Muniche ( Muniche, Munichi, Munichino, Otanabe, Otanave ) is a recently disappeared, isolated Native American language that may be related to the Arawak languages, spoken by the Muniche people living in the city of Muniches (about 10 miles west of the city of Yurimaguas) in the area Paranapura River of the Loreto region in Peru. In 1988, there were two native speakers who have not met since the 1970s. The last known free-running munich carrier, Victoria Huancho Ikauate, died in the late 1990s. As of 2009, there were several semi-speakers who retained a significant portion of the lexical and partially grammatical knowledge of the language (Michael et al. 2013).
| Muniche | |
|---|---|
| Country | Peru |
| Regions | Loreto |
| Total number of speakers | 3 (1988) |
| Status | |
| Extinct | 1990s |
| Classification | |
| |
| Writing | latin |
| Language Codes | |
| ISO 639-1 | - |
| ISO 639-2 | - |
| ISO 639-3 | myr |
| Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger | |
| Ethnologue | |
| ELCat | |
| IETF | |
| Glottolog | |
Some Phrases
- Wǘdisi - general greeting
- Wǘdisi'i - general greeting
- Wǘdisi umaní'i - general greeting ("Hello, sister!")
- Wǘdisi chú'u - general greeting ("Hello brother!")
- Bwenos dias - morning greeting (from Spanish)
- Nú'samenpü? “How are you?” Literally “Are you alive?”
- Nú'sameñe - Reply to Nú'samenpü
- Péra áchumepü? - Where are you going?
Links
- Muniche at Ethnologue
Literature
- Gibson, Michael L. 1996. El Munichi: Un idioma que se extingue . Serie Lingüística Peruana, 42. Pucallpa: Instituto Lingüístico de Verano. Available here .
- Michael, Lev, Stephanie Farmer, Greg Finley, Christine Beier, and Karina Sullón Acosta. 2013. A sketch of Muniche segmental and prosodic phonology. International Journal of American Linguistics 79 (3): 307-347.