Munichi is a recently extinct language which was spoken in the village of Munichis, about 10 miles (16 km) west of Yurimaguas, Loreto Region, Peru. In 1988, there were two mother-tongue speakers, but they had not met since the 1970s. The last known fluent speaker, Victoria Huancho Icahuate, died in the late 1990s. As of 2009 there were several semi-speakers who retained significant lexical, and partial grammatical, knowledge of the language (Michael et al. 2013).
Munichi | |
---|---|
Muniche | |
Native to | Peru |
Region | Loreto |
Extinct | late 1990s, with the death of Victoria Huancho Icahuate |
Macro-Arawakan ? | |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | myr |
Glottolog | muni1258 |
ELP | Munichi |
Location of Munichi |
It is also called Balsapuertiño, named after the village of Balsapuerto in the department of Loreto, Peru.[1]
Unattested "Munichi stock" varieties listed by Loukotka (1968):[1]
Varieties listed by Mason (1950):[4]
The language is considered an isolate (Michael et al. 2013), but the pronominal suffixes bear a close resemblance to those reconstructed for proto-Arawakan (Gibson 1996:18-19), and some lexical items are similar to ones in Arawakan languages (Jolkesky 2016:310-317).[5] Although Jolkesky (id.) argues that the language belongs to a putative Macro-Arawakan stock, evidence has yet to be provided for placing it either in a sister branch to the Arawakan language family or in a branch within this language family. There is substantial borrowing from the local variety of Quechua, and to a lesser extent from Spanish and Cahuapanan languages (Michael et al. 2013).
Jolkesky (2016) notes that there are lexical similarities with the Cholon-Hibito, Kechua, and Mochika language families due to contact.[6]
Munichi has six vowels: /a, e, i, ɨ, o, u/.[7]
Bilabial | Alveolar | Palato-alveolar | Retroflex | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Stop | voiceless | p | t | c | k | ʔ | ||
voiced | d | g | ||||||
Affricate | t͡s | t͡ʃ | ʈʂ | |||||
Fricative | s | ʃ | ʂ | ç | h | |||
Nasal | m | n | ɲ | |||||
Approximant | l | j | w | |||||
Flap | ɾ |
Loukotka (1968) lists the following basic vocabulary items for Munichi.[1]
gloss | Munichi |
---|---|
one | wuítsa |
two | utspa |
three | uchuma |
head | óke |
ear | épue |
tooth | dé |
fire | chúshe |
stone | sögte |
sun | xowá |
moon | spáltsi |
maize | sáa |
dog | xíno |
boat | niasúta |