Native to Colombia Ethnicity Pijao people ISO 639-3 pij | Region Tolima Extinct 1950s | |
Language family unclassified
(Maipurean?) | ||
Pijao (Piajao, Pinao) is an unclassified indigenous American language that was spoken in the villages of Orrega, Coyaima (Koyai, Tupe) and Natagaima in the Magdalena River Valley of Colombia until the 1950s.
A small vocabulary list was collected in 1943; only 30 Pijao words and expressions are known. The few words which resemble Carib are thought to be loans; toponyms in Pijao country are also Carib. Marshall & Seijas (1973) did not detect significative connections between Pijao and other unclassified languages of the area: Colima, Muzo, Pantágora, and Panche, but these are even more poorly attested than Pijao.
References
Pijao language Wikipedia(Text) CC BY-SA