5 Indigenous Languages in Peru That Could Soon Be Extinct
5 Indigenous Languages in Peru That Could Soon Be Extinct
With 48 indigenous languages, Peru is home to a rich linguistic and cultural plurality. However, at least 21 of these languages are at risk of extinction, and some of them have less than 10 speakers.
When they first colonized Peru, Jesuit missionaries reportedly counted around 150 languages in what is today the state of Peru. Today, we count 48 indigenous languages, the most spoken of which are Quechua and Aymara, and 21 of which are at risk of extinction. A history of colonization, together with globalization and urbanization, and the national cultural hegemony of Spanish are among the factors responsible for this loss of linguistic diversity in Peru.
Over the last years, the government of Peru has been making some efforts to acknowledge the importance of this linguistic heritage. In 2016, it recognized the alphabets of 31 indigenous languages, allowing for the production of bilingual official documents, such as birth or marriage certificates. The Ministry of Culture also produced several databases of endangered languages, with the help of the last remaining speakers.
Nonetheless, some languages now even count less than 10 speakers, which makes them critically endangered. Here are 5 of them.
1. Resígaro
In 2016, the last female speaker of Resígaro, Rosa Andrade Ocagane, was murdered in the north of Peru. She was 67 years old. Her brother, Pablo Andrade, is now the only speaker left of Resígaro. Only one month before her death, the Peru Ministry of Culture had begun a project with the two siblings to document the Resígaro language. Now, Pablo is the only person left to carry out this project.
2. Chamicuro
Chamicuro is a language spoken in an area of Northern Peru called Pampa Hermosa, meaning “beautiful plain”. A dictionary of Chamicuro exists; but in 2004 the language was thought to be nearly extinct, with only two speakers left. However, in 2008 eight speakers were found, giving some hope that the language can survive.
3. Taushiro
There is only one speaker left of Taushiro. Born in an isolated community in the Amazon, Amadeo García García now lives in a village near the Río Tigre (Tiger River). Since his children only speak Spanish, he has nobody to speak Taushiro with. In 2017, he helped the Peruvian Ministry of Culture to create a database of 1,500 Taushiro words, and some stories and songs.
4. Iñapari
Like many other indigenous people in the Amazon, the Iñapari people were decimated during the so-called caucho fever, between the second half of the XIX and the beginning of XX century. During this period, colonizers and rich elites exploited indigenous people for the production of rubber. Today, there are 6 known speakers of the Iñapari language.
5. Muniche
In 1661, the Jesuits counted 320 Muniche people only in one of their several communities. Over time, their number decreased and already in 1976 around ten speakers were reported and the last person to speak Muniche as her mother tongue died at the end of the 1990s. However, there are still people who know a few sentences.
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