Guaycura is an extinct language of southern Baja California

Baja California

Baja California officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Baja California is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is both the northernmost and westernmost state of Mexico. Before becoming a state in 1953, the area was known as the North...

. The Jesuit priest Baegert

Johann Jakob Baegert

Johann Jakob Baegert was a Jesuit missionary at San Luis Gonzaga in Baja California Sur, Mexico...

 documented words, sentences and texts in the language between 1751 and 1768.

Classification

Baegert's data is analyzed by Raoul Zamponi (2004). On existing evidence, Guaycura appears to be unrelated to the Yuman languages to its north. Some linguists have suggested that it belonged to the widely scattered Hokan phylum of California and Mexico (Gursky 1966; Swadesh 1967); however, the evidence for this seems inconclusive (Laylander 1997; Zamponi 2004; Mixco 2006). William C. Massey (1949) suggested a connection with Pericú

Pericúes

The Pericú were the aboriginal inhabitants of the Cape Region, the southernmost portion of Baja California Sur, Mexico...

, but the latter is too meagerly attested to support a meaningful comparison. Other languages of southern Baja are essentially undocumented, though people have speculated from non-linguistic sources that Monqui (Monquí-Didiú), spoken in a small region around Loreto, may have been a 'Guaicurian' language, as perhaps was Huchití (Uchití), though that may have actually been a variety of Guaycura itself (Golla 2007).

Grammar

The little we know of Guaycura grammar was provided by Francisco Pimentel, who analyzed a few verbs and phrases. Guaicura was a polysyllabic language that involved a lot of compounding. For example, 'sky' is tekerakadatemba, from tekaraka (arched) and datemba (earth).

Beagert and Pimentel agree that the plural is formed with a suffix -ma. However, Pimentel also notes a prefix k- with the 'same' function. For example, kanai 'women', from anai 'woman'. According to Pimentel, the negation in -ra of an adjective resulted in its opposite, so from ataka 'good' is derived atakara 'bad'.

Pronouns

Personal		Possessive
I	be	my	be, me, mi, m
thou	li	thy	e, ei, et
s/he	tutan	his/her	ti, te, t
we	cate	our	kepe
you	peti	your	?
they	tucava	their	?

Text

The Pater Noster

Pater Noster

Pater Noster is probably the best-known prayer in Christianity.Pater Noster or Paternoster may also refer to:* Paternoster, a passenger elevator which consists of a chain of open compartments that move slowly in a loop up and down inside a building* Paternoster, Western Cape, South Africa* Pierres...

is recorded in Guaycura, with a literal gloss

Gloss

A gloss is a brief notation of the meaning of a word or wording in a text. It may be in the language of the text, or in the reader's language if that is different....

by Pimentel (1874: cap. XXV).

Kepe-dare
Padre Nuestro
Kepe-dare	tekerekadatemba	daï,	ei-ri	akatuike	pu-me,	tschakarrake	pu-me	ti	tschie.
Padre nuestro	(que en el) cielo	estás,	te	reconocemos	todos (los que) existimos	(y te) alaban	todos (los que) somos	hombres	y.
Ecun	gracia	ri	atume	cate	tekerekedatemba	tschie.	Ei-ri	jebarrakeme	ti
(Y por) tu	gracia	?	tengamos	nosotros	(el) cielo	(y).	Te	obedeceremos	(los) hombres
pu	jaupe	datemba	pae	ei	jebarrakere	aëna	kea.	Kepekun	bue
todos	aquí	(en la) tierra	como	a ti	obedientes	arriba	siendo.	Nuestra	comida
kepe	ken	jatupe	untairi.	Kate	kuitscharrake	tei	tschie	kepecun	atakamara,
(a) nos	da	este	día.	(Y a) nos	perdona		(y)	nuestro	malo (pecado),
pae	kuitscharrakere	cate	tschie	cavape	atacamara	kepetujake.	Cate	tikakamba	tei
como	perdonamos	nosotros	también	(a) los	(que) mal	(nos) hacen.	(A) nos	ayuda
tschie	cuvume	ra	cate	uë	atukiara.	Kepe	kakunja	pe	atacara
y	(no) querremos	no	nosotros	algo	malo.	(Y a) nos	protege	de	mal
tschie.
y.