Pericú is the

extinct Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...

and essentially unattested language of the Pericú people who lived at the southern tip of

Baja California Sur Baja California Sur (; 'South Lower California'), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Baja California Sur ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Baja California Sur), is the least populated state and the 31st admitted state of the 32 federal ent ...

. Jesuit missionaries recognized it as distinct from Waikuri (Guaycura) immediately to the north. It was spoken in the mountainous area around the mission of

San José del Cabo San José del Cabo (, ''Saint Joseph of the Cape'') is a city located in southern Baja California Sur state, Mexico. It is the seat of Los Cabos Municipality lying at a shallow bay northeast of Cabo San Lucas on the Gulf of California. The city h ...

, on the southeastern coast from

Santiago Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile as well as one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is the center of Chile's most densely populated region, the Santiago Metropolitan Region, whose ...

La Paz La Paz (), officially known as Nuestra Señora de La Paz (Spanish pronunciation: ), is the seat of government of the Bolivia, Plurinational State of Bolivia. With an estimated 816,044 residents as of 2020, La Paz is the List of Bolivian cities ...

, and on the islands off the east coast as far north as Isla San José. Data is extremely limited, amounting to only four words and ten place names.

Classification

Massey (1949) suggested a connection with Waikuri. However, with the benefit of several decades of subsequent research, Laylander (1997) and Zamponi (2004) conclude that the languages were unrelated. The Pericú may have shared with the Waikuri distinctive physical characteristics such as small bodies and

dolichocephalic Dolichocephaly (derived from the Ancient Greek δολιχός 'long' and κεφαλή 'head') is a condition where the head is longer than would be expected, relative to its width. In humans, scaphocephaly is a form of dolichocephaly. Dolichocep ...

crania (long-headedness). Those physical characteristics set them apart from most other Native Americans and are consistent with the theory that they were an ancient people and their language was a

language isolate Language isolates are languages that cannot be classified into larger language families. Korean and Basque are two of the most common examples. Other language isolates include Ainu in Asia, Sandawe in Africa, and Haida in North America. The num ...

of ancient origin.

Attested words

Attested words in Pericú given by Zamponi (2004): *''minyikári'' 'sky' *''unóa'' 'give' (3sg. imp.) *''utére'' 'sit' The ethnonym Waikuri and its variants likely originates from the Pericú word ''guaxoro'' 'friend'. Variations of the name include ''Waicuri, Guaicuri, Waicura, Guaycura, Guaicura, Waicuro, Guaicuro, Guaycuro, Vaicuro, Guaicuru, Guaycuru, Waikur''.Zamponi, Raoul. 2004. Fragments of Waikuri (Baja California). ''Anthropological Linguistics'' 46. 156-193.

Toponyms

Attested

toponym Toponymy, toponymics, or toponomastics is the study of '' toponyms'' (proper names of places, also known as place names and geographic names), including their origins, meanings, usage and types. Toponym is the general term for a proper name of ...

s are: León-Portilla 1976; * ''Aiñiní:'' the location of the

Misión Santiago de Los Coras Mission Santiago was founded by the Italian Jesuit Ignacio María Nápoli in 1724 and financed by the Marqués de Villapuente de la Peña and his wife the Marquesa de las Torres de Rada, at the native settlement of Aiñiní, about 40 kilometers ...

* ''Anica:'' a Pericú settlement * ''Añuití:'' the location of the Mission San José del Cabo (near

) * ''Caduaño:'' a location in the modern city of

Los Cabos LOS, or Los, or LoS may refer to: Science and technology * Length of stay, the duration of a single episode of hospitalisation * Level of service, a measure used by traffic engineers * Level of significance, a measure of statistical significance ...

; means 'green arroyo' * ''Cayuco'' * ''Cunimniici:'' a mountain range * ''Eguí'' * ''Marino:'' the

Santa Ana Mountains The Santa Ana Mountains are a short peninsular mountain range along the coast of Southern California in the United States. They extend for approximately southeast of the Los Angeles Basin largely along the border between Orange and Riverside co ...

* ''Purum:'' a group of mountains and a Pericú settlement * ''Yeneca:'' a Pericú settlement * ''Yenecamu:''

Cabo San Lucas Cabo San Lucas (, "Saint Luke Cape"), or simply just Cabo, is a resort city at the southern tip of the Baja California Peninsula, in the Mexican state of Baja California Sur. As at the 2020 Census, the population of the city was 202,694 inhabitan ...

References

Bibliography

* Golla, Victor. 2011. ''California Indian Languages''. * Laylander, Don. 1997. "The linguistic prehistory of Baja California". In ''Contributions to the Linguistic Prehistory of Central and Baja California'', edited by Gary S. Breschini and Trudy Haversat, pp. 1–94. Coyote Press, Salinas, California. * Massey, William C. 1949. "Tribes and languages of Baja California". ''Southwestern Journal of Anthropology'' 5:272-307. * Zamponi, Raoul. 2004. "Fragments of Waikuri (Baja California)". ''Anthropological Linguistics'' 46:156-193. {{DEFAULTSORT:Pericu language Indigenous languages of Mexico Extinct languages of North America History of Baja California Sur Unclassified languages of North America Languages extinct in the 18th century