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TheMarañón River basin, at a low point in theAndes which made it an attractive location for trade between theInca Empire and theAmazon basin, once harbored numerouslanguages which have been poorly attested or not attested at all. Those of the middle reaches of the river, above the Amazon basin, were replaced in historical times byAguaruna, aJivaroan language from the Amazon which is still spoken there. The languages further upriver are difficult to identify, due to lack of data. The region was multilingual at the time of the Conquest, and the people largely switched to Spanish rather than to Quechua, though Quechua also expanded during Colonial times.

InEcuador, at the province ofLoja, werePalta,Malacato,Rabona,Bolona, andXiroa. Historical sources suggest these were closely related, and there is some evidence that Palta (see) was aJivaroan language. The nameXiroa may be a variant ofJivaro. Rabona is attested by a few words, some of which seem to be Jivaroan, but others of which appear to beCandoshí; since these are plant names, they say little about the classification of the language, and Adelaar (2004:397) leaves it unclassified. Bolona is essentially unattested.

North of the basin werePuruhá (scarcely attested),Cañar (known primarily from characteristic place names),Panzaleo (sometimes classified asPaezan),Caranqui (until the 18th century, seemingly Barbacoan), andPasto (Barbacoan). Apart possibly from Panzaleo, these languages have elements in common, such as a final syllable-pud and onsetsmwe-, pwe-, bwe-. Those suggest that they may have been related, and possibly were all Barbacoan. Adelaar (2004:397) finds this more likely than a proposal that Puruhá and Cañar wereChimuan languages (see).

InPeru, and further up in the Andes there were also numerous languages. Apart fromMochica andCholón, the languages of northern Peru are largely unrecorded; the attested Marañón languages arePatagón (Patagón de Perico),Bagua (Patagón de Bagua), Chacha (Chachapoya), Copallén, Tabancale (Aconipa), Chirino, and Sácata (Chillao).

Four words are attested from Capallén (Copallín):quiet[kjet] 'water',chumac 'maize',olaman 'firewood',ismare 'house'. The word for water resembles the toponymic element-cat, posited to be an otherwise unknown language of the region. However, this is insufficient to identify Copallén as a Cholónan language.^[1] It was spoken in villages of Llanque, Las Lomas, and Copallen,department of Cajamarca.^[2]

Five words of Tabancale (Tabancal, Aconipa) are recorded:yema 'water',moa 'maize',oyme 'firewood',lalaque[lalake] 'fire',tie 'house'. These do not correspond to any known language or family, so Tabancale is unclassified and potentially alanguage isolate. It was spoken in Aconipa,department of Cajamarca.^[2]

TheChirino were one of the principal peoples of the area. Based on the four words which were recorded,yungo 'water',yugato 'maize',xumás 'firewood',paxquiro[paʃˈkiɾo] 'grass', their language would appear to be related toCandoshi (Torero 1993, Adelaar 2004:406).

Three words of the language of Sácata (Zácata), apparently that of theChillao people, are recorded:unga 'water',umague[umaɡe] 'maize',chichache 'fire'. Connections have been suggested withCandoshí (the word for water is similar to that of Chirino) andArawakan, but the evidence is insufficient.^[3]

Rabona, formerly spoken in the district of Santiago de las Montañas in Ecuador, is poorly attested.^[4] Based on limited evidence, predominantly plant names,^[5] many sources have grouped Rabona with Candoshi-Shapra.^[6]

The following is a vocabulary table for Patagón, Bagua, Chacha, Copallén, Tabancale, Chirino, and Sácata combined from data given in the sections above:

• List of unclassified languages of South America
• List of extinct languages of South America
• List of indigenous languages of South America
• Classification of indigenous languages of the Americas
• Omurano language
• -den language

• Adelaar, Willem F. H.; & Muysken, Pieter C. (2004).The Languages of the Andes. Cambridge Language Surveys. Cambridge University Press.ISBN 978-0-521-36275-7.
• Jiménez de la Espada, Marcos (1965) [1881–1887].Relaciones geográficas de Indias: Perú. Madrid.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Loukotka, Čestmír. (1968).Classification of South American Indian Languages, ed. Wilbert, Johannes. Los Angeles: University of California (UCLA), Latin American Center.
• Rivet, Paul. (1934). "Population de la province de Jaén. Equateur." InCongrès international des sciences anthropologiques et ethnologiques: compte-rendu de la première session, pp. 245–7. London: Royal Institute of Anthropology.
• Taylor, Anne Christine. (1999). "The Western Margins of Amazonia from the Early Sixteenth to the Early Nineteenth Century". In Salomon and Schwartz. (1999).The Cambridge History of the Native Peoples of South America, part 2, pp. 188–256.. Cambridge University Press,
• Torero Fernández de Córdova, Alfredo A. (1993). "Lenguas del nororiente peruano: la hoya de Jaén en el siglo XVI", Revista Andina 11, 2, pp. 447–72. Cuzco: Centro Bartolomé de Las Casas.

• Indigenous languages of the Andes
• Languages of Peru
• Languages of Ecuador
• Extinct languages of South America
• Lists of extinct languages
• Unclassified languages of South America
• Indigenous languages of South America

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