Malibu
Geographic
distribution		Department of Magdalena, Colombia
Linguistic classificationunclassified
Subdivisions
  • Malibú
  • Mocana
Glottolog(not evaluated)
mali1242  (Malibu proper)
Pre-contact distribution of the Malibu languages

The Malibu languages are a poorly attested group of dead languages once spoken along the Magdalena River in Colombia. Material exists only for two of the numerous languages mentioned in the literature: Malibú and Mocana.

Classification

The Malibu languages have previously been grouped into a single family with the Chimila language.[1] However, Chimila is now known to be a Chibchan language,[2] and Adelaar & Muysken regard the grouping of Chimila with the Malibu languages as "without any factual basis".[3]

Family division

Rivet initially listed three Malibu tribes, each with its own language:[4]

To this list, Loukotka adds six more languages, all of which are unattested (excluding Chimila):[1]

Vocabulary

Rivet gives a brief list of words from Malibú and Mocana, but does not distinguish the two languages.[4] A selection of these is provided below:

References

  1. ^ a b Loukotka, Čestmír (1968). Classification of South American Indian Languages. Los Angeles: UCLA Latin American Center. pp. 244–5.
  2. ^ Gordon, Raymond G., ed. (2005). Ethnologue: Languages of the World (15th ed.). SIL International.
  3. ^ Adelaar, Willem F. H.; Pieter C. Muysken (2004). The Languages of the Andes. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 52. ISBN 978-0-521-36275-7.
  4. ^ a b Rivet, Paul (1947). "Les indiens Malibú". Journal de la Société des Américanistes de Paris. 36: 139–144. doi:10.3406/jsa.1947.2360.
  5. ^ Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Malibu". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
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