Mochica language

Mochica is usually considered to be a language isolate,{{cite book |last=Campbell |first=Lyle |author-link=Lyle Campbell |editor1-last=Grondona |editor1-first=Verónica |editor2-last=Campbell |editor2-first=Lyle |date=2012 |title=The Indigenous Languages of South America |chapter=Classification of the indigenous languages of South America |series=The World of Linguistics |volume=2 |location=Berlin |publisher=De Gruyter Mouton |pages=59–166 |isbn=978-3-11-025513-3}} but has also been hypothesized as belonging to a wider Chimuan language family. Stark (1972) proposes a connection with Uru–Chipaya as part of a Maya–Yunga–Chipayan macrofamily hypothesis.{{cite journal|last1=Stark|first1=Louisa R.|title=Maya-Yunga-Chipayan: A New Linguistic Alignment|journal=International Journal of American Linguistics|volume=38|issue=2|year=1972|pages=119–135|issn=0020-7071|doi=10.1086/465193|s2cid=145380780 }}

The yunga form is mentioned in the work of Fernando de la Carrera, "yunca" is another form mentioned by varieties of Quechua, "muchic" is only mentioned by the Augustinian father Antonio de la Calancha in 1638, in 1892 Ernst Middendorf it germanizes as "muchik", the form "chimu" is a hypothesis on the part of Middendorf in accordance with the knowledge of that time in the 19th century, when he considered Mochica as a language of the Chimos, but which is currently discarded because the language of the Chimú is actually the Quingnam language.{{Citation needed|date=July 2024}} An informal group called by linguistics neo-mochica uses the artificial form "muchik", when the most historically used form is "mochica" or "yunga".

Jolkesky (2016) notes that there are lexical similarities with the Trumai, Arawak, Kandoshi, Muniche, Barbakoa, Cholon-Hibito, Kechua, Mapudungun, Kanichana, and Kunza language families due to contact. Jolkesky (2016) also suggests that similarities with Amazonian languages may be due to the early migration of Mochica speakers down the Marañón and Solimões.{{cite thesis|last=Jolkesky |first=Marcelo Pinho de Valhery |date=2016 |url=http://www.etnolinguistica.org/tese:jolkesky-2016-arqueoecolinguistica |title=Estudo arqueo-ecolinguístico das terras tropicais sul-americanas |type=Ph.D. dissertation |location=Brasília |publisher=University of Brasília |edition=2}}

file: Mascara lambayeque ( museo de Sican).jpg

It is proven and accepted by linguists that it was spoken by those of the Sican culture, it is not proven that it was spoken by those of the Moche culture, and it is ruled out that it was spoken by the chimos, since it is proven that they spoke Quingnam.{{Citation needed|date=July 2024}}

The only varieties are according to each researcher who compiled their vocabulary, so we have the variety of Ernst Middendorf, Compañon, Bruning, etc.

File:Geolinguistica del mochica siglo XVII.jpg

According to the list of the vicar of Reque and author of the aforementioned Art, Fernando de la Carrera, the peoples who in 1644 spoke the Mochica language were as follows:

• In the corregimiento of Trujillo: James, Magdalene of Cao, Chocope, Chicama valley, Paijan.
• In the corregimiento of Saña: St. Peter of Lloc, Chepen, Jequetepeque, Guadalupe, New Town, Eten, Chiclayo, St. Michael, St. Lucia, Parish of Saña, Lambayeque with four rooms, Reque, Monsefú, Ferreñafe, Tucum, Illimo, Pacora, Morrope and Jayanca.
• In the corregimiento of Piura: Motupe, Salas (annex of Penachi), Copis (annex of Olmos), Frías and Huancabamba.
• In the corregimiento of Cajamarca: Santa Cruz, San Miguel de la Sierra, Ñopos, San Pablo, the doctrine of the rafts of the Marañón, a bias of Cajamarca, Cachén, Guambos and many other places in the Cajamarca mountain range, such as the Condebamba valley.{{Citation | title=Moche A Peruvian Coastal Community : Gillin, John : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming, página 7 | url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.215848 | access-date=6 April 2024}}

• /ð/ may also be heard as [d̪] in free variation.

• /ɨ/ may also range to [ə].{{Cite book |last=Eloranta-Barrera Virhuez |first=Rita Silvia |url=https://www.lotpublications.nl/Documents/563_fulltext.pdf |title=Mochica: grammatical topics and external relations |publisher=Rijksuniversiteit te Leiden dissertation |year=2020 |isbn=978-94-6093-348-6}}

Mochica is typologically different from the other main languages on the west coast of South America, namely the Quechuan languages, Aymara, and the Mapuche language. Further, it contains rare features such as:

• a case system in which cases are built on each other in a linear sequence; for example, the ablative case suffix is added to the locative case, which in turn is added to an oblique case form;
• all nouns have two stems, possessed and non-possessed;
• an agentive case suffix used mainly for the agent in passive clauses; and
• a verbal system in which all finite forms are formed with the copula.

Some suffixes in Mochica as reconstituted by Hovdhaugen (2004):

• sequential suffix: -top
• purpose suffix: -næm
• gerund suffixes: -læc and -ssæc
• gerund suffix: -(æ)zcæf
• gerund suffix: -(æ)d

Some examples of lexical items in Mochica from Hovdhaugen (2004):Hovdhaugen, Even (2004). Mochica. Munich: LINCOM Europa.

