĩmarã) and Letuama (Rétuarã or Wejeñe'memajã) are two exogamous patrilineal descent groups with privileged affinal relationships. They live in the south east of Colombia, mainly on the banks of the bottom of the Apaporis River, its tributary the Popeyaká, the bottom of Mirití-Paraná and its tributary the Caño Guacayá.
The Tanimuca and Letuama speak the same language belonging to the Tucanoan language family, but with some minor dialectal variations, which depends on the settlement area and other Arawakan and Tucanoan groups with whom they have exogamous relationships.
The Tanimuca population is estimated at around 300 individuals, and Letuama population is less than 200 individuals. Tanimuca have more affinal relationships with Yucuna-speaking population on Mirití-Paraná and Caño Guacayá than Letuama. Despite the fact that the Tanimuca and Letuama belong to the different language families, some words are sometimes similar in both languages.
Relatively little studies had been done on the Tanimuca language. Today, its classification within Tucanoan languages is still under debate. Some authors classify it in the western branch (Key, 1979: 120; Ruhlen, 1987: 372), others in the central branch (Storm 1992: 1), and others in the eastern branch (Eraso, 2006: 161; Ardila, 2000: 495).
Among the most interesting works regarding the Tanimuca-Letuama language, there are a phonology and a lexicology (Gaviria and Azcárate, 1979), a morphological study (Robayo, 1981), a general study of Letuama syntax (Strom, 1992), various works about the grammar and lexicon (Eraso, 1995; 1999; 2005; 2013; 2015), several educational publications to teach writing (SIL 1987; letuama et al 1993; Eraso et al., 1996; Fontaine, 2015), and a working paper made during a workshop of unification of the Tanimuca-Letuama alphabet (Puerto Guayabo, 2000).
Few works had also been done on the Tanimuca and Letuama ethnography. Nevertheless, we know that they live by hunting, fishing, horticulture and gathering (Von Hildebrand, 1979; 1987a), like other Tukanoan groups, and as the Yucuna-speaking Indians, with whom they share many cultural traits and have close affinal exogamous relationships (especially with Kamejeya and Jupichiya; Jacopin, 1972: 109-110). The Tanimuca and Letuama don’t practice all exogamy; they are also known for their endogamy (Von Hildebrand, 1987b).
ERASO Natalia
1995 La palabra verbal en la lengua tanimuca, Thèse - magister, CCELA, Université de los Andes, Bogotá.
1999 “Cambios tonales en la palabra verbal”, in Congreso de lingüistica amerindia y criolla, 6/1, Landaburu, J. & Rojas Curieux, T. (eds), Universidad de los Andes-CCELA, Lenguas aborígenes de Colombia. Memorias, Editorial Artes Ltda. Bogota, pp. 72-95.
2005 “Expresión de nociones espaciales de localización en tanimuka (lengua de la Amazonía colombiana)”, in Expresión de nociones espaciales en lenguas amazónicas , Ospina Bozzi, A. (ed), Instituto Caro y Cuervo. Bogotá, Instituto Caro y Cuervo, Universidad Nacional de Colombia.
2015 Gramática tanimuka, una lengua de la Amazonía colombiana, Thesis, Université Lumière Lyon 2, Lyon. (limited access).
ERASO Natalia, TANIMUCA Jorge, TANIMUCA Valerio
1996 “Yaimãjá ñẽ́’kí mãkarã́. CCELA, Universidad de los Andes. Bogotá. 31 p.
FONTAINE Laurent
2015 “Introduction à la langue et à l'écriture des Indiens tanimuca et letuama”, Collection Pangloss du Lacito. (online).
JACOPIN Pierre-Yves
1979 "Habitat et territoire yukuna", Journal de la Société des Américanistes, Vol. 61, p. 107-139. (online)
GAVIRIA Sofía Victoria, AZCÁRATE Luis José
1979 Fonología y lexicología de la lengua tanimuca. Universidad de los Andes, Facultad de Artes y Ciencias, Departamento de Antropología, Bogotá, 290 p.
KEY Mary Ritchie
1979 The grouping of South American Indian languages. Ars linguistica commentationes analyticae criticae 2: 120. Gunter Narr Verlag, Tubingen.
LETUAMA Miguel Antonio et al.
1993 Ñamamamajaroka. El cuento del venado en wejeñememajã oka. Summer Institute of Linguistics, 54 p.
(online).
PUERTO GUAYABO
2000 III Taller de unificación del Alfabeto Tanimuca Letuama. 20-27 julio del 2000. Maloca de Puerto Guayabo. Resguardo Indígena del Mirití-Paraná Amazonas, COAMA, Bogotá.
ROBAYO Camilo A.
1981 Elementos de morfología de la lengua tanimuka. Lecturas en teoría y práctica en etnolingüística 1. Universidad de Los Andes. Bogotá.
RUHLEN Merritt
1987 A guide to the world’s languages 1. Stanford University Press. Stanford.
SUMMER INSTITUTE OF LINGUISTICS (SIL)
1987 Leamos en tanimuka y retuarã. Summer Institute of Linguistics, Editorial Townsend, Lomalinda. 11 p.
Young girls tanimuca, La Pedrera, 2013/10/08