Barasana-Eduria language

Barasana is one of the various languages spoken by the Indigenous peoples of the Americas belonging to the Amazonian region, specifically in Colombia. It belongs to the Eastern branch of the Tucanoan language family. The people who speak the language are also known as the Barasana. The population of its native speakers is about 1,990 according to a census taken in 1993. Native speakers' tribes are spread out among the Pira Paraná River in Colombia and the banks of the Vaupés River Basin.

The different dialects within this language family utilize their individual languages as barriers to distinguish themselves through their own identity. Marriages between two people who speak the same language are taboo; for they are marrying their own brothers and sisters. Instead, Barasanans participate in exogamous marriages, which promote multilingualism of the people in the region. This also serves as an explanation for similarities between different dialects in the region. Barasana and Eduria are often considered separate languages by the individuals of these groups, who are allowed to intermarry. However, the languages' similarities are up to 98%; the other 2% accounts for minor differences in phonology.

Many different grammar characteristics of Barasana separate it distinctively from various other groups in the language family. Out of the Eastern Tucanoan languages, Barasana is the only one to maintain a three portion distinction between spatial and temporal distances. It also differs in many other things such as nasality of words, consonantal systems, phonemes, and imperatives.