# Timote language > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Timote_language > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Timote_language.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timote_language > Source revision: 1357178534 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) {{Short description|Language of Timote–Cuica, Venezuela}} {{Infobox language | name = Timote–Cuica | altname = Migurí | nativename = | states = [Venezuela](/source/Venezuela) | speakers = 200? | date = 1977, Mutú | familycolor = American | dia1 = Timote | dia2 = Cuica | dia3 = ?Mutú (Loco) | iso3 = none | glotto = timo1237 | glottoname = Timote-Cuica | iso3comment = ([MUF] retired in Ethnologue 15) | region = Mutús | ethnicity = [Timoto-Cuica people](/source/Timoto-Cuica_people) | map = Timote-Cuica languages.png | mapcaption = | family = [Language isolate](/source/Language_isolate) }} '''Timote''', also known as '''Timote–Cuica''', is the language of the [Timote–Cuica state](/source/Timote-Cuica_people) in the Venezuelan Andes, around the present city of [Mérida](/source/M%C3%A9rida%2C_M%C3%A9rida) and south of [Lake Maracaibo](/source/Lake_Maracaibo). == Geographical distribution == Cuica was spoken from [Humocaro](/source/Humocaro) in [Lara](/source/Lara_(state)) to {{Interlanguage link|Jajó|wikidata|Q130640562}} in Trujillo, and Timote was spoken in the [Motatán](/source/Motat%C3%A1n_River) and [Chama](/source/Chama_River_(Venezuela)) river valleys from {{Interlanguage link|Timotes|es}} to [La Grita](/source/La_Grita) in [Táchira](/source/T%C3%A1chira) state. == History == At the time of Spanish contact, the Timote and Cuica, who were agriculturalists, inhabited the modern-day states of [Mérida](/source/M%C3%A9rida_(state)) and [Trujillo](/source/Trujillo_(state)) in Venezuela. It is said that the Cuicas received the Spaniards in a friendly manner, while the Timotes were more warlike. Descendants of these peoples reside in a number of villages in the region, but are thought to have lost their distinct languages in the early 20th century. However, in 1977, a report by [Merrill Seely](/source/Merrill_Seely) references a language supposedly spoken in the locality of Mutús, "above" [Pueblo Llano Municipality](/source/Pueblo_Llano_Municipality) in Mérida state. This language would "almost certainly" be Timote, the original language of the region. The name ''Timote'' itself is derived from {{Lang|mis|ti-motɨ}} 'Mutú speakers'. ''mutú'' or ''mukú'' is a common toponym in the region,{{Cite book |last=Campbell |first=Lyle |url=https://amerindias.github.io/referencias/cam00americanindian.pdf |title=American Indian languages: the historical linguistics of Native America |date=1997 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-509427-5 |series=Oxford studies in anthropological linguistics |location=New York}} possibly meaning 'people', 'community', or 'village', and was so common that scholar {{Interlanguage link|Julio César Salas|es}} "saw it as a suitable replacement for the name Timote".{{Cite book |last=Adelaar |first=Willem F. H. |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/9780511486852/type/book |title=The Languages of the Andes |last2=Muysken |first2=Pieter C. |date=2004-06-10 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-36275-7 |edition=1 |chapter=Timote–Cuica |doi=10.1017/cbo9780511486852.004}}{{Cite journal |last=Rivet |first=P. |date=January 1927 |title=La famille linguistique Timote (Venezuela) |url=https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/463765 |journal=International Journal of American Linguistics |language=en |volume=4 |issue=2/4 |pages=137–167 |doi=10.1086/463765 |issn=0020-7071|url-access=subscription }} === Documentation === Around the beginning of the 20th centiury, a number of local scholars collected data on the Timote language. These include [Tulio Febres Cordero](/source/Tulio_Febres_Cordero), Amílcar Fonseca, and José Ignacio Lares. These data were compiled and