Chimuan (also Chimúan) or Yuncan (Yunga–Puruhá, Yunca–Puruhán) is a hypothetical small extinct language family of northern Peru and Ecuador (inter-Andean valley).
Family division
Chimuan consisted of three attested languages:
Mochica (a.k.a. Yunga, Chimú) Cañar–Puruhá Cañari (a.k.a. Cañar, Kanyari) Puruhá (a.k.a. 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 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 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), 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 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.
{ | class="wikitable sortable" ! gloss !! Chimú !! Eten !! Cañari !! Puruhá |- ! one | onkó || unik || || |- ! two | atput || atput || || pax |- ! head | lek || xäts || gíchan || |- ! hand | möch || metsan || || |- ! water | leng || xa || kay || la |- ! fire | hog || óx || || |- ! sun | sheang || sheang || chán || |- ! maize | aixa || mang || || manga |- ! bird | ñaíñ || ñaíñ || || ñay |- ! jaguar | räk || rak || guagal || guagua |- ! fish | shl'ak || t'ak || || shl'ak |- ! house | ánik || an || án || án |}
See also
Mochica language
Sechura–Catacao languages
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.