Timotean, also called Timote-Cuica, refers to the extinct languages of the Timote-Cuica state of the Venezuelan Andes, spoken around the present-day city of Merida and south of Lake Maracaibo by the Timoto-Cuica people. Sources record the family as comprising the Timote and Cuica dialects along with a possible third variety, Mutu, and by the late 20th century only a small number of speakers, around 200 by a 1977 estimate, were recorded. As with many small South American families, Timotean is sometimes treated instead as a language isolate rather than a family with confirmed internal branching.
Facts
RegionVenezuelan Andes around Merida and south of Lake Maracaibo; Cuica spoken from Humocaro (Lara) to Jajo (Trujillo), Timote spoken in the Motatan and Chama river valleys from Timotes to La Grita (Tachira). 1 Proto-Language StatusTimote (Timote-Cuica) is generally treated as a single language rather than a family with a reconstructed proto-language; it is known mainly through early 20th-century documentation and a disputed later report of a possible surviving speaker near Mutus. 1 In the Other Atlases
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Timote language
WikipediaGeographical distribution section
Cuica was spoken from Humocaro in Lara to Jajó in Trujillo, and Timote was spoken in the Motatán and Chama river valleys from Timotes to La Grita in Táchira state.
History section
a report by Merrill Seely references a language supposedly spoken in the locality of Mutús
View the Source Wikidata: Timotean
Wikidata Q3217540, class allow-list match (w-wdresolver-0926)View the Source Reader Challenges (0)
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