{{Short description|Extinct language of South America}} {{Expand language|topic=|langcode=es|otherarticle=Idioma puquina|date=February 2025}} {{Infobox language | name = Puquina | familycolor = american | fam1 = Puquina | iso3 = puq | map = Pukina Map.png | mapcaption = Pukina language distribution around 1600 CE, Pukina toponyms, and pre-Inca Pukina ethnicities | glotto = puqu1242 | region = Lake Titicaca | altname = Pukina | extinct = early 19th century | states = Bolivia, Peru | nation = Bolivia | ethnicity = Tiwanaku | nativename = {{lang|puq|Pukina juyai}} }}
'''Puquina''' (or '''Pukina''') is an extinct language once spoken in the region surrounding Lake Titicaca (Peru and Bolivia) and in the north of Chile. It is often associated with the culture that built Tiwanaku.
A Puquina substrate can be found in the Quechuan and Spanish languages spoken in the south of Peru, mainly in Arequipa, Moquegua and Tacna, as well as in Bolivia. There also seem to be remnants in the Kallawaya language, which may be a mixed language formed from Quechuan languages and Puquina.<ref name=AK2006>{{cite web |url=http://52ica.etnolinguistica.org/adelaar |title=The Puquina and Leko languages |access-date=2007-09-19 |author=Willem Adelaar |author2=Simon van de Kerke |work=Symposium: Advances in Native South American Historical Linguistics, July 17–18, 2006, at the 52nd International Congress of Americanists, Seville, Spain}}</ref>
Sometimes the term ''Puquina'' is used for the Uru language, which is completely unrelated.
==Classification==
Puquina has been considered an unclassified language, since it has not been proven to be firmly related to any other language in the Andean region.{{citation needed|date=January 2026}} A relationship with the Arawakan languages has long been suggested, based solely on the possessive paradigm (1st no-, 2nd pi-, 3rd ču-), which is similar to the proto-Arawakan subject forms (1st * nu-, 2nd * pi-, 3ª * tʰu-). Further possible lexical cognates between Puquina and the Arawakan languages have recently been found that could support placing the language within a putative Macro-Arawakan family, along with the Candoshi and the Munichi languages.<ref name="Jolkesky2016">{{cite thesis |degree=PhD |last1=Jolkesky |first1=Marcelo Pinho De Valhery |title=Estudo arqueo-ecolinguístico das terras tropicais Sul-Americanas |date=4 November 2016 |publisher=Universidade de Brasília |url=https://repositorio.unb.br/handle/10482/21671 |access-date=25 January 2026 |lang=pt-BR}}</ref>{{rp|310–317}} However, such a hypothesis still lacks conclusive evidence.
In this regard, Adelaar and van de Kerke (2009: 126) have pointed out that if in fact the Puquina language is genetically related to the Arawakan languages, its separation from this family must have occurred at a relatively early date; the authors further suggest that in such a case the location of the Puquina speakers should be taken into account in the debate over the geographic origin of the Arawakan family. Such consideration was taken up by Jolkesky (op. cit., 611–616) in his archaeo-ecolinguistic model of diversification of the Macro-Arawakan languages. According to this author, the proto-Macro-Arawakan language would have been spoken in the Middle Ucayali River Basin during the beginning of the 2nd millennium BCE and its speakers would have produced in this region the Tutishcainyo pottery.
== Proposed Inca affiliation == The linguist Rodolfo Cerrón Palomino proposed that "Qhapaq Simi", the cryptic language of the nobility of the Inca Empire, was closely related to Puquina, and that ''Runa Simi'' (Quechuan languages) were spoken by commoners; this proposal is known as the "Puquinist Hypothesis"<ref>{{Cite web |title=Las lenguas de los incas: el puquina, el aimara y el quechua (The languages of the Incas: Puquina, Aymara and Quechua) [1 ed.] 3631630948, 9783631630945 |url=https://dokumen.pub/las-lenguas-de-los-incas-el-puquina-el-aimara-y-el-quechua-the-languages-of-the-incas-puquina-aymara-and-quechua-1nbsped-3631630948-9783631630945.html |access-date=2025-11-27 |website=dokumen.pub |language=en}}</ref> Alfredo Torero, a scholar of the Puquina language, has refuted the "Puquinist hypothesis", arguing that Qhapaq Simi was a variant of the Aru or Aymara language family.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Torero |first=Alfredo |url=https://www.google.com.pe/books/edition/Idiomas_de_los_Andes/J5suAAAAYAAJ?hl=es-419&gbpv=0&bsq=Idiomas%20de%20los%20andes%20libro |title=Idiomas de los Andes: lingüística e historia |date=2002 |publisher=IFEA, Instituto Francés de Estudios Andinos |isbn=978-9972-699-27-6 |language=es}}</ref>
Moulian ''et al.'' (2015) argue that Puquina influenced Mapudungun of southern Chile long before the rise of the Inca Empire.<ref name="Moulianetal2015">{{cite journal |last1=Moulian |first1=Rodrígo |last2=Catrileo |first2=María |author-link2=María Catrileo |last3=Landeo |first3=Pablo |date=2015 |title=Afines quechua en el vocabulario mapuche de Luis de Valdivia |trans-title=Akins Quechua words in the Mapuche vocabulary of Luis de Valdivia |url=https://scielo.conicyt.cl/scielo.php?pid=S0718-48832015000200004&script=sci_arttext |journal=Revista de lingüística teórica y aplicada |language=Spanish |volume=53 |issue=2 |pages=73–96 |doi=10.4067/S0718-48832015000200004 |access-date=January 13, 2019 |doi-access=free}}</ref> This areal linguistic influence may have started with a migratory wave arising from the collapse of the Tiwanaku empire around 1000 CE.<ref name="Moulianetal2015" /><ref>Dillehay, Tom D.; Pino Quivira, Mario; Bonzani, Renée; Silva, Claudia; Wallner, Johannes; Le Quesne, Carlos (2007) [http://www.dendrocronologia.cl/pubs/2007_Dillehay(AncientCultivatedWetlands).pdf Cultivated wetlands and emerging complexity in south-central Chile and long distance effects of climate change]. ''Antiquity'' 81 (2007): 949–960</ref>
==Phonology==
=== Consonants === {| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center" ! !Labial !Alveolar !Palatal !Velar !Uvular !Glottal |- !Nasal |{{IPA link|m}} |{{IPA link|n}} |{{IPA link|ɲ}} | | | |- !Plosive |{{IPA link|p}} |{{IPA link|t}} |{{IPA link|tʃ}} |{{IPA link|k}} |{{IPA link|q}} |{{IPA link|ʔ}} |- !Fricative | |{{IPA link|s}} |{{IPA link|ʃ}} | | colspan="2" |{{IPA link|h}}~{{IPA link|χ}} |- !Lateral | |{{IPA link|l}} |{{IPA link|ʎ}} | | | |- !Approximant |{{IPA link|w}} | |{{IPA link|j}} | | | |- !Trill | |{{IPA link|r}} | | | | |}
* /h/ may also be heard as a uvular fricative [χ]. * /ʎ/ may also be heard as a voiced palatal affricate [dʒ].
