Cuicas

Cuicas was the language of the Cuica people, one of the two main branches of the Timoto–Cuica complex of the Venezuelan Andes, whose villages ran from Humocaro to Jajó. Whether Cuicas and the closely related Timote speech were one language or two is unsettled; together they had a decimal counting system and no demonstrated link to the surrounding Arawakan, Cariban or Chibchan families.

Its speakers built stone-faced irrigated terraces and permanent villages of stone and timber houses, grew potatoes, ullucos and maize, and traded cacao beans as currency with Arawak and Carib neighbours.

The Cuicas received the Spaniards peaceably, unlike the more warlike Timotes; the foundation of Mérida in 1558 anchored colonial rule in their mountains. Their communities were gradually absorbed into Spanish-speaking society, and the language survived only in remote highland villages, recorded only in fragmentary word lists.