Kallawaya language

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Kallawaya is an endangered, secret, mixed language in Bolivia. It is spoken by the Kallawaya people, a group of traditional itinerant healers in the Andes in their medicinal healing practice. The language dates back at least to the pre-Inca period.

It is a mixed language. The grammar is partially Quechua morphology, but most of its words are from either unknown sources or from an extinct language family, Pukina, and based on Pukina lexicon. Pukina, once spoken in the region, was abandoned in favor of Quechua, Aymara or Spanish.[1]

Kallawaya is also a secret language, passed only by father to son, or grandfather to grandson, or rarely, to daughters if a practitioner has no sons. It is not passed on for use in normal family dialogue. Although its use is primarily ritual, used secretly for initiated men, Kallawaya may be a part of everyday conversation between those familiar with it.[2]

[edit] Further reading

  • Aguiló, Federico. Diccionario kallawaya. La Paz, Bolivia: MUSEF, 1991. (Spanish language)
  • Bastien JW. 1989. Differences between Kallawaya-Andean and Greek-European Humoral Theory]. Social Science & Medicine (1982). 28, no. 1: 45-51.
  • Girault, Louis. Kallawaya: el idioma secreto de los incas : diccionario. [La Paz, Bolivia?]: UNICEF, 1989. (Spanish language)
  • Oblitas Poblete, Enrique, and Jan Szemiński. Lexico Kallawaya. [S.l: Bet Xemex?, 1994. (Spanish language)

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ^ Willem Adelaar. The Puquina and Leko languages. Symposium: Advances in Native South American Historical Linguistics, July 17-18, 2006, at the 52nd International Congress of Americanists, Seville, Spain. Retrieved on 2007-09-19.
  2. ^ The Kallawaya Language Project (online). Retrieved on 2007-09-19.
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