Atanque language

Atanque, also known as Atanques or Kankuamo, is an extinct Chibchan language of Colombia,[1] once spoken in the area of Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta.

Atanque
Cancuamo
Native toColombia
EthnicityKankuamo, Atanque
Extinct(date missing)
Chibchan
  • Arwako–Chimila
    • Arwako
      • Atanque
Language codes
ISO 639-3None (mis)
qji
Glottologkank1244

Vocabulary

There is very little information about the language, in particular with regard to grammar. Before its speakers switched to Spanish, Celedón (1892) managed to compile a brief dictionary. The following table shows a sample of the lexicon.

glossAtanque
one ijkua
two moga
three ména
head chakúku
eye úma
nose michiuña
ear kukkuá
tooth köhka
man ferúa
woman amia
water dita
fuego guié
earth nebinyàku
fish uáka
tree kandina
sun koköbúnyo
moon sakaméru

Dispite being so poorly attested, Atanque clearly belongs to Arwako subgroup of Chibcha. In particular, it appears to be very close to Wiwa in terms of phonetic innovations.[2]

Toponyms

Traces of Atanque are also preserved in toponyms recorded in the region of Sierra Nevada.[3] Suffixes like -ka "place, site" (e.g. in Susungá-ka, Chingá-ka, Kankuá-ka) or -kua "bower" (e.g. in Birintu-kua, Risátu-kua, Kamíntu-kua) are diagnostic of an Atanque source.[4]

Notes

  1. Shafer, Robert (1962). "Aruakan (Not Arawakan)". Anthropological Linguistics. 4 (4): 31–40. ISSN 0003-5483.
  2. Jackson (1996, pp. 66–67).
  3. Salas (2020, pp. 162–164).
  4. Salas (2020, pp. 164–167).

References


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