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Wikipedia / Chimuan languages

Chimuan (also Chimúan) or Yuncan (Yunga–Puruhá, Yunca–Puruhán) is a hypothetical small extinct language family of northern Peru and Ecuador in the inter-Andean valley. They are held to comprise the Mochica (Yunga), Cañari–Puruhá, and Huancavilca.

Family division

Chimuan is proposed to be consisted of at least three attested languages:

Chimuan

Cañari–Puruhá

  • Cañari ( Cañar, Kanyari)

  • Puruhá ( Puruwá, Puruguay)

All languages are now extinct.

Campbell (2012) classifies Mochica and Cañari–Puruhá each as separate language families.

Mochica was one of the major languages of pre-Columbian South America. It was documented by Fernando de la Carrera and Middendorf in the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries respectively. It became extinct around 1920, although some people remembered a few words into the late 20th century. Most scholars consider Mochica a language isolate.

Cañari and Puruhá are documented with only a few words. These two languages are usually connected with Mochica. However, as their documentation level is so low, it may not be possible to confirm this association. According to Adelaar & Muysken (2004), Jijón y Caamaño's evidence of their relationship is only a single word: Mochica nech "river", Cañari necha; based on similarities with neighboring languages, he finds a Barbacoan connection more likely.

Quingnam, considered the same language as the lengua pescadora, was sometimes erroneously taken to be a dialect of Mochica, but it is effectively unattested, excepting a list of numerals discovered in 2010 thought likely to be of Quingnam or Pescadora as expected. These numerals are not, however, Mochica.

Mason (1950)

Yunca-Puruhán (Chimuan) internal classification by Mason (1950):

Yunca–Puruhán

Yuncan

North group (Puruhá-Cañari)

  • Puruhá

  • Canyari (Cañari)

  • Manabila (Mantenya)

South group (Yunca)

  • Yunga

  • Morropé

  • Eten (?)

  • Chimu

  • Mochica (Chincha)

  • Chanco

Atalán

Wancavilca (Huancavilca)

  • Mania

  • Tumbez

  • Puna

  • Carake: Apichiki, Cancebi

Mason (1950) added Atalán to the family.

Tovar (1961)

Tovar (1961), partly based on Schmidt (1926), adds Tallán (Sechura–Catacao) to Chimuan (which he calls Yunga-Puruhá). Tovar's (1961) classification below is cited from Stark (1972).

Yunga–Puruhá

Northern (Puruha-Cañari)

Central (Tallán)

Southern

Proposed external relationships

Stark (1972) proposed a Maya–Yunga–Chipayan macrofamily linking Mayan with Uru–Chipaya and Yunga (Mochica).

See also

References

Further reading

  • Adelaar, Willem F. H.; & Muysken, Pieter C. (2004). The languages of the Andes. Cambridge language surveys. Cambridge University Press.

  • Campbell, Lyle. (1997). American Indian languages: The historical linguistics of Native America. New York: Oxford University Press. .

  • Kaufman, Terrence. (1994). The native languages of South America. In C. Mosley & R. E. Asher (Eds.), Atlas of the world's languages (pp.46–76). London: Routledge.