Mochica language
| Mochica | |
|---|---|
| Chimu | |
| Yunga | |
| Native to | Peru |
| Region | Lambayeque |
| Extinct | ca. 1920 |
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Chimuan?
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| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | |
|
Linguist list
|
omc |
| Glottolog | moch1259 |
Approximate extent of Mochica before replacement by Spanish.
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Mochica (also Yunga, Yunca, Chimú, Muchic, Mochika, Muchik, Chimu) is a Chimuan language formerly spoken along the northwest coast of Peru and in an inland village. First documented in 1607, the language was widely spoken in the area during the 17th and early 18th century. By the end of the 19th century the language was dying out and spoken only by a few people in the village of Etén in Chiclayo. It died out as a spoken language around 1920, but certain words and phrases continued to be used until the 1960s.
It is a best known as the supposed language of the Moche culture, as well as the Chimú culture/Chimor.
Mochica is typologically different from the other main languages on the west coast of South America, namely the Quechuan languages, Aymara, and the Mapuche language. Further, it contains rare features such as:
Mochica appears to be a language isolate with no clear links to any other American Indian language.
The reconstruction or recovery of the mochican sounds is problematic. Different scholars who worked with the language used different notations. Both Carrera Daza like Middendorf, devoted much space to justify the phonetic value of the signs they used, but neither was completely successful in clearing the doubts of interpretation of these symbols. In fact their interpretations differ markedly, casting doubt on some sounds.
Lehman made a useful comparison of existing sources, enriched with observations of 1929. The long-awaited field notes of Brüning from 1904-05 have been kept in the Museum of Ethnology, Hamburg, though still unpublished. An additional complication in spellings interpretation of different scholars is the fact that between the 16th and the 19th century the language experienced a remarkable phonological change that make even more risky to use the latest data to understand older material.
The language probably had six simple vowels and six more elongated vowels: /i, iː, ä, äː, e, eː, ø, øː, o, oː, u, uː/. Carrera Daza and Middendorf gave mismatched systems that can be put in approximate correspondence:
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