Kunza
Atacameño
Likanantaí
Native toChile, Peru, Bolivia
RegionAtacama Desert
EthnicityAtacama
Extinctca. 1950s
Language codes
ISO 639-3kuz
Glottologkunz1244

Kunza is an extinct language isolate once spoken in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile and southern Peru by the Atacama people, who have since shifted to Spanish. The last speaker was documented in 1949.

Other names and spellings include Cunza, Likanantaí, Lipe, Ulipe, and Atacameño.

History

The language was spoken in northern Chile, specifically in the Chilean villages of Peine, Socaire (near the Salar de Atacama), and Caspana, and in southern Peru.

The last Kunza speaker was found in 1949, although some have been found since according to anthropologists. There are 2,000 Atacameños (W. Adelaar).

Unattested varieties listed by Loukotka (1968):

Classification

Kaufman (1990) found a proposed connection between Kunza and the likewise unclassified Kapixaná to be plausible; however, the language was more fully described in 2004, and the general consensus among linguists was that both languages are isolates.

Language contact

Jolkesky (2016) notes that there are lexical similarities with the Mochika, Kandoshi, Jaqi, Kechua, Mapudungun, and Uru-Chipaya language families due to contact.[1]

Phonology

Consonants[2]
Bilabial Alveolar Palatal Velar Uvular Glottal
plain sibilant
Nasal m n
Stop/
Affricate		 voiceless p t t͡s t͡ʃ k q ʔ
ejective pʼ tʼ t͡ʃʼ kʼ qʼ
Fricative voiceless ɬ s x χ h
voiced β ɣ
Approximant l j w
Trill r
Vowels[2]
Front Central Back
Close i iː u uː
Mid e eː (ə) o oː
Open a aː

See also

References

  1. ↑ Jolkesky, Marcelo Pinho de Valhery (2016). Estudo arqueo-ecolinguístico das terras tropicais sul-americanas (Ph.D. dissertation) (2 ed.). Brasília: University of Brasília.
  2. 1 2 Adelaar, Willem; Muysken, Pieter (2004). The Languages of the Andes. New York: Cambridge University Press. p. 380.
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