| Kankuamo | |
|---|---|
| Cancuamo | |
| Native to | Colombia |
| Ethnicity | Kankuamo, Atanque |
| Extinct | (date missing) |
Chibchan
| |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | None (mis) |
| Glottolog | kank1244 |
Kankuamo, also known as Kakatukua, Kampanake,1 Atanques or Atanque, is an extinct Chibchan language of Colombia,2 once spoken in the area of Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta.
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.3
| 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 |
Despite being so poorly attested, Kankuamo clearly belongs to the Arwako subgroup of Chibcha. In particular, it appears to be very close to Wiwa in terms of phonetic innovations.4
Toponyms
Traces of Kankuamo are also preserved in toponyms recorded in the region of Sierra Nevada.5 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 a Kankuamo source.6
Notes
Notes
- Wavrin, Robert de; Trillos Amaya, María (1998), "Lengua Kankuamo", Langues de l'Orénoque et du nord de la Colombie, Documentos sobre lenguas aborígenes de Colombia del archivo de Paul Rivet, vol. 2, Bogotá: Ediciones Uniandes-CCELA-Colciencias, pp. 437–456, retrieved 2026-06-20
- Shafer, Robert (1962). "Aruakan (Not Arawakan)". Anthropological Linguistics. 4 (4): 31–40. ISSN 0003-5483. JSTOR 30022363.
- Celedón 1892.
- Jackson (1996, pp. 66–67).
- Salas (2020, pp. 162–164).
- Salas (2020, pp. 164–167).
References
References
- Celedón, Rafael (1892). "Vocabulario de la lengua Atanques" (PDF). Proceedings of the 8th. International Congress of Americanists of 1890 (in Spanish). Paris: Ernest Leroux: 591–599. Archived (PDF) from the original 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. doi:10.17533/udea.lyl.n77a07. ISSN 0120-5587.