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 to | Colombia |
| Ethnicity | Kankuamo, Atanque |
| Extinct | (date missing) |
Chibchan
| |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | None (mis) |
qji | |
| Glottolog | kank1244 |
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.
| gloss | Atanque |
|---|---|
| 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
- Shafer, Robert (1962). "Aruakan (Not Arawakan)". Anthropological Linguistics. 4 (4): 31–40. ISSN 0003-5483.
- Jackson (1996, pp. 66–67).
- Salas (2020, pp. 162–164).
- Salas (2020, pp. 164–167).
References
- Celedón, Rafael (1892). "Vocabulario de la lengua Atanques" (PDF). Proceedings of the 8th. lnternational Congress of Americanists of 1890 (in Spanish). Paris: Ernest Leroux: 591–599. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-03-03.
- Jackson, Robert T. (1996). "Fonología comparativa de los idiomas chibchas de la Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta". Boletín Museo del Oro (in Spanish) (38–39): 57–69.
- Leal Arias, Samuel (2019). Diccionario Español Kankuamo. Valledupar: Universidad Popular del Cesar.
- Salas, Andrés Alfonso Pastrana (2020). "Una configuración toponímica del resguardo indígena kankuamo". Lingüística y Literatura (in Spanish). 41 (77): 146–171. ISSN 0120-5587.