Sapé, also called Kaliana or Caliana, is an extinct language recently spoken along the Paragua River and Karuna River. There were only about a few dozen speakers in the mid-1900s, and by the 2000s, only a few elderly speakers were found. Sapé may be a language isolate.

Sape is one of the most poorly attested extant languages in South America, and there is no comprehensive linguistic description of the language other than scattered word lists.^[2][3]

Word lists have been collected by Armellada & Matallana (1942),^[4] Migliazza (1978),^[5] Walter Coppens,^[6] and Francia Medina.^[7] There are unpublished field notebooks by Fèlix Cardona i Puig from the 1930s-1940s containing linguistic data of Sapé.^[8]

Perozo et al. (2008: 175-176) was also able to collect 44 words and 5 short phrases from semi-speakers living in the Ninam villages of Boca de Ichún and Kavamaikén and the Pemon village of Karunkén in Venezuela.^[9] Some of the Sapé semi-speakers have since moved to Yuwapí Merú, a village located on the Middle Paragua. There may also be semi-speakers of Sapé living in the Pemon village of Venevené (Benebené, Veneveken).^[8]

According to Rosés Labrada & Medina (2019), the last fluent speakers of Sapé were Elena Lezama, who died in 2004, and Ramón Quimillo Lezama, who died in November 2018. However, at least 2 semi-speakers remain.^[8] Traditionally located along the Karún River and the Upper Paragua River, most Sapé have assimilated into Pemon-speaking villages.

Jolkesky (2016) notes that there are lexical similarities with the Warao, Chibchan, Puinave-Kak, Jirajara, Tukano (especially Cubeo and Wanano), Arutani, and Máku language families due to contact.^[11]

Similarities with Chibchan are primarily with the Magdalena subgroup.^[11]: 326