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| Puquina (proper) | |
|---|---|
| Pukina | |
| Pukina juyai | |
| Native to | Bolivia,Peru |
| Region | Lake Titicaca |
| Ethnicity | Tiwanaku |
| Extinct | early 19th century |
Puquina
| |
| Official status | |
Official language in | Bolivia |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | puq |
| Glottolog | puqu1242 |
 Pukina language distribution around 1600 CE, Pukina toponyms, and pre-Inca Pukina ethnicities. | |
Puquina (orPukina) is anextinct language once spoken by a native ethnic group in the region surroundingLake Titicaca (Peru andBolivia) and in the north ofChile. It is often associated with the culture that builtTiwanaku.
A Puquina substrate can be found in the Quechuan and Spanish languages spoken in the south of Peru, mainly inArequipa,Moquegua andTacna, as well as inBolivia. There also seem to be remnants in theKallawaya language, which may be amixed language formed fromQuechuan languages and Puquina.[1]
Sometimes the termPuquina is used for theUru language, which is distinctly different.
Puquina has been considered an unclassified language, since it has not been proven to be firmly related to any other language in the Andean region.[citation needed] A relationship with theArawakan languages has long been suggested, based solely on the possessive paradigm (1st no-, 2nd pi-, 3rd ču-), which is similar to the proto-Arawakan subject forms (1st * nu-, 2nd * pi-, 3ª * tʰu-). Further possible lexical cognates between Puquina and the Arawakan languages have recently been found that could support placing the language within a putativeMacro-Arawakan family, along with theCandoshi and theMunichi languages.[2]: 310–317 However, such a hypothesis still lacks conclusive evidence.
In this regard, Adelaar and van de Kerke (2009: 126) have pointed out that if in fact the Puquina language is genetically related to theArawakan languages, its separation from this family must have occurred at a relatively early date; the authors further suggest that in such a case the location of the Puquina speakers should be taken into account in the debate over the geographic origin of the Arawakan family. Such consideration was taken up by Jolkesky (op. cit., 611-616) in his archaeo-ecolinguistic model of diversification of theMacro-Arawakan languages. According to this author, the proto-Macro-Arawakan language would have been spoken in the Middle Ucayali River Basin during the beginning of the 2nd millennium BCE and its speakers would have produced in this region the Tutishcainyo pottery.
| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Glottal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | ɲ | |||
| Plosive | p | t | tʃ | k | q | ʔ |
| Fricative | s | ʃ | (χ) | h | ||
| Lateral | l | ʎ | ||||
| Approximant | w | j | ||||
| Trill | r |
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i | o ~u | |
| Mid | e | ||
| Open | a |
| Numeral | Puquina |
|---|---|
| 1 | pesq |
| 2 | so |
| 3 | qapa |
| 4 | sper |
| 5 | taqpa |
| 6 | chichun |
| 7 | stu |
| 8 | kina |
| 9 | cheqa |
| 10 | sqara |
| English | Puquina |
|---|---|
| I | ni |
| you (sg.) | pi |
| he | chu, hi |
| we (inclusive) | nich |
| we (exclusive) | señ |
| you (pl.) | pich |
| they | chuch |
| gloss | Puquina |
|---|---|
| one | pesk |
| two | so |
| three | kapak |
| eye | sekbi |
| hand | kupi |
| woman | atago |
| water | unu |
The linguistRodolfo Cerrón Palomino proposed that "Qhapaq Simi", the cryptic language of the nobility of theInca Empire, was closely related to Puquina, and thatRuna Simi (Quechuan languages) were spoken by commoners; this proposal is known as the "Puquinist Hypothesis"[6]Alfredo Torero, a scholar of the Puquina language, has refuted the "Puquinist hypothesis", arguing that Qhapaq Simi was a variant of the Aru or Aymara language family.[7]
Moulianet al. (2015) argue that Puquina language influencedMapuche language ofsouthern Chile long before the rise of theInca Empire.[8] Thisareal linguistic influence may have started with a migratory wave arising from the collapse of theTiwanaku empire around 1000 CE.[8][9]