Zion (language)

Zion ( Baicoca, Ceona, Ganteya, Ganteyabain, Kanú, Koka, Pioche-Sioni, Pioje, Siona, Sioni, Zeona ) is the language of the western branch of the Tukan language family ^[1] . This language is spoken by the people of Zion, who live in the villages of Resguardo Buenavista and El Tablero between the villages of Ponyuna Blanca and Ponyuna Negra along the Putumayo River and its tributaries of the Putumayo Department in Colombia, as well as in the villages of Bianha, Oravaia, Puerto Bolivar along the rivers Aguarico, Cuiabano, Shushufindi, Eno in Ecuador.

Ecuadorian and Colombian Zion are distinguished, having some differences in vocabulary , phonology and morphosyntaxis . For example, in the Ecuadorian Zion, the voiced velar explosive consonant [ɡ] inside the words is lost, while in the Colombian Zion this phoneme is preserved. The morphosyntactic difference is manifested in the expression of assumptions ^[2] . The proximity of the Ecuadorian Zion to the Secoy language, which is distributed in the same territory as Zion, is stated. Many features of the Ecuadorian Zion, which distinguish it from the Colombian version, are characteristic of the Secoy language, therefore, in some works, these three idioms are considered as a dialect continuum ^[2] .

The first notes on this language were left by Franciscan missionaries who met with the Zion Indians no later than 1638. Until the middle of the 18th century, missionaries met resistance from the local population, but from 1752 Franciscan priests entrenched in the region and worked with the Indians until the 1870s. In particular, they contributed to the study of the Zion language: compiled lists of words and translated the catechism ^[1] . Franciscans distinguished the Indians of the Zion tribe among the other population of this territory, work was carried out to establish the Zion language as the lingua franca of the region ^[3] .