Kallawaya language

Kallawaya, also Callahuaya or Callawalla, is an endangered, secret, mixed language in Bolivia; 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,[3] and Tipuani.[4]

Kallawaya
Native toBolivia
RegionLa Paz Department: Charazani; highlands north of Lake Titicaca
Native speakers
None[1]
10–20 as 2nd language
Puquina
  • Kallawaya
Official status
Official language in
 Bolivia[2]
Language codes
ISO 639-3caw
Glottologcall1235
ELPKallawaya

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.[5]

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.[6]

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.[7]

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", meaning "lords of the medicine bag".

References
  1. Kallawaya at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. "Constitución política del Estado" (PDF) (in Spanish). Gaceta Oficial de Bolivia. 2009-02-07. p. 2. Retrieved 23 November 2022. Artículo 5.1: Son idiomas oficiales del Estado el castellano y todos los idiomas de las naciones y pueblos indígena originario [sic] campesinos, que son el aymara, [...], machajuyai-kallawaya, [...] y zamuco.
  3. Eberhard, David M.; Simons, Gary F.; Fennig, Charles D., eds. (2019). "Bolivia languages". Ethnologue: Languages of the World (22nd ed.). Dallas: SIL International.
  4. Loukotka, Čestmír (1968). Classification of South American Indian languages. Los Angeles: UCLA Latin American Center.
  5. Willem Adelaar; Simon van de Kerke. "The Puquina and Leko languages". Symposium: Advances in Native South American Historical Linguistics, July 17–18, 2006, at the 52nd International Congress of Americanists, Seville, Spain. Retrieved 2007-09-19.
  6. "The Kallawaya Language Project". Archived from the original (online) on 2007-09-29. Retrieved 2007-09-19.
  7. Honeycutt, Kirk (18 January 2008). "The Linguists". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on November 21, 2008. Retrieved 22 February 2009.

Further reading
  • Aguiló, Federico. Diccionario kallawaya. La Paz, Bolivia: MUSEF, 1991. (Spanish language)
  • Bastien, JW. 1989. Differences between Kallawaya-Andean and Greek-European Humoral Theory. Social Science & Medicine. 28, no. 1: 45–51.
  • Girault, Louis. Kallawaya: el idioma secreto de los incas : diccionario. [La Paz, Bolivia?]: UNICEF, 1989. (Spanish language)
  • Muysken, Pieter (2009). Kallawaya. In: Mily Crevels and Pieter Muysken (eds.) Lenguas de Bolivia, vol. I, 147–167. La Paz: Plural editores. (in Spanish). See also the online edition at Lenguas de Bolivia
  • Oblitas Poblete, Enrique, and Jan Szemiński. Lexico Kallawaya. [S.l: Bet Xemex?, 1994. (Spanish language)
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