Possessed and non-possessed nouns in Mochica:

Locative forms of Mochica nouns:

Quantifiers in Mochica:

Mochica numerals:

File:Bajo y Tamboril para baylar cantando. Tonada del Chimo.jpg

The only surviving song in the language is a single tonada, {{lang|es-PE|Tonada del Chimo}}, preserved in the Codex Martínez Compañón among many watercolours illustrating the life of Chimú people during the 18th century:

{{Poem quote|text=1st voice: {{lang|omc|Ja ya llũnch, ja ya llõch}}

{{lang|omc|Ja ya llũnch, ja ya lloch}}{{sic}}

{{lang|omc|In poc cha tanmuisle pecan muisle pecan e necam}}

2nd voice: {{lang|omc|Ja ya llũnch, ja ya llõch}}

{{lang|omc|Ja ya llũnch}}

1st voice: {{lang|omc|E menspocehifama le qui}}

{{lang|omc|ten que consmuiſle Cuerpo lens}}

{{lang|omc|e menslocunmunom chi perdonar moitin Roc}}

2nd voice: {{lang|omc|Ja ya llõch}}

{{lang|omc|Ja ya llũnh,[sic] ja ya llõch}}

1st voice: {{lang|omc|Chondocolo mec checje su chriſto}}

{{lang|omc|po que si ta mali muis le cuer po[sic] lem.}}

{{lang|omc|lo quees aoscho perdonar}}

{{lang|omc|me ñe fe che tas}}

2nd voice: {{lang|omc|Ja ya llũnch, ja ya llõch}}

{{lang|omc|Ja ya llũnch, ja ya llõch}}

|source={{cite book |title=Trujillo del Perú . Volumen 2 |publisher=Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes |page=180 |url=https://www.cervantesvirtual.com/obra-visor/trujillo-del-peru--volumen-ii/html/966bf129-a181-4dd1-996b-ac44db7844e2_187.html |access-date=13 September 2023 |language=es |chapter=Bajo y Tamboril para baylar cantando. [Índice:] Tonada del Chimo.}}}}

Quingnam, possibly the same as Lengua (Yunga) Pescadora, is sometimes taken to be a dialect, but a list of numerals was discovered in 2010 and is suspected to be Quingnam or Pescadora, not Mochica.

It was common in the 19th century to relate Mochica mainly to Mandarin, Japanese{{cite book | author=Hoyle, R. L. | date= 1938 | title=Lós mochicas |pages=42| publisher=Casa editora “La Crónica” y “Variedades”, s. a. ltda. | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0kEJAQAAMAAJ&q=lambayeque+japones+mochica}} and Quechua.{{cite book | author=Douay, L.| date= 1891 |title=Études étymologiques sur l'antiquité américaine | pages = 103| publisher=J. Maisonneuve | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SVoTAAAAYAAJ&dq=%22llampallik%22&pg=PA103}} Currently it is discarded and is considered an isolated language.{{cite book | vauthors=((Eloranta-Barrera Virhuez, R.)) | date= 2020 | title=Mochica: grammatical topics and external relations | publisher=LOT | series=LOT Dissertations series | url=https://www.lotpublications.nl/Documents/563_fulltext.pdf | pages=15|isbn=978-94-6093-348-6}}

A simple way to check this is to use its our fathers for comparative linguistic purposes:

The Cultural Office of the district of Mórrope has launched a program to teach the Mochica language in an effort to preserve the region’s ancient cultural legacy. The initiative has been well received by local residents and adopted by numerous schools. Additional cultural activities—such as the crafting of ceramics and decorated gourds (mates)—have also been introduced as part of the revitalization effort.{{cite web |title=Lengua Muchik: Entrevista sobre su recuperación en Mórrope |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBru1X3PDWo |website=YouTube |access-date=7 June 2025}}

Previously considered a dead language, Mochica is now taught in 38 schools and has around 80 speakers.{{cite web |title=La lengua muchik ya tiene 80 muchik hablantes |url=https://larazon.pe/la-lengua-muchik-ya-tiene-80-muchik-hablantes/ |website=La Razón |access-date=7 June 2025}}

• Brüning, Hans Heinrich (2004). Mochica Wörterbuch / Diccionario mochica: Mochica-castellano, castellano-mochica. Lima: Universidad San Martín de Porres.
• Hovdhaugen, Even (2004). Mochica. Munich: LINCOM Europa.
• Schumacher de Peña, G. (1992). El vocabulario mochica de Walter Lehmann (1929) comparado con otras fuentes léxicas. Lima: UNSM, Instituto de Investigación de Lingüística Aplicada.

{{Reflist}}

{{Incubator|omc|lang=Mochica}}

{{sister project |project=wiktionary |text=Wiktionary has a word list at Appendix:Mochica word list}}

• [http://www.ling.ed.ac.uk/linguist/issues/15/15-1401.html Abstract of Mochica from the Languages of the World series]

{{Languages of Peru}}

{{South American languages}}

Category:Extinct languages of South America

Category:Language isolates of South America