Paezan (also Páesan, Paezano, Interandine) may be any of several

hypothetical A hypothesis (: hypotheses) is a proposed explanation for a phenomenon. A scientific hypothesis must be based on observations and make a testable and reproducible prediction about reality, in a process beginning with an educated guess or tho ...

or obsolete language-family

proposals Proposal(s) or The Proposal may refer to: * Proposal (business) * Research proposal * Marriage proposal * Proposition, a proposal in logic and philosophy Arts, entertainment, and media * ''The Proposal'' (album), an album by Ransom & Statik Se ...

Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...

and

Ecuador Ecuador, officially the Republic of Ecuador, is a country in northwestern South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. It also includes the Galápagos Province which contain ...

named after the Paez language.

Proposals

Currently, Páez (Nasa Yuwe) is best considered either 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 ...

or the only surviving member of an otherwise

extinct Extinction is the termination of an organism by the death of its Endling, last member. A taxon may become Functional extinction, functionally extinct before the death of its last member if it loses the capacity to Reproduction, reproduce and ...

language family A language family is a group of languages related through descent from a common ancestor, called the proto-language of that family. The term ''family'' is a metaphor borrowed from biology, with the tree model used in historical linguistics ...

(Adelaar & Muysken 2004, Gordon 2005, Matteson 1972, Fabre 2005). It has often been grouped with other languages in a ''Paezan'' family, but several of these proposals are based on a historical error involving Guambiano. Even before the discovery of the error, Campbell (1997: 173) stated, "There is no consensus upon Paezan, and opinions vary greatly".

Páez, Panzaleo, Andaquí

One of the most often repeated statements (e.g. Loukotka 1968; Kaufman 1990, 1994) is the supposed connection between Páez and the extinct

Panzaleo Panzaleo (''Pansaleo, Quito, Latacunga'') is a poorly attested and unclassified indigenous American language that was spoken in the region of Quito until the 17th century. Attestation Much of the information on Panzaleo comes from toponyms of ...

(also known as Pansaleo, Latacunga, or Quito), formerly spoken in

highlands Highland is a broad term for areas of higher elevation, such as a mountain range or mountainous plateau. Highland, Highlands, or The Highlands, may also refer to: Places Africa * Highlands, Johannesburg, South Africa * Highlands, Harare, Zimbab ...

. However, Panzaleo is poorly documented and the evidence for this relationship is weak and may be from

language contact Language contact occurs when speakers of two or more languages or varieties interact with and influence each other. The study of language contact is called contact linguistics. Language contact can occur at language borders, between adstratum ...

. Thus, Panzaleo may best be considered an unclassified language (Adelaar & Muysken 2004: 393-397; Campbell 1997). The Andaquí isolate (also extinct) is often connected with Páez in a Paezan grouping. Documentation is a 20-page list of words and expressions by an anonymous author published in 1928 and another word list collected in 1854 by a priest (Manuel María Albis). There are a number of similarities in vocabulary between Andaquí and Páez, as noted by Jolkesky (2015)Jolkesky, Marcelo. 2015.
Semejanzas léxicas entre el Páez, el Andakí y el Tinígua
'. and others. In other aspects, the differences are greater. Jolkesky (2015) also found lexical similarities with Tinigua.

Páez–Coconucan

The Coconucan languages were first grouped together with Páez by Henri Beuchat & Paul Rivet in 1910 (under a larger ''Chibchan'' family, which is considerably more inclusive than the conservative

Chibchan The Chibchan languages (also known as Chibchano) make up a language family indigenous to the Isthmo-Colombian Area, which extends from eastern Honduras to northern Colombia and includes populations of these countries as well as Nicaragua, Costa ...

recognized today). Curnow (1998) shows this is based on misinterpretation of a ''Moguex''

vocabulary A vocabulary (also known as a lexicon) is a set of words, typically the set in a language or the set known to an individual. The word ''vocabulary'' originated from the Latin , meaning "a word, name". It forms an essential component of languag ...

of Douay (1888), which is a mix of Páez and Guambiano/Totoró. The error has led to subsequent classifiers (e.g. Kaufman 1990, 1994; Campbell 1997; Greenberg 1956, 1987; Tovar & Larruceau de Tovar 1984) to group Páez with Guambiano, missing the obvious identification of Coconucan as Barbacoan. Additionally, the term 'Moguex' can be treated as a synonym of Guambiano. Matteson's 1972 comparison of Páez and Guambiano vocabularies show just a 5.2% overlap, less than comparisons between Páez and

Arawak The Arawak are a group of Indigenous peoples of northern South America and of the Caribbean. The term "Arawak" has been applied at various times to different Indigenous groups, from the Lokono of South America to the Taíno (Island Arawaks), w ...

, Quechua and Proto-

(respectively 17%, 12%, and 14%). Following linguists such as Matteson (1972), Curnow (1998), Curnow & Liddicoat (1998), and Adelaar & Muysken (2004), the Coconucan languages are now placed under Barbacoan. The question of connections between Páez, Panzaleo, and Andaquí, as mentioned above, remains open.

