Hibito–Cholon languages
The moribund or extinct Hibito–Cholón or Cholónan languages form a proposed language family that links two languages of Peru, Hibito and Cholón. This family was believed to be extinct but in 2021 a semispeaker was rediscovered; she is Martha Pérez Valderrama, and she is currently the only known speaker of this language family. They may also be related to the extinct Culle and Chirino languages, and perhaps to the language of the Chachapoya, but the data for all of these languages is poor. This hypothetical group of languages has been termed the Cholonoid languages.
Language contact
Jolkesky notes that there are lexical similarities with the Kechua, Leko, Mapudungun, Mochika, Kandoshi, Muniche, and Barbakoa language families due to contact.Lexicon
Several basic Hibito and Cholon words appear to be related, though the data on both languages is poor. The following examples are given in the ad hoc orthography of the three sources we have on these languages:Comparative word list of Hibito and Cholon from Loukotka :
;Notes
;Sources used by Loukotka — Hibito
- Manuscript by Martínez Compañón from the 1700s
- Tessmann
- Mata
- Tessmann