Social:Kukurá language
| Kukurá | |
|---|---|
| Created by | Guzmán |
| Date | 1901 |
| Setting and usage | Rio Verde, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil |
| Purpose | constructed language
|
| Sources | Guaraní (partially) |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | None (mis) |
| Glottolog | kuku1286 (retired)[1] |
Kukurá (Cucurá, Kokura) is a spurious language, supposedly spoken in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul in Brazil, but fabricated by an interpreter in 1901 and subsequently erroneously presented as a distinct language.
History
When Alberto Vojtěch Frič visited Rio Verde, Brazil, in 1901 he took with him a Kainguá man named Guzmán who said he spoke the language of the local Chavante people, who were reported to have resided along the Rio Verde. A word list was subsequently published for the so-called Kukurá language, thought to be an isolate, in 1931, by the Czech linguist Čestmír Loukotka.[2]
In 1932, the German-Brazilian anthropologist Curt Nimuendajú, who had visited the Rio Verde in 1909 and 1913, showed that Guzmán's wordlist consisted half of fake words and half of mispronounced Guaraní, and that a language distinct from those which were actually spoken there could not have possibly existed.[3] There was no resemblance to the Ofayé language that was actually spoken in the region.[4] Guzmán had also falsified other vocabularies for which he was the informant.[5]
Despite the debunking of the language's existence, it was still reported by Loukotka's subsequent (1968) classification, in which he classified "Kukurá" as a language isolate,[6] Joseph Greenberg's (1987) Language in the Americas,[7] which classified "Kukurá" as a "Macro-Carib" language, along with the real Andoque, Boran, Witotoan, Peba–Yaguan, and Cariban languages, in the "Ge-Pano-Carib" subgroup of his univerally rejected[5] Amerind language family,[8] and in Terrence Kaufman's (1994, 2007) classifications of South American languages, in which he presented "Kukurá" as a language isolate.[9][10]
Vocabulary
The original 31-word vocabulary published by Loukotka (1931) is presented below.[2]
gloss Kukura to attach auguka chief maravisá cotton mandadiu finger tikua pain timarasahia enemy kuarema sparrowhawk zumbi face tiravua woman monše ant tain boy uhdinambú people, we kukura hammock, bed holto man tiemé tongue kasti long lar moon malahan house aul honey lipeta mosquito inape nose šapingua black kaulalo to speak imahgeta stone tatahü red tipoil tapir murari toucan tukan to kill adžika vulture uruhua old zari come here! kaiem
According to Nimuendajú (1932), words number 2 to 5, 8, 10, 14, 18, 21, 23, and 26 to 30 were derived from poorly pronounced Guarani, and the rest were all fabricated.[3]
See also
- Oti language
- Ofayé language
- Xavante language
- Uamué language, with a vocabulary similarly fabricated by informants
References
- ↑ Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds (2017). "Kukura". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History. http://glottolog.org/resource/languoid/id/kuku1286.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Loukotka, Čestmír (1931). "Les Indiens Kukura du río Verde, Matto Grosso, Brésil.". Journal de la société des américanistes 23 (1): 121–125. doi:10.3406/jsa.1931.1087. https://www.persee.fr/doc/jsa_0037-9174_1931_num_23_1_1087.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Nimuendajú, Curt (1932). "A propos des Indiens Kukura du Rio Verde (Brésil).". Journal de la société des américanistes 24 (1): 187–189. https://www.persee.fr/doc/jsa_0037-9174_1932_num_24_1_1852_t1_0187_0000_3.
- ↑ Campbell, Lyle; Grondona, Verónica (2012-01-27). The Indigenous Languages of South America: A Comprehensive Guide. Walter de Gruyter. p. 133. ISBN 978-3-11-025803-5. https://books.google.com/books?id=pA-ryJRcG3AC&pg=PA133. Retrieved 2013-04-24.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Campbell, L. (2024). "Phantom, False, and Spurious Languages of South America". The Indigenous Languages of the Americas: History and Classification. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-767346-1. https://books.google.com/books?id=oWAHEQAAQBAJ&pg=PA333. Retrieved 2025-03-01.
- ↑ Loukotka, Čestmír (1968). Classification of South American Indian languages. Los Angeles: UCLA Latin American Center. https://archive.org/details/classificationof0007louk.
- ↑ Greenberg, Joseph H. (1987). Language in the Americas. Stanford, Calif: Stanford University Press. ISBN 978-0-8047-1315-3.
- ↑ Ruhlen, Merritt, "An Amerind Etymological Dictionary" (in en), An Amerind Etymological Dictionary (Gorgias Press), ISBN 978-1-4632-4904-5, https://www.unm.edu/~wcroft/JHGfiles/AED5.pdf, retrieved 2026-05-13
- ↑ Moseley, Christopher; Asher, Ronald E. (1994). Atlas of the world's languages. London: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-01925-5.
- ↑ Kaufman, Terrence (2007). "South America". in Asher, R. E.. Atlas of the World's Languages (2nd ed.). London: Routledge. pp. 59–94. ISBN 978-0-415-31074-1.
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