Munichi language


Munichi is a recently extinct language which was spoken in the village of Munichis, about 10 miles west of Yurimaguas, Loreto Region, Peru. In 1988, there were two mother-tongue speakers, but they had not met since the 1970s. The last known fluent speaker, Victoria Huancho Icahuate, died in the late 1990s. As of 2009 there were several semi-speakers who retained significant lexical, and partial grammatical, knowledge of the language.
It is also called Balsapuertiño, named after the village of Balsapuerto in the department of Loreto, Peru.
Word order in Munichi is VSO.

Other varieties

Unattested "Munichi stock" varieties listed by Loukotka :
Varieties listed by Mason :
The language is considered an isolate, but the pronominal suffixes bear a close resemblance to those reconstructed for proto-Arawakan, and some lexical items are similar to ones in Arawakan languages. Although Jolkesky argues that the language belongs to a putative Macro-Arawakan stock, evidence has yet to be provided for placing it either in a sister branch to the Arawakan language family or in a branch within this language family. There is substantial borrowing from the local variety of Quechua, and to a lesser extent from Spanish and Cahuapanan languages.

Language contact

Jolkesky notes that there are lexical similarities with the Cholon-Hibito, Kechua, and Mochika language families due to contact.

Phonology

Munichi has six vowels: /a, e, i, ɨ, o, u/.

Vocabulary

lists the following basic vocabulary items for Munichi.