The Sechura language, also known as Sek, is an extinct language spoken in the Department of Piura of Peru, near the port of Sechura. It appears to have become extinct by the beginning of the 20th century.[1] The only documentation is that of an 1863 word list by Richard Spruce,[2] as well as a word list by Bishop Martínez Compañón (1782–1790).[3]
Classification
Sechura is too poorly known to be definitively classified. Kaufman notes that a connection between Sechura and the Catacaoan languages is likely and is supported by lexical evidence.[4]
Sek family
Rivet groups Sechura and Tallán together under the same Sek when he compares them to the Catacaoan languages.[5] In comparing word lists from Sechura and Tallán, Torero finds six likely cognates between the two:[6]
Tallán
Sechura
water
xoto
tujut
river
son/daughter
ños-ma
ños-ñi
son/daughter
light
yura
yoro
sun
beach
coyu roro
roro
sea
woman
cucatama
cuctum
woman
fish
xuma
jum
fish
However, Glottolog says the data is not compelling.
Vocabulary
Martínez Compañón (1782-1790)
Below are sample Sechura words from a manuscript (currently held in Madrid) by Bishop Martínez Compañón (1782-1790).[3] There is another copy of the manuscript currently held in Bogotá, which Urban (2019) considers to be less reliable and not the original.[7]
gloss
Sechura
‘man’
succla; sucda (?)
‘heart’
chusiopunma
‘father’
jàchi
‘sister’
bapueñi
‘moon’
ñangru
‘trunk’
fucù
‘grass’
unñiòcòl
‘rain’
purir
Spruce (1863)
Below is Richard Spruce's 1863 Sechura word list as transcribed by Matthias Urban (2015).[8] Some transcriptions are uncertain, with alternative transcriptions following semicolons.
^ abAdelaar, Willem F. H.; Pieter C. Muysken (2004). The Languages of the Andes. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 398–401. ISBN0-521-36275-X.
^Campbell, Lyle. 2018. Language Isolates. New York: Routledge.
^ abMartínez Compañón, Baltasar Jaime. 1985 [1782-1790]. Trujillo del Perú en el siglo XVIII, vol. 2. Madrid: Ediciones Cultura Hispánica.
^Kaufman, Terrence (1990). "Language history in South America: What we know and how to know more". In Payne, D.L. (ed.). Amazonian linguistics: Studies in lowland South American languages. Austin: University of Texas Press. pp. 13–67. ISBN0-292-70414-3.
^Rivet, Paul (1949). "Les langues de l'ancien diocèse de Trujillo". Journal de la Société des Américanistes de Paris (in French). 38. Paris: 1–51.
^Torero Fernández de Córdova, Alfredo A. (1986). "Deslindes lingüísticos en la costa norte peruana". Revista Andina (in Spanish). 4. Cuzco: Centro Bartolomé de Las Casas: 523–48.
^Urban, Matthias. 2019. Lost languages of the Peruvian North Coast. Estudios Indiana 12. Berlin: Ibero-Amerikanisches Institut (Preußischer Kulturbesitz) & Gebr. Mann Verlag.
^Urban, Matthias (2015). El vocabulario sechurano de Richard Spruce. Lexis Vol. 39(2): 395-413.
