Cholón language
Language of Peru
title: "Cholón language" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["indigenous-languages-of-south-america", "hibito–cholon-languages"] description: "Language of Peru" topic_path: "linguistics" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cholón_language" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary Language of Peru ::
::data[format=table title="Infobox language"]
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| name | Cholón |
| nativename | Seeptsá |
| states | Peru |
| region | Huallaga River valley |
| familycolor | American |
| fam1 | Hibito–Cholon ? |
| iso3 | cht |
| glotto | chol1284 |
| glottorefname | Cholon |
| notice | IPA |
| ethnicity | Cholones |
| script | Latin |
| map | Lenguas_del_obispado_de_Trujillo.jpg |
| mapcaption | |
| extinct | 1993 |
| ref | |
| speakers2 | 2 rememberers (2021) |
| map2 | Lang Status 01-EX.svg |
| mapcaption2 | |
| :: |
| name = Cholón | nativename = Seeptsá | states = Peru | region = Huallaga River valley | familycolor = American | fam1 = Hibito–Cholon ? | iso3 = cht | glotto = chol1284 | glottorefname = Cholon | notice = IPA | speakers = | date = | ethnicity = Cholones | script = Latin | map = Lenguas_del_obispado_de_Trujillo.jpg | mapcaption = | extinct = 1993 |ref= | speakers2 = 2 rememberers (2021) | map2 = Lang Status 01-EX.svg | mapcaption2 = Cholón (Spanish: lengua cholona), natively known as Seeptsá and Tsinganes, is a language of Peru. It was spoken near Uchiza, from Tingo María to Valle in the Huallaga River valley of Huanuco and San Martín regions.
The language was previously thought to be extinct but a native speaker was discovered in 2021, in the city of Juanjuí. Martha Pérez Valderrama is believed to be the last remaining speaker of Cholón. However, her cousin Clemente also speaks Cholón, and she reports that there are more speakers in the area. Despite the last fully fluent speakers dying in the 1990s, the current speakers can produce brief texts, not being limited to basic words and phrases.
Phonology
Due to the amateur Spanish pronunciation spellings used to transcribe Cholon, its sound inventory is uncertain. The following is an attempt at interpreting them. Orthographical equivalents are in brackets. ::data[format=table]
| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | Nasal | Plosive | Affricate | Fricative | Lateral | Approximant |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| :: |
The vowels appear to be similar to Spanish .
Grammar
Cholon distinguishes masculine and feminine grammatical gender in the second person. That is, one uses different forms for "you" depending on whether one is speaking to a man or a woman:
::data[format=table]
| intʃampa | 'what did you say?' (speaking to a woman) |
|---|---|
| :: |
::data[format=table title=""]
| Case | Cholón | Ergative | Benefactive | Comitative |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| :: |
References
- {{cite book | last = Adelaar | first = Willem | author-link = Willem Adelaar | title = The Languages of the Andes | year = 2004 | publisher = Cambridge University Press | isbn=978-0-521-36275-7
- Fabre, Alain. 2005. Diccionario etnolingüístico y guía bibliográfica de los pueblos indígenas sudamericanos: Cholón
References
- (2023-01-16). "Language Isolates I: Aikanã to Kandozi-Shapra: An International Handbook". De Gruyter.
- Loukotka, Čestmír. (1968). "Classification of South American Indian languages". UCLA Latin American Center.
- "Cholon {{!}} The Archive of the Indigenous Languages of Latin America".
- (2019). "Peru languages". [[SIL International]].
- "Pérez Valderrama, Martha {{!}} The Archive of the Indigenous Languages of Latin America".
- Rojas-Berscia, Luis Miguel. (2023-09-17). "La última canción: al encuentro de memorias del seeptsá entre Cachicoto y Juanjuí". Revista Brasileira de Linguística Antropológica.
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