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Cacán (alsoCacan, Kakán,[1]Kakana,[2]Calchaquí, Chaka, Diaguita, andKaka) is anextinct language that was spoken by theDiaguita andCalchaquí tribes in northernArgentina andChile.[3] It became extinct during the late 17th century or early 18th century. The language was documented by the JesuitAlonso de Bárcena, but the manuscript is lost. Genetic affiliation of the language remains unclear, and due to the limited number of known words, it has not been possible to conclusively link it to any existinglanguage family.[4]
The nameDiaguita is from Cacántiac-y-ta 'village inhabitant'.[5]
Varieties classified by Loukotka (1968) as part of the Diaguit language group:[6]
Diaguit - extinct language once spoken by many tribes in the Argentineprovince of Catamarca. All the survivors are now Quechuanized. Dialects, all extinct:
Cacán vocabulary possibly exists today in toponyms and local surnames, but the etymologies are often dubious. A comprehensive list may be found in Nardi (1977)[8] and Piispanen (2021).[5]
There are 687 morphemes analyzed of Cacán words, but most of them are of unknown meaning.[8][5] Out of these, 33 have tentative meanings.
Other known words include:
Ao,hao,ahao — house
Gasta — town
Kakanchik (transcribed into Spanish:cacanchic) — name of a deity apparently of fertility
Titakin (transcribed to the Castiliantitaquin) — lord and king
^May be from Spanishguacal 'wooden crate, calabash tree (Crescentia cujete), vessel of about equal height and width for storing or washing things in' ultimately from Classical Nahuatlhuacalli.
† indicates anextinct language,italics indicates independent status of a language,bold indicates that a language family has at least 6 members, * indicates moribund status
