Bohurá

Bohurá, or Mura proper, was the principal language of the Mura family in Amazonas, Brazil, spoken along the Autaz and Manicoré rivers; its sister varieties were Pirahã on the Maici and the unattested Yahahí. Its speakers called themselves Buhuraen, while their Torá and Matanawi neighbours pronounced the name Murá. The language is agglutinative, uses tone and whistled speech, and has a very small sound inventory.

The Mura first appear in records in 1714 on the lower Madeira. After Portuguese slavers raided them, they opposed the Jesuit missions and colonial penetration through most of the eighteenth century with river ambushes. Around 1768 they moved north beyond the Solimões and ranged between the Madeira, Purus and Autaz, reaching their greatest extent around 1774, when government troops burned dozens of their settlements. Weakened by epidemics and Munduruku pressure, they made peace in 1784. In the early nineteenth century they still numbered tens of thousands, but in the Cabanagem revolt of 1834 to 1836 they joined the rebels and suffered heavy massacres.