Andaqui language


Andaqui is an extinct language from the southern highlands of Colombia. It has been linked to the Paezan or Barbacoan languages, but no connections have been demonstrated. It was spoken by the Andaqui people of Colombia. The language may still be spoken.

Documentation

There are two main sources of information about Andaqui. The first is a list sent to Madrid by Mutis, about twenty pages long, that contains words and expressions in the language that was published in the catalogue of the Royal Library in 1928. A second list was collected by Manuel María Albis in 1854.

Classification

Jolkesky notes that there are lexical similarities with Paez, Chibcha, and Tinigua-Pamigua due to contact.
Paez and Andaqui have a significant amount of common culture-specific vocabulary, which suggests some amount of borrowing. Several similar words between the two languages are also part of the core lexis. However, the general aspects of words in Andaqui differ greatly from those of Paez. Andaqui words tend be long and have open syllables.

Lexical comparison

Paez and Andaqui have a significant amount of lexical parallels. Marcelo Jolkesky found that the similar vocabularies of Andaqui and Paez indicated that the two groups had maintained close contact with each other during the pre-Columbian era.
EnglishAndaquiPaez
cottonkʷakʷa-wawa
tapirkũtihuikʰũʦʲ
sandmĩsaramuse
potatokakakaʔka "papa"
pumpkin/vesselkʷatiːtʰeː
hairkiaha "cabelo"dʲkʰas ‘pelo’
chichabaku-hi, baku-sabeka
Crax ɸitiː fitihi "paujil"fiⁿdʒ "pava"
twonãsiːsieʔns
childʧikʷa-n-ʧiʔk
fireiɸi "llama"ipʲ
manmiʦiː; biʦi-ka ‘sou homem’pihʦ
brotherpiːpeβʲ "hermano menor"
languagegua sunaitʰune
mazamorrakaihikʰaʃ
cornkiɸiʃipʲ "cooked cob"
eyesiɸijaɸʲ
to hear/earsũkʷa-i, sũkʷa-hu; sũkʷa "oír"tʰũʔwã ‘oreja’
stonekʷatiikʷet
tailmaʦĩkwa, maisikwamenz
faceʧipinadʲiʔp
sowhu-uhua-
breastʦuʦukaʦʲuʔʦʲ

He also outlined some parallels between Andaqui and Tinigua:
EnglishAndaquiTinigua
pumpkinbatii, kʷa-tizitisi-kʰi, tisi-ʧi
firewood/treehizi "firewood"kixi "tree"
to eatʧijaʤiʔo
wifenusũkʷanɨʧo
manmiʦii; biʦikapiksiɡa
jaguarmihinaihiɲa
deersũtai, sondaixunze
Irĩkahikʷa
youka-, ði-kaʔzɨ-
he/sheriːsihiʔki
werĩɡʷakʷahikʷaʔa
you rikakʷakaʔkʷaʔa

Varieties

Other unattested varieties possibly related to Andaqui that are listed by Loukotka :

Phonology

The available sources of information for Andaqui use 30 distinct graphemes between consonant and vowel symbols. Mutis's vocabulary list contains several unusual combinations of letters whose phonetic value can only be conjectured. The one that appears with most frequency is fsrr- as in fsrragua and fsrrixa. The sequences fs, sz, sh also were used, but by the 19th century they were generally replaced by s. Thus, it could be interpreted that in the 150 years between the sources, phonemes like, and disappeared from Andaqui speech.
According to an analysis by Gabriela Coronas Urzía, the existing graphemes are interpreted as 12 consonant phonemes, 3 oral vowels, and 3 nasal vowels.
Three diacritics were also used: the grave, the acute, and the circumflex. The grave and acute accents probably represented a fixed stress on the final syllable, which was not phonemic due to its predictable nature. The circumflex likely represented nasalization.

Grammar

Andaqui was likely an agglutinative language given the large amount of long words. It used both prefixes and suffixes.
The subject was marked on the verb using prefixes. For example, the prefix ka- marked the second person.
Nominalization, grammatical mood, and some parts of person reference were marked using suffixes. For instance, the suffix for the imperative in the second person was -zá:
Case was also indicated by suffixes:

Vocabulary

Loukotka lists the following basic vocabulary items.