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| Quingnam | |
|---|---|
| (Yunga) Pescadora, Chimú | |
| Native to | Peru |
| Region | north-central coast |
| Ethnicity | Chimú |
| Extinct | by 1763[1] |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | None (mis) |
| Glottolog | quig1235 |
 Extent of Quingnam/Pescadora before replacement by Spanish | |
TheQuingnam language (also misspelledQuignam) was apre-Columbian language that was spoken by theChimú people, who lived in the former territories of theMochicas, an area north of theChicama Chao River Valley. At the height of the Chimú conquests, the language was spoken extensively from theJequetepeque River in the north to theCarabayllo River (near present-dayLima) in the south.
There are various possible etymologies for the nameQuingnam, which is believed to be an exonym. The first links it to theMochica wordking'to spin'. The name would thus mean'to spin, for spinning', with the assumption of a metaphorical link between spinning and speech. Cerrón-Palomino, however, rejects this as apopular etymology.
Salas García (2010) suggests thatquingnam may mean'fisherman' in Quingnam,[2] but the word for 'fisherman' in locations where Quingnam was spoken is recorded asguaxme,guachemin[es] oruachime instead.[3]
Another etymology can be derived from the name of a person named Quin Namo. This person is only mentioned in theCrónica de Ocxaguaman, although the name has a similar structure to other names in the territory of Chimor, specifically in the presence of an element-namo, possibly designating a title of a lord. Perhaps Quin Namo was so important as to serve as the namesake for his language, and many language designations of the Spanish derive from personal names.[4]
The Quingnam language became extinct shortly after the arrival of theconquistadors. The core Chimú city,Chan Chan, was in the vicinity of the new Spanish city of Trujillo and became overwhelmed by it, with people needing to pick up the language of the conquerors for trade and survival.
It is mentioned that a grammar, dictionary and other documents describing a language spoken in theChicama Valley was created by aDominican friar named Pedro de Aparicio. The language that was described by Aparicio could be either Mochica or Quingnam, but the question is unresolved as these materials have not been found. Works by theMercedarians Benito de Jarandilla and Bartolomé de Vargas have also been lost, including a grammar by Vargas titledArte de la lengua que llaman pescadora. The name of the grammar strongly suggests that it is a description of Quingnam.[4]
A letter found during excavations at Magdalena de Cao Viejo in theEl Brujo Archaeological Complex includes a list of decimal numerals which may be Quingnam (Pescadora),[5] but they are notMochica.[6]
Fishermen along the Chimú coast were reported to have spoken a language calledLengua Pescadora (fisherman language) by Spanish missionaries, and disambiguated asYunga Pescadora by linguists; this may be the same as Quingnam. A report byAntonio de la Calancha indicates that Pescadora and Quingnam were the same language, but Pescadora was more "guttural".[7]
Below are numerals from an early 17th-century manuscript found atMagdalena de Cao (Quilter et al. 2010,[8] as transcribed by Urban 2019[4]). Although the manuscript does not indicate which language the numerals belong to, Quingnam is assumed as it is the most likely candidate based on location and other clues[which?]:[4]
| Numeral | Form |
|---|---|
| 1 | chari |
| 2 | marian |
| 3 | apar |
| 4 | tau |
| 5 | himic (?) |
| 6 | sut (?) |
| 7 | canchen |
| 8 | mata |
| 9 | yucan |
| 10 | bencor |
| 21 | maribencor chari tayac |
| 30 | apar bencor |
| 100 | chari pachac |
| 200 | mari pachac |
The numeralstau (4),sut (6),canchen (7), andpachac (100) are loanwords from a variety ofQuechua II, beingtawa,suqta,qanchis, andpachac respectively.[4]
Antonio de la Calancha gives the etymology of the namePacatnamu as meaning 'father of all' or 'common father'. Feijoo (1763) gives the wordchimo as meaning 'powerful' in Quingnam, though the language had already gone extinct at the time of his writing.[1][4]
Quingnam toponyms are distinguished from Mochica toponyms by the absence of/f/ and the presence of/w/.[3]
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