- Timote language
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Timote Cuica Spoken in Venezuela Native speakers perhaps 200 in the village of Mutús (date missing) Language family Timotean- Timote
Dialects TimoteCuicaLanguage codes ISO 639-3 – Linguist List qpj Timote, also known as Cuica or Timote–Cuica, was the language of the Timote–Cuica state in the Venezuelan Andes, around the present city of Mérida and south of Lake Maracaibo.
The language is reported to have gone extinct in the early to mid 20th century. However, in 1977 it was reported that the indigenous village of Mutús, in the heart of the old Timote state, still spoke an indigenous language, which would presumably be Timote. The name is apparently Timote, as 'Timote' itself derives from ti-motɨ 'Mutú speakers', and mutú or mukú is a common toponym in the region. This lead had not been followed up as of Adelaar (2004).
Dialects
The Timote and Cuica peoples apparently spoke dialects of a single language; some of the last reports of Cuica claim it was nothing other than Timote. Data is limited, but the connection is clear in the numerals:
Gloss Timote Cuica 1 karí 2 xem, xen 3 šut, sut,
hisxutšuent 4 pit pití 5 kabó,
kabokkamó 6 kasum, kaksúm,
kapsúnkatseunt 7 mai-xem,
mai-xénma-en 8 mai-xut,
mai-sxutmabi-šuent 9 mai-pit mabi-pita 10 tabís Consonant clusters, somewhat unusual for the area, are found, especially in Cuica: kču 'bird', stots 'blood', Timote klef 'rainy season', hutn 'dog'.
References
- Adelaar, Willem & Pieter Muysken (2004). The Languages of the Andes. Cambridge University Press. pp. 124–129
External links
- Fabre: Mutús
Categories:- Language articles with undated speaker data
- Languages with Linglist but no iso3 codes
- Indigenous languages of the Americas
- Extinct languages
- Languages of Venezuela
- Indigenous languages of the Americas stubs
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