Kukurá language
{{Short description|Spurious Brazilian language, invented 1901}}
{{Infobox language
| name = Kukurá
| created = 1901
| creator = Guzmán, a Kainguá interpreter for A. V. Frič
| iso3 = none
| glotto = spurious
| glotto2 = kuku1286
| glottorefname2 = Kukura
| familycolor = conlang
| posteriori = Guaraní (partially)
| fam2 = fraud
| states = Brazil
| region = Mato Grosso
| setting = Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil
}}
Kukurá (Cucurá, Kokura) is a spurious language, fabricated by an interpreter in Brazil.
History
When Alberto Vojtěch Frič visited Rio Verde, Brazil, in 1901 he took with him a Kainguá Amerindian called Guzmán who said he spoke the language of the local Chavante people. A word list was subsequently published for the so-called Kukurá language, thought to be an isolate, in 1931.
In 1932 Curt Nimuendajú, who had visited the Rio Verde in 1909 and 1913, showed that Guzmán's wordlist consisted half of fake words and half of mispronounced Guaraní. There was no resemblance to the Ofayé language that was actually spoken in the region.{{cite book|last1=Campbell|first1=Lyle|last2=Grondona|first2=Verónica|title=The Indigenous Languages of South America: A Comprehensive Guide|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pA-ryJRcG3AC&pg=PA133|accessdate=2013-04-24|date=2012-01-27|publisher=Walter de Gruyter|isbn=978-3-11-025803-5|page=133}} Guzmán had also falsified other vocabularies for which he was the informant.{{cite book |last=Campbell |first=L. |title=The Indigenous Languages of the Americas: History and Classification |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2024 |isbn=978-0-19-767346-1 |chapter=Phantom, False, and Spurious Languages of South America |access-date=2025-03-01 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oWAHEQAAQBAJ&pg=PA333}}
Vocabulary
Loukotka (1968) lists the following basic vocabulary items for the spurious language.{{cite book |last=Loukotka |first=Čestmír |authorlink=Čestmír Loukotka |title=Classification of South American Indian languages |url=https://archive.org/details/classificationof0007louk |url-access=registration |publisher=UCLA Latin American Center |year=1968 |location=Los Angeles}}
:
| class="wikitable"
! gloss !! Kukura | |
| tongue | {{lang|art-BR|kasti}} |
| stone | {{lang|art-BR|tatahü}} |
| moon | {{lang|art-BR|malahan}} |
| house | {{lang|art-BR|aul}} |
References
{{reflist}}{{Constructed languages}}{{DEFAULTSORT:Kukura language}}
Category:Indigenous languages of South America
Category:Constructed languages introduced in the 1900s
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