Atanque language

Atanque, also known as Atanques or Kankuamo, is an extinct Chibchan language of Colombia,^[1] once spoken in the area of Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta.

Atanque
Cancuamo
Native to	Colombia
Ethnicity	Kankuamo, Atanque
Extinct	(date missing)
Language family	Chibchan Arwako–Chimila Arwako Atanque
Language codes
ISO 639-3	None (mis)
Linguist List	qji
Glottolog	kank1244

Vocabulary

There is very little information about the language, in particular with regard to grammar. Before its speakers switched to Spanish, Celedón (1892) managed to compile a brief dictionary. The following table shows a sample of the lexicon.

gloss	Atanque
one	ijkua
two	moga
three	ména
head	chakúku
eye	úma
nose	michiuña
ear	kukkuá
tooth	köhka
man	ferúa
woman	amia
water	dita
fuego	guié
earth	nebinyàku
fish	uáka
tree	kandina
sun	koköbúnyo
moon	sakaméru

Despite being so poorly attested, Atanque clearly belongs to the Arwako subgroup of Chibcha. In particular, it appears to be very close to Wiwa in terms of phonetic innovations.^[2]

Toponyms

Traces of Atanque are also preserved in toponyms recorded in the region of Sierra Nevada.^[3] Suffixes like -ka "place, site" (e.g. in Susungá-ka, Chingá-ka, Kankuá-ka) or -kua "bower" (e.g. in Birintu-kua, Risátu-kua, Kamíntu-kua) are diagnostic of an Atanque source.^[4]