Quingnam language

{{Short description|Extinct language of Peru}}

{{Expand language|topic=|langcode=es|otherarticle=Idioma_quingnam|date=January 2025}}

{{Infobox language

| name = Quingnam

| nativename =

| states = Peru

| ethnicity = Chimú

| extinct = 16th century?

| familycolor = American

| family = unclassified

| iso3 = none

| glotto = quig1235

| glottorefname = Quignam [sic]

| map = Quingnam language.png

| mapcaption = Extent of Quingnam/Pescadora before replacement by Spanish

| altname = Yunga Pescadora?

| region = north-central coast

}}

file:Lenguas del obispado de Trujillo.jpg is shown as the main representative place of this language]]

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 (near present-day Lima) in the south.

Fishermen along the Chimú coast spoke a language called Lengua Pescadora (fisherman language) by Spanish missionaries, and disambiguated as Yunga Pescadora by linguists; this may be the same as Quingnam. A letter found during excavations at Magdalena de Cao Viejo in the El Brujo Archaeological Complex includes a list of decimal numerals which may be Quingnam or Pescadora, but they are not Mochica.{{cite web|title=Traces of a Lost Language Discovered|url=http://www.peabody.harvard.edu/node/617|publisher=Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard University|date=August 23, 2010}}

The Quingnam language became extinct shortly after the arrival of the conquistadors. The core Chimú city, Chan Chan, was in the vicinity of the new Spanish city of Trujillo and became overwhelmed by it, with people needing to pick up the language of the conquerors for trade and survival.