Mochica language

Mochica is an extinct language formerly spoken along the northern coast of Peru and in an inland village. First documented in 1607, the language was widely spoken in the area during the 17th century and the early 18th century. By the late 19th century, the language was dying out and spoken only by a few people in the village of Etén, in Chiclayo. It died out as a spoken language around 1920, but certain words and phrases continued to be used until the 1960s. A revival movement has appeared in recent times.

It is proven and accepted by linguists that it was spoken by those of the Sican culture, and it is not proven that it was spoken by those of the Moche culture, and it is ruled out that it was spoken by the Chimos, since it is proven that they spoke Quingnam.^{[citation needed]}

The only varieties are according to each researcher who compiled their vocabulary, so we have the variety of Ernst Middendorf, Compañon, Bruning, etc.

Colonial sources record several designations for the language now generally known as Mochica: Yunga, Mochica, Muchic / Muchik, and occasional appellatives such as Pescadora. The choice of name varied according to author, period, and context.

The Franciscan friar Luis Jerónimo de Oré (missionary, polyglot, later bishop of Concepción in Chile) in his Rituale seu Manuale Peruanum (1607) refers to the "Mochica" language and also uses the phrase “Mochica de los Yungas” (en: "Mochica of the Yungas"). In the latter case, he seems to distinguish between the language itself —called Mochica— and the northern peoples —denominated Yungas. It is worth noting that at the time Yunga was employed not only as a geographic and climatic term, derived from Quechua exonym yunka (“warm area”), but also to refer to the Mochica as an ethnic group.

In 1644, the diocesan priest and parish vicar of Reque Fernando de la Carrera published the Arte de la lengua yunga (Art of the Yunga Language), the only known colonial grammar of this language, where he consistently used the exonym Yunga. His choice reflects the fact that Yunga was, in the colonial lexicon, the Spanish designation (borrowed from Quechua yunka) for the coastal peoples, regions, and languages.

The Augustinian friar Antonio de la Calancha employed the form Muchic in his Crónica moralizadora (1638). In the nineteenth century, the German physician and philologist Ernst W. Middendorf revived that variant and disseminated it as Muchik in works such as Das Muchik oder die Chimu-Sprache (1892). Middendorf identified the language with that of the Chimú, partly because Quingnam (the actual language of the Chimú kingdom) was at that time poorly documented, whereas colonial references and traces of Mochica still existed. Furthermore, nineteenth-century archaeology often grouped Sicán and Moche material into stages labeled “proto-Chimú” or “early Chimú,” which reinforced the misattribution. Later archaeological and linguistic research clarified these associations.

In sum, Mochica, Yunga, Muchic/Muchik, and occasionally Pescadora appear in the sources and scholarly tradition. Today, Mochica remains the most widely used term in academic literature, while some revitalization projects prefer Muchik, consciously drawing on colonial spellings and nineteenth-century usage.