Barbacoan languages

Barbacoan (also Barbakóan, Barbacoano, Barbacoana) is a language family spoken in Colombia and Ecuador.

Family division

Barboacoan consists of 6 languages:

• Northern

• Awan (also known as Awa)

• Awa Pit (also known as Cuaiquer, Coaiquer, Kwaiker, Awá, Awa, Telembi, Sindagua, Awa-Cuaiquer, Koaiker, Telembí)
• Pasto–Muellama

• Pasto (also known as Past Awá) (†) ??
• Muellama (also known as Muellamués, Muelyama) (†) ??

• Coconucan (also known as Guambiano–Totoró)

• Guambiano (also known as Mogües, Moguez, Mogés, Wam, Misak, Guambiano-Moguez, Wambiano-Mogés, Moguex)
• Totoró (also known as Polindara)
• Coconuco (also known as Kokonuko, Cauca, Wanaka) (†)

• Southern ? (Cayapa–Tsafiki)

• Caranqui (also known as Cara, Kara, Karanki, Imbaya) (†) ??
• Cha’palaachi (also known as Cayapa, Chachi, Kayapa, Nigua, Cha’pallachi)
• Tsafiki (also known as Tsafiqui, Tsáfiki, Colorado, Tsáchela, Tsachila, Campaz, Colima)

Pasto, Muellama, Coconuco, and Caranqui are now extinct.

Pasto and Muellama are usually classified as Barbacoan, but the current evidence is weak and deserves further attention. Muellama may have been one of the last surviving dialects of Pasto (both extinct, replaced by Spanish) — Muellama is known only by a short wordlist recorded in the 19th century. The Muellama vocabulary is similar to modern Awa Pit. The Cañari–Puruhá languages are ever more poorly attested, and while often placed in a Chimuan family, were perhaps more likely Barbacoan.

The Coconucan languages were first connected to Barbacoan by Daniel Brinton in 1891. However, a subsequent publication by Henri Beuchat and Paul Rivet placed Coconucan together with a Paezan family (which included Páez and Paniquita) due a misleading "Moguex" vocabulary list. The "Moguex" vocabulary turned out to be a mix of both Páez and Guambiano languages (Curnow 1998). This vocabulary has led to misclassifications by Greenberg (1956, 1987), Loukotka (1968), Kaufman (1990, 1994), and Campbell (1997), among others. Although Páez may be related to the Barbacoan family, a conservative view considers Páez a language isolate pending further investigation. Guambiano is more similar to other Barbacoan languages than to Páez, and thus Key (1979), Curnow et al. (1998), and Gordon (2005) place Coconucan under Barbacoan. The moribund Totoró is sometimes considered a dialect of Guambiano instead of a separate language, and, indeed, Adelaar & Muysken (2004) state that Guambiano-Totoró-Coconuco is best treated as a single language.

Caranqui was replaced by Quechua, perhaps surviving as late as the 18th century. Caranqui seems to have influenced Imbabura Quechua. There are similarities between Caranqui and Pasto and also between Caranqui and Tsafiki. Caranqui is often classified as Barbacoan but the evidence is not conclusive due its poor documentation.

Genealogical relations

The Barbacoan languages may be related to the Páez language. Barbacoan is often connected with the Paezan languages (including Páez); however, Curnow (1998) shows how much of this proposal is based on misinterpretation of an old document of Douay (1888). (See: Paezan languages.)

Other more speculative larger groupings involving Barbacoan include the Macro-Paesan "cluster", the Macro-Chibchan stock, and the Chibchan-Paezan stock.

See also

• Paezan languages
• Páez

External links

• Ethnologue: Barbacoan
• Ethnologue: Páez
• Proel: Familia Barbacoana
• Proel: Sub-tronco Paezano

Bibliography

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• Brend, Ruth M. (Ed.). (1985). From phonology to discourse: Studies in six Colombian languages (p. vi, 133). Language Data, Amerindian Series (No. 9). Dallas: Summer Institute of Linguistics.
• Beuchat, Henri; & Rivet, Paul. (1910). Affinités des langues du sud de la Colombie et du nord de l'Équateur. Le Mouséon, 11, 33-68, 141-198.
• Campbell, Lyle. (1997). American Indian languages: The historical linguistics of Native America. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-509427-1.
• Constenla Umaña, Adolfo. (1981). Comparative Chibchan phonology. (Doctoral dissertation, University of Pennsylvania).
• Constenla Umaña, Adolfo. (1991). Las lenguas del área intermedia: Introducción a su estudio areal. San José: Editorial de la Universidad de Costa Rica.
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• Loukotka, Čestmír. (1968). Classification of South American Indian languages. Los Angeles: Latin American Studies Center, University of California.
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