discussed by [Paul Rivet](/source/Paul_Rivet) (1927). [Alfredo Jahn](/source/Alfredo_Jahn) (1927) also collected anthropological data, along with documentation of the language. == Classification == Timote shows no immediately apparent similarities with the nearby [Arawakan](/source/Arawakan_languages), [Cariban](/source/Cariban_languages), and [Chibchan languages](/source/Chibchan_languages). Rivet (1927) compared vocabulary from Timote and Cuica with [Páez](/source/P%C3%A1ez_language) and a number of Chibchan languages, with a few similarities visible but "no overall picture", according to [Willem Adelaar](/source/Willem_Adelaar) and Pieter Muysken (2004). Marcelo Jolkesky (2016) identifies some lexical similarities with the [Jirajaran languages](/source/Jirajaran_languages).{{cite thesis|last=Jolkesky|first=Marcelo Pinho de Valhery|date=2016|url=http://www.etnolinguistica.org/tese:jolkesky-2016-arqueoecolinguistica|title=Estudo arqueo-ecolinguístico das terras tropicais sul-americanas|type=Ph.D. dissertation|location=Brasília|publisher=University of Brasília|edition=2}} == Dialects == There is no certainty on whether or not Timote and Cuica were dialects of a single language or distinct from each other. Jahn (1927), who collected data on Timote, claimed that Timote and Cuica were one and the same language, and his data correspond quite closely with the "Cuica" examples collected by Fonseca. Mucuchí–Marripú is another dialect of Timote; Campbell (2012) distinguished them as separate languages.{{cite book |last=Campbell|first=Lyle|authorlink=Lyle Campbell|editor1-last=Grondona|editor1-first=Verónica|editor2-last=Campbell|editor2-first=Lyle|date=2012|title=The Indigenous Languages of South America|chapter=Classification of the indigenous languages of South America|series=The World of Linguistics|volume=2|location=Berlin|publisher=De Gruyter Mouton|pages=59–166|isbn=9783110255133}} == Phonology == Consonant clusters, somewhat unusual for the area, are found word-initially, especially in Cuica: ''kču'' 'bird', ''stots'' 'blood', Timote ''klef'' 'rainy season', ''hutn'' 'dog'. == Vocabulary == A possible Quechua loanword is present in Timote in the word {{Lang|mis|{{ill|Fotuto|es}}}}, referring to a shell trumpet. === Numerals === Timote has an obviously decimal numeral system. {| class="wikitable" |- ! Gloss !! Timote !! Cuica |- align=center | 1 || colspan=2| karí |- align=center | 2 || colspan=2| xem, xen |- align=center | 3 || šut, sut,
hisxut || šuent |- align=center | 4 || pit || pití |- align=center | 5 || kabó,
kabok || kamó |- align=center | 6 || kasum, kaksúm,
kapsún || katseunt |- align=center | 7 || mai-xem,
mai-xén || ma-en |- align=center | 8 || mai-xut,
mai-sxut || mabi-šuent |- align=center | 9 || mai-pit || mabi-pita |- align=center | 10 || colspan=2| tabís |} ==References== {{reflist}} ==External links== * Fabre: [http://www.ling.fi/Entradas%20diccionario/Dic=Mut%fas.pdf Mutús] * {{Cite journal |last=Ñáñez |first=Omar González |last2=Valecillos |first2=Luis Bastidas |date=2002 |title=Investigaciones etnolingüísticas sobre el fenómeno "Chontal" en la cuenca alta y media del Chama y en el sector Panamericana del Sur del Lago de Maracaibo |url=http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=71220564 |journal=Boletín Antropológico |language=es |volume=20 |issue=56 |issn=1325-2610 |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20140614203910/http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=71220564 |archive-date=2014-06-14|url-status=live}} {{Languages of Venezuela}}{{Language families}}{{South American languages}} {{Authority control}} Category:Indigenous languages of the Americas Category:Timotean languages Category:Languages of Venezuela --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Timote language](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timote_language) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timote_language?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.