Guanche language
| Guanche | |
|---|---|
| Native to | Formerly, Canary Islands |
| Region | Exclusive to the islands |
| Ethnicity | Guanches |
| Extinct | 17th century |
|
Afro-Asiatic
|
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | |
|
Linguist list
|
gnc |
| Glottolog | guan1277 |
The Guanche language, also known as Amazigh, is an extinct Berber language that was spoken by the Guanches of the Canary Islands until the 17th century or possibly later. It died out as the Guanche ethnic group was assimilated into the dominant Spanish culture. The Guanche language is known today through sentences and individual words that were recorded by early geographers, as well as through several place-names and Guanche words that were retained in the Canary Islanders' Spanish.
Guanche has been classified by modern linguists as a Berber language. Recognizable Berber words and numerous Berber grammatical inflections have been identified.
The name Guanche originally meant "man from Tenerife", and only later did it come to refer to all native inhabitants of the Canary Islands. Although different dialects were spoken across the archipelago, they are all thought to have been varieties of the same language.
Archaeological finds on the Canaries include both Libyco-Berber and Punic inscriptions in rock carvings, although early accounts stated the Guanches themselves did not possess a system of writing.
The first reliable account of Guanche language was provided by Genovese explorer Nicoloso da Recco in 1341, with a list of the numbers 1–16, possibly from Fuerteventura. Recco's account reveals a base-10 counting system with strong similarities to Berber numbers.
Silbo, originally a whistled form of Guanche speech used for communicating over long distances, was used on La Gomera, El Hierro, Tenerife, and Gran Canaria. As the Guanche language became extinct, a Spanish version of Silbo was adopted by some inhabitants of the Canary Islands.
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