Lule

Lule is the extinct language of the Lule people of the Argentine Gran Chaco, whom the Wichí pushed south into Santiago del Estero and Tucumán. Most Lules were nomadic hunter-gatherers who also grew maize, potatoes and quinoa, while settled groups on the Andean edge kept llamas. The plains Lule used Tonocoté as a lingua franca, and the foothill Lules spoke Lule, Tonocoté and Quechua.

Lule is usually grouped with Vilela in the Lule–Vilela family, though some linguists treat them as isolates shaped by contact. Its chief document was printed in 1732 by the Jesuit Antonio Machoni.

Jesuit missions gathered the Lules from 1670; the Miraflores mission, founded in 1715, was sacked in a native rising of 1728, rebuilt in 1752, and abandoned after the Jesuit expulsion of 1768. Lule gave way to Spanish and neighbouring languages.