Beothuk, also called Beothukan, is an extinct language once spoken by the indigenous Beothuk people of Newfoundland. The Beothuk have been extinct since 1829, and there are few written accounts of their language. Hence, little is known about it, with practically no structural data existing for Beothuk.
The Choco languages are a small family of Native American languages spread across Colombia and Panama.
This is a list of different language classification proposals developed for the Indigenous languages of the Americas. The article is divided into North, Central, and South America sections; however, the classifications do not correspond to these divisions.
Mochica is an extinct language formerly spoken along the northwest coast of Peru and in an inland village. First documented in 1607, the language was widely spoken in the area during the 17th century and the early 18th century. By the late 19th century, the language was dying out and spoken only by a few people in the village of Etén, in Chiclayo. It died out as a spoken language around 1920, but certain words and phrases continued to be used until the 1960s.
Chimuan or Yuncan is a hypothetical small extinct language family of northern Peru and Ecuador.
Omurano is an unclassified language from Peru. It is also known as Humurana, Roamaina, Numurana, Umurano, and Mayna. The language was presumed to have become extinct by 1958, but in 2011 a rememberer was found who knew some 20 words in Omurano; he claimed that there were still people who could speak it.
The Catacaoan languages are an extinct family of three languages spoken in the Piura Region of Peru. The three languages in the family are:
Culle, also spelled Culli, Cullí, or Kulyi, is a poorly attested extinct language of the Andean highlands of northern Peru. It is the original language of the highlands of La Libertad Region, the south of the Cajamarca Region (Cajabamba), and the north of the Ancash region. It is known through various word lists collected while the language was still spoken and through vocabulary loaned into the Spanish spoken in the region.
The 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 native speaker was rediscovered, she is Martha Pérez Valderrama, she is currently the only known speaker of this family. They may also be related to the extinct Culle language, and perhaps to the language of the Chachapoya, but the data for all of these languages is poor.
Sechura–Catacao is a proposed connection between the small Catacaoan language family of Peru and the language isolate Sechura (Sek). The languages are extremely poorly known, but Kaufman (1990) finds the connection convincing, Campbell (2012) persuasive.
Taruma (Taruamá) is a divergent language of northeastern South America. It has been reported to be extinct several times since as far back as 1770, but Eithne Carlin discovered the last three speakers living in Maruranau among the Wapishana, and is documenting the language. The people and language are known as Saluma in Suriname.
Otomaco is an extinct language of the Venezuelan Llanos.
Catacao (Katakao) is an extinct language of Peru.
Tallán, or Atalán, is an extinct and poorly attested language of the Piura Region of Peru. It is too poorly known to be definitively classified. It may have a possible connection to neighboring Sechura, termed the Sek languages.
The Marañón River basin, at a low point in the Andes which made it an attractive location for trade between the Inca Empire and the Amazon basin, once harbored numerous languages which have been poorly attested or not attested at all. Those of the middle reaches of the river, above the Amazon basin, were replaced in historical times by Aguaruna, a Jivaroan language from the Amazon which is still spoken there. The languages further upriver are difficult to identify, due to lack of data. The region was multilingual at the time of the Conquest, and the people largely switched to Spanish rather than to Quechua, though Quechua also expanded during Colonial times.
Baltasar Jaime Martínez Compañón (1737–1797) was a Spanish prelate who served as Bishop of Trujillo, Peru, Peru from 1779 to 1790, at Trujillo Cathedral, and Archbishop of Bogotá, New Granada, from 1790 to 1797. He was responsible for founding new towns, building schools, and reforming the silver mine at Hualgayoc. He is most remarkable for his efforts to educate Trujillo's Indians and for his research into local plants, animals, archaeological ruins, music, and native cultures.
The Codex Martínez Compañón (c.1782–1785), is a manuscript edited in nine volumes by the bishop of Trujillo, Peru, made by Baltasar Jaime Martínez Compañón, containing 1,411 watercolours and 20 musical scores documenting life in his diocese. This work was sent to Charles IV of Spain, who included it in the Royal Library in 1803. The musical examples in the bishop's text were probably written out by Pedro José Solis, maestro de capilla of Trujillo Cathedral from 1781 to 1823.
The Quingnam language was a pre-Columbian language that was spoken by the Chimú people, who lived in the former territories of the Mochicas: an area north of the Chicama Chao River Valley. At the height of Chimú conquests, the language was spoken extensively from the Jequetepeque River in the north, to the Carabayllo in the south.
Ramanos is a poorly attested extinct language of what is now Bolivia. Glottolog concludes that "the minuscule wordlist ... shows no convincing resemblances to surrounding languages".
The indigenous languages of South America are those whose origin dates back to the pre-Columbian era. The subcontinent has great linguistic diversity, but, as the number of speakers of indigenous languages is diminishing, it is estimated that it could become one of the least linguistically diverse regions of the planet.
