Warpe

Warpe, or Huarpe, is an extinct language family of Cuyo in western Argentina, spoken between the Jachal and Diamante rivers by farmers. Its recorded members were Allentiac and Millcayac; Puntano of San Luis vanished before it could be documented.

The Incas reached Cuyo around 1480, and although local leader Cochagual led resistance against Tupac Yupanqui, Inca influence brought Quechua loanwords and customs. The Jesuit Luis de Valdivia recorded both languages in the late sixteenth century and published a catechism, confessional and grammar with vocabulary in Allentiac and Millcayac.

After the Spanish founding of San Juan in 1562 the encomienda drafted Huarpe villagers for labour in Chile, where many died. By 1640 much of Cuyo was depopulated, and by the mid-eighteenth century the Huarpe had ceased to exist as a distinct people, their languages disappearing and their descendants absorbed into the Spanish-speaking population.