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You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in Russian. (March 2025) Click [show] for important translation instructions. View a machine-translated version of the Russian article. Machine translation, like DeepL or Google Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must follow the LLM translation guideline, revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia. Consider adding a topic to this template: there are already 1,496 articles in the main category, and specifying|topic= will aid in categorization. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing Russian Wikipedia article at [[:ru:Акурио (язык)]]; see its history for attribution. You may also add the template {{Translated|ru|Акурио (язык)}} to the talk page. For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation.

Akuriyó
Akurio
Native to	Suriname
Region	Sipaliwini District
Ethnicity	40 Akurio people (2012)[1]
Extinct	2002[2] 3 semi-speakers (2012)
Language family	Cariban Guianan Carib Taranoan Tiriyo Akuriyó
Language codes
ISO 639-3	ako
Glottolog	akur1238
ELP	Akuriyo
Linguasphere	80-AHA-bc
Akuriyo is classified as Critically Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger.

Akurio (Eastern Maroon Creole: Awayaikuletongo),^[3] also known as Akuriyó, is an extinct Cariban language. It was spoken by the Akurio people in Suriname until the late 20th century, after which they switched to the closely related Tiriyó language. Akurio has since undergone heavy influence from Tiriyó, and was replaced by it, with the last native speakers being reported to have died in 2002. Only three people could remember the language in 2012.

The name "Akurio" is derived from the word akuri 'agouti' and the suffix -jo, used to derive names of peoples; thus, the name "Akurio" presumably translates to 'agouti people'.^{[4]: 11–13}

Akurio is a Cariban language belonging to the Taranoan subgroup. Other Taranoan languages include Tiriyó, which is the closest language to Akurio, and Carijona, spoken in Colombia.^[4]

The Akurio people were first contacted by outsiders in 1937, during Conrad Carel Käyser's expedition to the Oelemari River. The next year, Willem Ahlbrinck, a Catholic missionary, who called them Wama, contacted the Akurio again. Claudius de Goeje published vocabularies of "Wama" recorded from these expeditions in his 1946 book Études linguistiques caraïbes.^[5] No further contact was made until 1968, when some Wayana people met a group of Akurio by chance,^[6] prompting missionaries to immediately begin resettling them into sedentary settlements, particularly the Tiriyó villages of Kwamalasamutu and Tepoe. This led to the rapid adoption of the Tiriyó language. Uncontacted groups of Akurio are thought to still live along the upper Oelemari and in the Oranje Mountains, and may still speak Akurio without influence from Tiriyó.^{[4]: 11–13}

The last native speakers of Akurio died in 2002. During this period, only ten people were estimated to have Akuriyó as a second language.^[1] By 2012, only three semi-speakers remained.^[7] Sepi Akuriyó, one of the last surviving speakers of Akuriyó, went missing on 2 December 2018, when a small plane carrying eight people disappeared during a flight over the Amazon rainforest. The search and rescue operation was called off after two weeks.^[8]

The following phonology is preliminary and derived from fieldwork with non-native speakers over a short period of time. The phonological system of Akurio is similar to those of other Taranoan languages.^[4]: 16