Timote language

Timote
Cuica
Migurí
Native toVenezuela
Native speakers
(perhaps 200 in the village of Mutús cited 1977)
Timotean
  • Timote
Dialects
  • Timote
  • Cuica
  • ?Mutú (Loco)
Language codes
ISO 639-3
qpj Timote-Cuica
 qdu Maguri
Glottologtimo1237  Timote-Cuica

Timote, also known as Cuica or Timote–Cuica, is the language of the Timote–Cuica state in the Venezuelan Andes, around the present city of Mérida and south of Lake Maracaibo.

The language is reported to have gone extinct in the early to mid 20th century. However, in 1977 it was reported that the indigenous village of Mutús, in the heart of the old Timote state, still spoke an indigenous language, which would presumably be Timote. The name is apparently Timote, as 'Timote' itself derives from ti-motɨ 'Mutú speakers', and mutú or mukú is a common toponym in the region. This lead had not been followed up as of Adelaar (2004).