Cañari–Puruhá languages
Extinct language pair of Ecuador
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Cañari (Cañar, Kanyari) and Puruhá (Puruguay, Puruwá) are two poorly-attested extinct languages of the Marañón River basin in Ecuador that are difficult to classify. Puruhá is scarcely attested, and Cañari is known primarily from placenames. Loukotka (1968) suggests they may have been related to Mochica (Yunga) in a family called Chimuan,[1] followed by Kaufman (1994),[2] but Adelaar (2004:397) thinks it is more likely that they were Barbacoan languages. (See extinct languages of the Marañón River basin.)
Geographic
distributionEcuadoran Andes
distributionEcuadoran Andes
Extinctlate 17th century
Linguistic classificationBarbacoan?
- Cañari–Puruhá
Varieties
Cañari and Puruhá are the two main varieties:[1]
- Cañari - extinct language of Cañar Province, Ecuador
- Puruhá / Puruguai - extinct language once spoken in Chimborazo Province and Bolívar Province, Ecuador