More distant relations

Prior to Curnow's correction, the Paez–Coconucan "family" had been connected to various other families. Greenberg included Paezan in a '' Macro-Chibchan'' (or ''Chibchan–Paezan'') stock with Barbacoan,

, Chocoan, Jirajaran, and the isolates Betoi, Kamsá (Sibundoy), Yaruro, Esmeraldeño, Mochica, Cunza (Atacameño), Itonama, and Yurumanguí.

Morris Swadesh Morris Swadesh ( ; January 22, 1909 – July 20, 1967) was an American linguist who specialized in comparative and historical linguistics, and developed his mature career at UNAM in Mexico. Swadesh was born in Massachusetts to Bessarabian Jewi ...

's ''Paezan'' included Páez, Barbacoan, Coconucan, Andaquí, Cunza, Kapixana, and Mashubí. Kaufman's (1990, 1994) '' Macro-Páesan "cluster"'' proposal included "Paesan" (as explained above)–Barbacoan, Cunza– Kapixana, Betoi, Itonama, and Warao.

References

Bibliography

* Adelaar, Willem F. H.; & Muysken, Pieter C. (2004). ''The languages of the Andes''.

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...

language surveys. Cambridge University Press. * Beuchat, Henri; & Rivet, Paul. (1910). Affinités des langues du sud de la Colombie et du nord de l'Équateur. ''Le Mouséon'', ''11'', 33-68, 141-198. * Branks, Judith; Sánchez, Juan Bautista. (1978). ''The drama of life: A study of life cycle

customs Customs is an authority or Government agency, agency in a country responsible for collecting tariffs and for controlling International trade, the flow of goods, including animals, transports, personal effects, and hazardous items, into and out ...

among the Guambiano, Colombia, South America'' (pp xii, 107). Summer Institute of Linguistics Museum of Anthropology Publication (No. 4). Dallas: Summer Institute of Linguistics Museum of Anthropology. * Brend, Ruth M. (Ed.). (1985). ''From

phonology Phonology (formerly also phonemics or phonematics: "phonemics ''n.'' 'obsolescent''1. Any procedure for identifying the phonemes of a language from a corpus of data. 2. (formerly also phonematics) A former synonym for phonology, often pre ...

to discourse: Studies in six Colombian languages'' (p. vi, 133). Language Data, Amerindian Series (No. 9). Dallas: Summer Institute of Linguistics. * Campbell, Lyle. (1997). ''American Indian languages: The historical linguistics of Native America''. New York: Oxford University Press. . * Constenla Umaña, Adolfo. (1981). Comparative Chibchan phonology. (Doctoral dissertation, University of Pennsylvania). * Constenla Umaña, Adolfo. (1991). ''Las lenguas del área intermedia: Introducción a su estudio areal''. San José: Editorial de la Universidad de Costa Rica. * Constenla Umaña, Adolfo. (1993). ''La familia chibcha''. In (M. L. Rodríguez de Montes (Ed.), ''Estado actual de la classificación de las lenguas indígenas de Colombia'' (pp. 75–125). Bogotá: Instituto Caro y Cuervo. * Curnow, Timothy J. (1998). Why Paez is not a Barbacoan language: The nonexistence of "Moguex" and the use of early sources. ''International Journal of American Linguistics'', ''64'' (4), 338-351. * Curnow, Timothy J.; & Liddicoat, Anthony J. (1998). The Barbacoan languages of Colombia and Ecuador. ''Anthropological Linguistics'', ''40'' (3). * Douay, Léon. (1888). Contribution à l'américanisme du Cauca (Colombie). ''Compte-Rendu du Congrès International des Américanistes'', ''7'', 763-786. * Fabre, Alain. (2005). ''Diccionario etnolingüístico y guía bibliográfica de los pueblos indígenas sudamericanos''. (To appear). * Greenberg, Joseph H. (1960). General classification of Central and South American languages. In A. Wallace (Ed.), ''Men and cultures: Fifth international congress of anthropological and ethnological sciences (1956)'' (pp. 791–794). Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. * Greenberg, Joseph H. (1987). ''Language in the Americas''. Stanford: Stanford University Press. * Heinze, Carol (Ed.). (1978). ''Estudios chibchas 2'' (pp. iv, 140). Serie Sintáctica (No. 9). Bogota: Ministerio de Gobierno and Instituto Lingüístico de Verano. * Kaufman, Terrence. (1990). Language history in South America: What we know and how to know more. In D. L. Payne (Ed.), ''Amazonian linguistics: Studies in lowland South American languages'' (pp. 13–67). Austin: University of Texas Press. . * Kaufman, Terrence. (1994). The native languages of South America. In C. Mosley & R. E. Asher (Eds.), ''Atlas of the world's languages'' (pp. 46–76). London: Routledge. * Key, Mary R. (1979). ''The grouping of South American languages''. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag. * Landaburu, Jon. (1993). Conclusiones del seminario sobre classificación de lenguas indígenas de Colombia. In (M. L. Rodríguez de Montes (Ed.), ''Estado actual de la classificación de las lenguas indígenas de Colombia'' (pp. 313–330). Bogotá: Instituto Caro y Cuervo. * Loukotka, Čestmír. (1968). ''Classification of South American Indian languages''. Los Angeles: Latin American Studies Center, University of California.

External links

* Proel
Sub-tronco Paezano
* Proel

{{South American languages Languages of Colombia Languages of Ecuador Macro-Paesan languages Proposed language families