Culli

Culli was a poorly attested Andean language of the northern Peruvian highlands, now extinct. It was spoken in La Libertad, southern Cajamarca and northern Ancash, in at least three pre-Inca domains: Conchucos, Huamachuco and part of Cuismanco.

The lordship of Huamachuco, centred on Marcahuamachuco, worshipped the thunder god Catequil, an oracle. The Inca absorbed the region around 1470, made Huamachuco a provincial seat and brought in settlers called mitmaqkuna. Culli gave way to Spanish and survives mainly in place names, with a few speakers recorded in Pallasca into the twentieth century.