Kunza language

Kunza a.k.a. Cunza, also known as Likanantaí, Lipe, Ulipe, or Atacameño, is an extinct language isolate once spoken in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile and southern Perú (specifically in Peine, Socaire (Salar de Atacama), and Caspana) by the Lickan-antay people, who have since shifted to Spanish.

Kunza
Atacameño
Likanantaí
Native toChile, Peru, Bolivia
RegionAtacama Desert
EthnicityAtacama
Extinctca. 1950s
Language codes
ISO 639-3kuz
Glottologkunz1244[1]

History

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
Further information: Macro-Paesan languages

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.[2]

Phonology

Kunza contains a typical 5-vowel inventory: /a, e, i, o, u/. All vowels have long counterparts, and Kunza displays contrastive vowel length.[3]

Consonants
Bilabial Alveolar Postalveolar Palatal Velar Uvular Glottal
plain ejective
Stop voiceless p t k q ʔ
ejective pʼ tʼ kʼ qʼ
voiced b
Affricate t͡s t͡ʃ t͡ʃʼ
Fricative voiceless s x χ h
voiced ɣ
Nasal m n
Approximant l j
Flap ɾ

See also

References
  1. Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Kunza". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
  2. Jolkesky, Marcelo Pinho de Valhery (2016). Estudo arqueo-ecolinguístico das terras tropicais sul-americanas (Ph.D. dissertation) (2 ed.). Brasília: University of Brasília.
  3. "SAPhon – South American Phonological Inventories". linguistics.berkeley.edu. Retrieved 2018-07-18.
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