Cañari language
Cañar or Cañari is a poorly-attested extinct language of the Marañón River basin in Ecuador which is difficult to classify, apart from being apparently related to Puruhá, though it may have been Chimuan or Barbacoan. It was the original language of the Cañari people before its replacement by Kichwa and later Spanish.
Phonology
The following tentative phonology given below is from Howard.Vocabulary
Cañari substratum in Cañar Quichua
Howard (2010)
Some lexical items found in Cañar Quichua collected from various sources and fieldwork are given below. In the columns from the sources, a plus sign indicates that it is present, while a minus sign indicates non-presence.| Fieldwork | Cordero | Cordero Palacios | Gloss |
| azhan | + | - | face up |
| chinzhina | + 'light breakfast at daybreak' | + | have breakfast |
| gaza | - | - | ambling in a dejected way |
| guzhgurina | + 'gain something without deserving it | - | enjoy oneself |
| guzu | + | + | marsh |
| huizhi | + 'soot' | + huizhina 'to ignite' | embers |
| jizi | + | + | smiling, laughing |
| pizhu | - | + | wrinkled |
| puzha | + 'fine leaf dust, fibrous dirt' | + 'dirt' | mote of dust, dirt |
| tuzu | + | + 'morally deflated' | hunched, shrivelled |
| zharpi | + | + | roughly ground corn |
| zharu | + | + | roughly ground corn |
| zhima | + | + 'soft, textured corn' | pearl-coloured variety of corn |
| zhinki | - | - | poorly physically developed |
| zhiru | + | + | grey |
| zhuru | + | + | pockmarked |
| zula | + | - | fruit that has not grown well |
| zupu | + | - | swollen-footed through disease |
| cuzha | + | + | bird's nest |
| cuzhana | + | + cuzhani | to nest |
| huizhu | + 'bush of the Malva family' | + 'Ternstroemia meridionalis | plant name |
| zhuta | - | - | bird |
| cuzu | + | + | larva, worm |
| puzun | + | + | stomach, large stomach of cows |
| guzhgui | + | + | eucalyptus seed, spinning top |
| jazha | + | + | jaw |