=== Vowels === {| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center" ! !Front !Central !Back |- !Close |{{IPA link|i}} | |({{IPA link|u}}) |- !Mid |{{IPA link|e}} | |({{IPA link|o}}) |- !Open | |{{IPA link|a}} | |}
* /o/ and /u/ may not be contrastive, though there are some minimal pairs (e.g. {{Lang|puq|no}} 'my' and {{Lang|puq|nu}} 'who'.).<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Adelaar |first1=Willem |last2=van de Kerke |first2=Simon |date=2009 |chapter=Puquina |editor=Mily Crevels and Pieter Muysken |title=Lenguas de Bolivia, vol. I |pages=125–146 |location=La Paz |language=es |publisher=Plural editores}}</ref>
== Vocabulary ==
=== Numerals === {| class="wikitable" |+Numerals in Puquina<ref name="Aguilo-2000">Aguiló, Federico. 2000. ''El Idioma del Pueblo Puquina: Un enigma que va aclarándose''. Quito, Ecuador: Intercultural de las Nacionalidades Pueblos Indígenas/Fondo Ecuatoriano Populorum Progressio. 116pp.</ref> !Numeral !Puquina |- |1 |{{lang|puq|pesq}} |- |2 |{{lang|puq|so}} |- |3 |{{lang|puq|qapa}} |- |4 |{{lang|puq|sper}} |- |5 |{{lang|puq|taqpa}} |- |6 |{{lang|puq|chichun}} |- |7 |{{lang|puq|stu}} |- |8 |{{lang|puq|kina}} |- |9 |{{lang|puq|cheqa}} |- |10 |{{lang|puq|sqara}} |}
=== Pronouns === {| class="wikitable" |+Pronouns in Puquina !English !Puquina |- |I |{{lang|puq|ni}} |- |you (sg.) |{{lang|puq|pi}} |- |he |{{lang|puq|chu}}, {{lang|puq|hi}} |- |we (inclusive) |{{lang|puq|nich}} |- |we (exclusive) |{{lang|puq|señ}} |- |you (pl.) |{{lang|puq|pich}} |- |they |{{lang|puq|chuch}} |}
== Sample text == The Lord's Prayer in Puquina:''<ref name=":9">{{Cite book |last=de Oré |first=Luis Jerónimo |author-link=Luis Jerónimo de Oré |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QWK12GojzF4C |title=Rituale, seu Manuale Peruanum, et forma breuis administrandi apud Indos sacrosancta Baptismi, Poenitentiae, Eucharistiae, Matrimonij, & Extremae vnctionis sacramenta. Iuxta ordinem Sanctae Romanae Ecclesiae. Per R.P.F. Ludouicum Hieronymum Orerium, ordinis Minorum concionatorem, & sacrae theologiae lectorem accuratum: et quae indigent versione, vulgaribus idiomatibus Indicis, secundum diuersos situs omnium prouinciarum noui orbis Perù, aut per ipsum translata, aut eius industria elaborata |date=1607 |publisher=apud Io. Iacobum Carlinum, & Costantinum Vitalem |location=Naples |language=la, es, qu, ay}}</ref>''
{{lang|puq|Señ yqui, hanigopacas cunana ascheno, po mana vpallisuhanra: po capaca aschano señ guta huachonta, po hatano callacaso hanta, quiguri hanigopa casna ehe eahu cohuacasna hamp: Kaa gamenque ehehesuma. Señ guta camen señ tanta, señ hochaghe pampache sumao, quiguiri señ señ guta huchachasqueno gata pampachanganch cagu. Ama èhe acrosuma huchaguta señ hotonouà enahata entoriana quespina sumau. Amen.}}
==References== {{Reflist}}
{{Languages of Bolivia}}
Category:Language isolates of South America Category:Indigenous languages of the Andes Category:Extinct languages of South America Category:Languages extinct in the 18th century Category:Languages of Peru Category:Languages of Bolivia