Puquina

Puquina was a language isolate once spoken in Bolivia.

Puquina · 15.9°S 70.0°W

An isolate: no relationship to any other known language has been demonstrated.

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. It is one of the official languages of Bolivia. Written historical sources of the language are limited, primarily the 1607 document by Franciscan Luis Jerónimo de Oré, Rituale seu Manuale Peruanum. 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. Puquina has provided much of the vocabulary in the Kallawaya language, which is a mixed language formed from Quechua grammar, specifically from the Ayacucho or Cusco Quechua varieties, and Puquina vocabulary.

Puquina was granted official language status in Bolivia in 2009. A traditional community of Puquina speakers was recognized by Bolivia's Pelechuco municipality, north of Lake Titicaca, in 2022, and by the country's official Plurinational Institute for the Study of Languages and Cultures (Instituto Plurinacional de Estudio de Lenguas y Culturas, IPELC) in 2023. A total of 311 Bolivians reported speaking Puquina in the 2024 census.

Sometimes the term Puquina is used for the Uru language, which is completely unrelated.

From Wikipedia · Puquina language · CC BY-SA 4.0

Words in Puquina

Meaning	Word	Romanization
person	mi5*
name	nana*
eye	yuqe*
ear	kala*
nose	mata*
tongue	yaye*
hand	moha*
blood	qami*
skin	lipe*
knee	esqa*
water	unu*
fire	lumin*
sun	inti*
star	wara*
stone	hiri*
tree	tara*
leaf	kio*
night	kisin*
dog	qomse*
fish	juCa*
one	pesq*
two	so*
I	ni*
you	pi*
we	niC*
drink	Coqa*
see	qoha*
hear	ore*
die	hala*
come	waCa*