The Barbacoan languages may be related to thePáez language. Barbacoan is often connected with thePaezan languages (includingPáez); however, Curnow (1998) shows how much of this proposal is based on misinterpretation of an old document of Douay (1888). (See:Paezan languages.)
Pasto, Muellama, Coconuco, Totoró and Caranqui are nowextinct.
Pasto and Muellama are usually classified as Barbacoan, but the current evidence is weak and deserves further attention. Muellama may have been one of the last survivingdialects of Pasto (both extinct, replaced by Spanish) — Muellama is known only by a short wordlist recorded in the 19th century. The Muellama vocabulary is similar to modern Awa Pit. TheCañari–Puruhá languages are even more poorly attested, and while often placed in aChimuan family, Adelaar (2004:397) thinks they may have been Barbacoan.
The Coconucan languages were first connected to Barbacoan by Daniel Brinton in 1891. However, a subsequent publication by Henri Beuchat and Paul Rivet placed Coconucan together with aPaezan family (which includedPáez andPaniquita) due a misleading "Moguex" vocabulary list. The "Moguex" vocabulary turned out to be a mix of both Páez and Guambiano languages (Curnow 1998). This vocabulary has led to misclassifications by Greenberg (1956, 1987), Loukotka (1968), Kaufman (1990, 1994), and Campbell (1997), among others. Although Páez may be related to the Barbacoan family, a conservative view considers Páez alanguage isolate pending further investigation. Guambiano is more similar to other Barbacoan languages than to Páez, and thus Key (1979), Curnow et al. (1998), Gordon (2005), and Campbell (2012)[2] place Coconucan under Barbacoan. Theextinct Totoró is sometimes considered a dialect of Guambiano instead of a separate language, and, indeed, Adelaar & Muysken (2004) state that Guambiano-Totoró-Coconuco is best treated as a single language.
The Barbácoa (Barbacoas) language itself is unattested, and is only assumed to be part of the Barbacoan family. Nonetheless, it has been assigned an ISO code, though the better-attested and classifiable Pasto language has not.
Telembi - extinct language once spoken in the Cauca region on theTelembi River. (Andre 1884, pp. 791–799.)
Panga - extinct language once spoken near the modern city ofSotomayor, Nariño department. (Unattested.)
Nulpe - extinct language once spoken in the Nariño region on theNulpe River. (Unattested.)
Cayápa /Nigua - language spoken now by a few families on theCayapas River, Esmeraldas province, Ecuador.
Malaba - extinct language once spoken in Esmeraldas province on theMataje River. (Unattested.)
Yumbo - extinct language once spoken in the Cordillera deIntag and theCordillera de Nanegal, Pichincha province, Ecuador. The population now speaks only Quechua. (Unattested.)
Colima - extinct language once spoken on the middle course of theDaule River, Guayas province. (Unattested.)
Colorado /Tsachela /Chono /Campaz /Satxíla /Colime - language still spoken on theDaule River,Vinces River, andEsmeraldas River, provinces of Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas and Los Ríos, Ecuador.
Caranqui /Cara /Imbaya - extinct language once spoken in the province of Imbabura and on theGuayllabamba River, Ecuador. The population now speaks Spanish or Quechua.
Muellama - extinct language of the Nariño region, once spoken in the village ofMuellama.
Pasta - extinct language once spoken in Carchi province, Ecuador, and in the department of Nariño in Colombia around the modern city ofPasto, Colombia.
Quijo - once spoken on theNapo River andCoca River, Oriente province, Ecuador. The tribe now speaks only Quechua. (Ordónez de Ceballos 1614, f. 141–142, only three words.)
Mastele - extinct language once spoken on the left bank of theGuaitara River near the mouth, department of Nariño. (Unattested.)
Mayasquer - extinct language once spoken in the villages ofMayasquer andPindical, Carchi province, Ecuador. The present population speaks only Quechua. (Unattested.)
Coconuco group
Coconuco - language spoken by a few families at the sources of theCauca River, department of Cauca, Colombia.
Guanuco /Guamíca - extinct language once spoken in the village of Plata Vieja in Colombia.
Guambiana /Silviano - spoken in the villages of Ambató, Cucha and partly in Silvia.
Quilla - original and extinct language of the villages ofAlmaguer, Santiago, and Milagros. The present population speaks only a dialect of Quechua. (Unattested.)
Timbío - once spoken on theTimbío River. (Unattested.)
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Brend, Ruth M. (Ed.). (1985).From phonology to discourse: Studies in six Colombian languages (p. vi, 133). Language Data, Amerindian Series (No. 9). Dallas: Summer Institute of Linguistics.
Beuchat, Henri; & Rivet, Paul. (1910). Affinités des langues du sud de la Colombie et du nord de l'Équateur.Le Mouséon,11, 33-68, 141-198.
Campbell, Lyle. (1997).American Indian languages: The historical linguistics of Native America. New York: Oxford University Press.ISBN0-19-509427-1.
Constenla Umaña, Adolfo. (1981). Comparative Chibchan phonology. (Doctoral dissertation, University of Pennsylvania).
Constenla Umaña, Adolfo. (1991).Las lenguas del área intermedia: Introducción a su estudio areal. San José: Editorial de la Universidad de Costa Rica.
Constenla Umaña, Adolfo. (1993).La familia chibcha. In (M. L. Rodríguez de Montes (Ed.),Estado actual de la clasificación de las lenguas indígenas de Colombia (pp. 75–125). Bogotá:Instituto Caro y Cuervo.
Curnow, Timothy J. (1998). Why Paez is not a Barbacoan language: The nonexistence of "Moguex" and the use of early sources.International Journal of American Linguistics,64 (4), 338-351.
Curnow, Timothy J.; & Liddicoat, Anthony J. (1998). The Barbacoan languages of Colombia and Ecuador.Anthropological Linguistics,40 (3).
Douay, Léon. (1888). Contribution à l'américanisme du Cauca (Colombie).Compte-Rendu du Congrès International des Américanistes,7, 763-786.
Gerdel, Florence L. (1979). Paez. InAspectos de la cultura material de grupos étnicos de Colombia 2, (pp. 181–202). Bogota: Ministerio de Gobierno and Instituto Lingüístico de Verano.
Kaufman, Terrence. (1990). Language history in South America: What we know and how to know more. In D. L. Payne (Ed.),Amazonian linguistics: Studies in lowland South American languages (pp. 13–67). Austin: University of Texas Press.ISBN0-292-70414-3.
Kaufman, Terrence. (1994). The native languages of South America. In C. Mosley & R. E. Asher (Eds.),Atlas of the world's languages (pp. 46–76). London: Routledge.
Key, Mary R. (1979).The grouping of South American languages. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag.
Landaburu, Jon. (1993). Conclusiones del seminario sobre clasificación de lenguas indígenas de Colombia. In (M. L. Rodríguez de Montes (Ed.),Estado actual de la clasificación de las lenguas indígenas de Colombia (pp. 313–330). Bogotá: Instituto Caro y Cuervo.
Loukotka, Čestmír. (1968).Classification of South American Indian languages. Los Angeles: Latin American Studies Center, University of California.
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† indicates anextinct language,italics indicates independent status of a language,bold indicates that a language family has at least 6 members, * indicates moribund status
