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Kunza
Atacameño, Ckunsa
Likanantaí, Ckunsa
Native to	Chile, Peru, Bolivia
Region	Atacama Desert
Ethnicity	2,000 Atacama
Extinct	after 1964?[1]
Revival	2020s
Language family	Language isolate
Language codes
ISO 639-3	kuz
Glottolog	kunz1244
Possible historic geographical extent of the Kunza language[1]
Atacameño is classified as Extinct by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger

Kunza (Kunza: Likanantaí) is a mostly extinct and revitalizing language isolate spoken in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile and southern Peru by the Atacama people, who have since shifted to Spanish. The last speaker was documented in 1964; however, it has since been learned that the language is still spoken in the desert.^{[2][clarification needed]}

Other names and spellings include Cunza, Ckunsa, Likanantaí, Lipe, Ulipe, and Atacameño. The word Ckunsa means 'our' in Kunza.^[3]

From what data is available, it is believed that it was a polysynthetic language. However, there is not sufficient information to determine which languages it was related to, if any. Thus, it is conventionally classified as a language isolate.

The language was spoken in northern Chile, specifically in the Chilean villages of Peine, Socaire (near the Salar de Atacama), and Caspana, and in southern Peru.

The last Kunza speaker was found in 1949, although there are reports of some having been found in 1953 according to anthropologists.^[4] Loukotka (1968) reports a few speakers in Bolivia and in the village of Peine in Chile.^[1] There are 2,000 Atacameños as of 2004.^[5]

A revitalization effort was initiated in the 21st century.^[6]

Kaufman (1990) found a proposed connection between Kunza and the likewise unclassified Kapixaná to be plausible;^[7] however, the language was more fully described in 2004, and the general consensus among linguists was that both languages are isolates.^[8]

Unattested varieties listed by Loukotka (1968):^[1]

• Atacameño of Bolivia – spoken in a small village on the frontier of Potosí Department, Bolivia, and Antofagasta Province of Chile
• Lipe (Olipe) – extinct language once spoken south of the Salar de Uyuni, Potosí Department, Bolivia

Jolkesky (2016) notes that there are lexical similarities with the Mochika, Kandoshi, Jaqi, Kechua, Mapudungun, and Uru-Chipaya language families due to contact.^[9]

The vocabulary of Kunza is well-documented, but the phonetic realizations of lexical transcriptions are not so certain due to the widely differing systems of transcription that were used. Because of this, the accepted phonologic system for Kunza is tentative, and potentially even speculation. Even so, it is well known that the stops and affricates were distinguished between plain and glottalized (the latter being represented by a doubled consonant in some transcriptions, even in initial position).

/w/ is only present in loanwords. /kʼ/ and /qʼ/ are not directly attested, but are presumed to have been present based on data collected in 1981. Velar and uvular sounds are not consistently distinguished in the data.

The use of doubled vowels in transcriptions suggest the existence of a contrast of length. Very few words begin with a vowel, almost all of them being non-lexical grammatical words. The only vowels possible in initial position are /a i/.

According to the work of Vaïsse, Peyró, Schuhmacher and Adelaar, the following schema can be proposed:

Note that ikot corresponds to the relative i with the plural marker -kot. The forms with the added absolutive case suffix would be: aqʼa, kuna, čʼema, čime, ia, ikota.

Note that the possessive marker is the suffix -sa, which is added directly to the roots of the personal pronouns.

San Román proposed a different way of marking possession, by means of prefixes added to the possessed object. The phonetic realizations are only hypothetical:

According to this system, the possessive is marked in a way demonstrated in the following table, using the words tikʼan (father) and lokma (dog) as examples. Note that the final suffix -ia is a copula.

San Román also proposed a system of conjugation that is exemplified with the verb yokontur (to speak) in the following table:

In 1867, Johann Jakob von Tschudi collected two versions of the prayer Our Father in Kunza.

• Macro-Paesan languages

• Kunza Swadesh vocabulary list (from Wiktionary's Swadesh list appendix)
• Spanish-Kunza dictionary online
• Bibliography about Kunza
• Alain Fabre, 2005, Diccionario etnolingüístico y guía bibliográfica de los pueblos indígenas sudamericanos: KUNZA[1]
• Kunza (Intercontinental Dictionary Series)