Palta language

For other uses, see Palta (disambiguation).

Palta
Native to	Ecuador
Region	Amazonia
Ethnicity	Palta people
Extinct	colonial era
Language family	unclassified (Chicham? [1] )
Language codes
ISO 639-3	None (mis)
Linguist List	jiv-pal
Glottolog	None

The Palta language is an extinct language of the Ecuadorian Amazon.

Vocabulary

It is attested by only a few words: yumé 'water', xeme 'maize', capal 'fire', let 'wood/firewood' ^[2] (Jiménez de la Espada, 1586), and some toponyms.

Classification

Based on this, Jacinto Jijón y Caamaño (1936) classified it as a Jivaroan language. Kaufman (1994) states that there is "little resemblance", but Adelaar (2004) finds the connection reasonable. In addition to these four words are toponyms, which commonly end in -anga, -numa, -namá. The latter two suggest the Jivaroan locative case suffix -num ~ -nam, and Torero (1993) notes that the last resembles Aguaruna (Jivaroan) namák(a) 'river' as well.

Mason (1950) also lists Malacata as an alternate name for Palta. ^[3]

Bibliography

• Jiménez de la Espada, Marcos, ed. (1965 [1586]): Relaciones geográficas de Indias: Perú, 3 vols. Biblioteca de Autores Españoles 183–5. Madrid: Atlas.
• Jijón y Caamaño, Jacinto (1936–8): Sebastián de Benalcázar, vol. 1 (1936) Quito: Imprenta del Clero; vol. 2 (1938) Quito: Editorial Ecuatoriana.
• Jijón y Caamaño, Jacinto (1940–5): El Ecuador interandino y occidental antes de la conquista castellana, vol. 1 (1940), vol. 2 (1941), vol. 3 (1943), vol. 4 (1945). Quito: Editorial Ecuatoriana (1998 edition, Quito: Abya-Yala).

References

1. "Estudo arqueo-ecolinguístico das terras tropicais sul-americanas (Jolkesky 2016) - Biblioteca Digital Curt Nimuendajú". www.etnolinguistica.org. Retrieved 2025-01-25.
2. Campbell, Lyle (2024-06-25), "Indigenous Languages of South America" , The Indigenous Languages of the Americas (1 ed.), Oxford University PressNew York, pp. 182–279, doi:10.1093/oso/9780197673461.003.0004, ISBN   978-0-19-767346-1 , retrieved 2025-06-08
3. Mason, John Alden (1950). "The languages of South American Indians". In Steward, Julian (ed.). Handbook of South American Indians (PDF). Vol. 6. Washington, D.C., Government Printing Office: Smithsonian Institution, Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 143. pp. 157–317.