Maipure (Maypure, Mejepure) was a language once spoken along the Ventuari, Sipapo, and Autana rivers of Amazonas and, as a lingua franca, in the Upper Orinoco region.
Zamponi provided a grammatical sketch of the language and furnished a classified word list, based on all of its extant eighteenth century material (mainly from the Italian missionary Filippo S.
[1] It is historically important in that it formed the cornerstone of the recognition of the Maipurean (Arawakan) language family.
[citation needed] Kaufman (1994)[full citation needed] gives its closest relatives as Yavitero and other languages of the Orinoco branch of Upper Amazon Arawakan.
Aikhenvald places it instead in the Western Nawiki branch.