Kunza language

Kunza
Atacameño, Ckunsa
Likanantaí, Ckunsa
Native toChile, Peru, Bolivia
RegionAtacama Desert
Ethnicity2,000 Atacama
Extinctafter 1964?
Revival2020s
Language codes
ISO 639-3kuz
Glottologkunz1244
Historic geographical extent of the Kunza language
Atacameño is classified as Extinct by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger.

Kunza (Kunza: Likanantaí) is the extinct language isolate of the Atacama people, once spoken in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile and southern Peru who have since shifted to Spanish. The last speakers were documented in 1964; However, there is currently a revitalization effort.

Other names and spellings include Cunza, Ckunsa, Likanantaí, and Atacameño. The word Ckunsa means 'our' in Kunza.

From what data is available, it is believed that it is a polysynthetic language. However, there is not sufficient information to determine which languages it was related to, if any. Thus, it is conventionally classified as a language isolate.

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 speakers were found in 1953 according to anthropologists. Loukotka (1968) reports a few speakers in Bolivia and in the village of Peine in Chile. There are 2,000 Atacameños as of 2004.

A revitalization effort was initiated in the 21st century.

Classification

Kaufman (1990) found a proposed connection between Kunza and the likewise unclassified Kapixaná to be plausible; however, 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.

Phonology

Consonants

The vocabulary of Kunza is well-documented, but the phonetic realizations of lexical transcriptions are not so certain due to the widely differing systems of transcription that were used. Because of this, the accepted phonologic system for Kunza is tentative, and potentially even speculation. Even so, it is well known that the stops and affricates were distinguished between plain and glottalized (the latter being represented by a doubled consonant in some transcriptions, even in initial position).

San Román (1890) makes a considerably greater distinction between different velar and uvular consonants. He distinguishes between ⟨c⟩ and ⟨k⟩, the latter used to represent a "very strong" consonant. His ⟨khˆ⟩ represents a "strong palatal sound", which he found "impossible...to write". Adelaar and Muysken (2004) believe this represents a "strongly aspirated postvelar stop". San Román characterizes Kunza as using many "doubled consonants", pronounced "more separately and strongly than the Italians". He also mentions a sound of a "certain tenderness", which he writes ⟨qc⟩, in contradiction to the perceived "roughness" of the language.

Consonants
Bilabial Alveolar Palatal Velar Postvelar 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 (w) l j
Trill r

/w/ is only present in loanwords. /kʼ/ and /qʼ/ are not directly attested, but are presumed to have been present based on data collected in 1981. Velar and postvelar sounds are not consistently distinguished in the data.

Vowels

The use of doubled vowels in transcriptions suggests the existence of a contrast of length. Very few words begin with a vowel, almost all of them being non-lexical grammatical words or loanwords. The only vowels possible in initial position are /a i/.

Vowels
Front Central Back
Close i iː u uː
Mid e eː (ə) o oː
Open a aː

Sample text

In 1867, Johann Jakob von Tschudi collected two versions of the prayer Our Father in Kunza.

Version 1
tican cunsa hirico is astansi i cotas cielos.
santi hijia chea vaclo.
cum cachia chema reino lepalo.
as voluntas acquis en la oiri penii cachi li cielo.
hi tancta cumsa he capin vasina canalo aun capin.
i cum perdonácalo cun manuya acquis pen cuna perdonama cun deudorctpas.
i cum deja chacalo cum colac cutia y tentacioniyas.
hichucul cumas librácolo hiri malipanta.
i kis yaclo.

Version 2
Tican tansi cielo stansi santificado chema izcu charcer
chema halu acs koytans levaldise. Señor voluntad tansiacs
koytansi cielo sacuma ctanta acsa viñayapun acsancalo
anjapin acperdona acs deuma chancosinys acperdona acsec-
tunas andejachaculo colcoma en tentación aca librame Señor
hualchas unic. Amen.

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 Loukotka, Čestmír (1968). Wilbert, Johannes (ed.). Classification of South American Indian Languages (PDF) (4th ed.). Latin American Center, UCLA. p. 239. ISBN 9780879031077.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  2. ↑ Bartlett, John (October 17, 2024). "In Chile a language on the verge of extinction, stirs into life". NPR.
  3. ↑ Vaïsse, Emilio F (1896). Glosario de la Lengua Atacameña (PDF). Santiago: Imprenta Cervantes.
  4. ↑ Miyaoka, Osahito; Sakiyama, Osamu; Krauss, Michael E., eds. (2007). The vanishing languages of the Pacific rim. Oxford linguistics. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 196–197. ISBN 978-0-19-926662-3. OCLC 71004259.
  5. 1 2 3 4 Adelaar, Willem; Muysken, Pieter (2004). The Languages of the Andes. New York: Cambridge University Press. p. 380.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link)
  6. ↑ Bartlett, John; Dixon, Greg (2024-05-17). "Saving a Language in Chile". State of the World. NPR. Retrieved 2024-05-18.
  7. ↑ Kaufman, Terrence (1990). "Language history in South America: What we know and how to know more". In Payne, Doris L. (ed.). Amazonian linguistics: studies in lowland South American languages. Texas linguistics series (1st ed.). Austin, Tex: University of Texas Press. ISBN 978-0-292-72364-1.
  8. ↑ Campbell, Lyle (2024). The indigenous languages of the Americas: history and classification. Oxford scholarship online. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-767349-2.
  9. ↑ Jolkesky, Marcelo Pinho de Valhery (2016). Estudo arqueo-ecolinguístico das terras tropicais sul-americanas (Ph.D. dissertation) (2 ed.). Brasília: University of Brasília.
  10. ↑ Román, Francisco J. San (1890). "La Lengua Cunza de los Naturales de Atacama". Revista de la Dirección de Obras Públicas: Sección de Minas y Geografía. 5: 77–94.