Leco language
| Leco | |
|---|---|
| Leko, Rik’a | |
| Native to | Bolivia |
| Region | east of Lake Titicaca |
| Ethnicity | 2,800 (2001) |
|
Native speakers
|
20 (2001) |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | |
| Glottolog | leco1242 |
Leco, also written as Leko, is a language isolate that, though long reported to be extinct, is spoken by 20–40 individuals in areas east of Lake Titicaca, Bolivia. The Leco ethnic population is about 80.
Apart from some brief lists of vocabulary, the main document for which Leco is known is a Christian doctrine compiled by the missionary Andrés Herrero at the beginning of the 19th century. That doctrine was published in 1905 by Lafone Quevedo, who used it as a source to make a grammatical description of the language. That work was virtually the only available document about Leco, until the linguist Simon van de Kerke (1994) located some speakers of the language and compiled some additional facts which enlarged the analysis of Quevedo.
In Grimes (1988), Leco is classified as a language isolate and is considered extinct. However, Montaño Aragón (1987) found some speakers of the language in the region of Atén and in Apolo, La Paz, in Franz Tamayo Province in the Bolivian department of La Paz, along Mapiri River in Larecaja Province (situated also in the department of La Paz).
Some speakers were relocated by van de Kerke (1994–97). These speakers, mostly men, were older than 50 years and had not habitually used the language since a long time before that. Van de Kerke relates that the speakers do not feel sufficiently secure to conduct a conversation spontaneously in Leco.
In regard to the phonology of Leco, one can point out the following (based on van de Kerke, 2009: 289–291). Leco has the following system of consonant phonemes:
Besides, Leco has six vowel phonemes: /a/, /e/, /i/, /o/, /u/ and /è/. The opposition among the first five vowels is distinguished in the data, but the opposition between /e/ and /è/ is found only in a limited number of words, as for example pele 'balsa' and pèlè 'name of plant'.
In regard to the lexicon and the classes of words in Leco, one can mention the following (van de Kerke, 2009: 293–297):
In regard to the morphological characteristics of Leco, one can point out the following (van de Kerke, 2009: 297–313).
In Leco, one sees productive processes of reduplication. With substantives, reduplication can be interpreted as 'a heap/much of', with adjectives, 'a high degree of'; with verbs the interpretation is very diverse and not always transparent; thus we have the reduplicate verb tiltilkach 'to be undone', derived from tiltil 'undone', which expresses a state or process, for which reason it is combined also with the auxiliary kach 'to be'.
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