Chimuan (also Chimúan) or Yuncan (Yunga–Puruhá, Yunca–Puruhán) is a hypothetical small

extinct Extinction is the termination of an organism by the death of its Endling, last member. A taxon may become Functional extinction, functionally extinct before the death of its last member if it loses the capacity to Reproduction, reproduce and ...

language family A language family is a group of languages related through descent from a common ancestor, called the proto-language of that family. The term ''family'' is a metaphor borrowed from biology, with the tree model used in historical linguistics ...

of northern

Peru Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...

and

Ecuador Ecuador, officially the Republic of Ecuador, is a country in northwestern South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. It also includes the Galápagos Province which contain ...

(inter-

Andean The Andes ( ), Andes Mountains or Andean Mountain Range (; ) are the longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range is long and wide (widest between 18°S ...

valley).

Family division

Chimuan consisted of three attested languages: * Chimuan ** Mochica ( Yunga, Chimú) ** Cañar–Puruhá *** Cañari ( Cañar, Kanyari) *** Puruhá ( Puruwá, Puruguay) All languages are now extinct. Campbell (2012) classifies Mochica and Cañar–Puruhá each as separate language families. Mochica was one of the major languages of

pre-Columbian In the history of the Americas, the pre-Columbian era, also known as the pre-contact era, or as the pre-Cabraline era specifically in Brazil, spans from the initial peopling of the Americas in the Upper Paleolithic to the onset of European col ...

South America. It was documented by Fernando de la Carrera and Middendorff in the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries respectively. It became extinct ca. 1950, although some people remember a few words. Adelaar & Muysken (2004) consider Mochica a

language isolate A language isolate is a language that has no demonstrable genetic relationship with any other languages. Basque in Europe, Ainu and Burushaski in Asia, Sandawe in Africa, Haida and Zuni in North America, Kanoê in South America, and Tiwi ...

for now. 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, possibly the same language as Lengua (Yunga) Pescadora, is sometimes taken to be a dialect of Mochica, but it is unattested, unless a list of numerals discovered in 2010 turns out to be Quingnam or Pescadora as expected. Those 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) also included Atalán, which is no longer considered to be part of the Yunca-Puruhán (Chimuan) family.

Tovar (1961)

Tovar (1961), partly based on Schmidt (1926),Schmidt, Wilhelm (1926). ''Die Sprachfamilien und Sprachenkreise der Erde'', p. 214. Heidelberg. 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) *** Puruhá ***

Cañari The Cañari (in Kichwa: Kañari) are an indigenous ethnic group traditionally inhabiting the territory of the modern provinces of Azuay and Cañar in Ecuador. They are descended from the independent pre-Columbian tribal confederation of the ...

** Central ( Tallán) *** Sec *** Sechura *** Colán *** Catacaos **Southern *** Yunga

Proposed external relationships

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

Vocabulary

Loukotka (1968) lists the following basic vocabulary items for the Chimuan languages. :

References

External links

* PROEL
Familia Chimúan
{{Authority control Proposed language families Extinct languages of South America