Kallawaya, also Callahuaya or Callawalla, is an endangered, secret,

mixed language A mixed language is a language that arises among a bilingual group combining aspects of two or more languages but not clearly deriving primarily from any single language. It differs from a creole language, creole or pidgin, pidgin language in that ...

Bolivia , image_flag = Bandera de Bolivia (Estado).svg , flag_alt = Horizontal tricolor (red, yellow, and green from top to bottom) with the coat of arms of Bolivia in the center , flag_alt2 = 7 × 7 square p ...

; another name sometimes used for the language is Pohena. It is spoken by the Kallawaya people, a group of traditional itinerant healers in the Andes in their medicinal healing practice living in Charazani, the highlands north of Lake Titicaca, and Tipuani.

Characteristics

Kallawaya is a mixed language. The grammar is partially Quechua in morphology, but most of its words are from either unknown sources or from an otherwise extinct language family, Pukina. Pukina was abandoned in favor of Quechua, Aymara, and Spanish. Kallawaya is also a secret language, passed only by father to son, or grandfather to grandson, or rarely, to daughters if a practitioner has no sons. It is not used in normal family dialogue. Although its use is primarily ritual, used secretly for initiated men, Kallawaya may be a part of everyday conversation between those familiar with it. Kallawaya was one of the subjects of Ironbound Films' 2008 American documentary film '' The Linguists'', in which two linguists attempted to document several moribund languages. Bolivians refer to the region where the speakers live as "Qollahuayas," meaning "place of the medicines", because the Kallawaya are renowned herbalists. Since they treat or cure with plants, minerals, animal products, and rituals, peasants refer to the speakers as "Qolla kapachayuh", or "Kuolla ka paikkoja" meaning "lords of the medicine bag", or "the places for those dying", as in