Churuya, also known as Bisanigua and Guaigua, is an extinct Guahiban language of

Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...

. The only sources of the language are 20 words published in 1876 by Nicolas Saenz and another 32 words found in a manuscript found by

Adolf Ernst Adolf Ernst (October 6, 1832 – August 12, 1899) was a Prussian-born scientist. Ernst settled in Venezuela in 1861, where he taught at the Central University of Venezuela. He became the most important scientist in the country during the second h ...

in 1891. Comparison by Sergio Elias Ortiz in 1943 found that 24 words matched with other Guahibo words, while seven others were believed to be borrowed from the Orinoco area, and one was a loanword from

Quechua Quechua may refer to: *Quechua people, several Indigenous ethnic groups in South America, especially in Peru *Quechuan languages, an Indigenous South American language family spoken primarily in the Andes, derived from a common ancestral language ...

References

Languages of Colombia Guajiboan languages {{na-lang-stub