Guachí (Wachí) is an extinct, apparently Guaicuruan language of

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

. It is usually classified as one of the

Guaicuruan languages Guaicuruan (Guaykuruan, Waikurúan, Guaycuruano, Guaikurú, Guaicuru, Guaycuruana) is a language family spoken in northern Argentina, western Paraguay, and Brazil (Mato Grosso do Sul). The speakers of the languages are often collectively called ...

, but the data is insufficient to demonstrate that. The people it was spoken by were Guaicuruanized.

Documentation

Guachi is known only from 145 words collected by Francis de Castelnau from March to early April 1845 in the Miranda area of Argentina.Castelnau, Francis de 1850-1. ''Expédition dans les parties centrales de l’Amérique du Sud: de Rio de Janeiro á Lima, et de Lima au Para, executée par ordre du Gouvernement franais pendant les années 1843 á 1847''. Histoire du Voyage, París: P. Bertrand, vol. 2 & 5.

Classification

Viegas Barros (2004) proposes that Guachi, as well as

Payaguá The Payaguá people, also called Evueví and Evebe, were an ethnic group of the Guaycuru peoples in the Northern Chaco of Paraguay. The Payaguá were a river tribe, living, hunting, fishing, and raiding on the Paraguay River. The name ''Pa ...

, may be a Macro-Guaicurúan language.Viegas Barros, José Pedro. 2004. ''Guaicurú no, macro-Guaicurú sí: Una hipótesis sobre la clasificación de la lengua Guachí (Mato Grosso do Sul, Brasil)''. Ms. 34pp. However, Campbell (2012) classifies Guachi as a

language isolate A language isolate is a language that has no demonstrable genetic relationship with any other languages. Basque in Europe, Ainu and Burushaski in Asia, Sandawe in Africa, Haida and Zuni in North America, Kanoê in South America, and Tiwi ...

Vocabulary

Guachi words and affixes listed in Viegas Barros (2004): :

References

{{South American languages Languages of Argentina Guaicuruan languages Extinct languages of South America Language isolates of South America Chaco linguistic area