Gorgotoqui is an extinct and undocumented language of the Chiquitania region of the eastern Bolivian lowlands.
Spellings Alternate spellings include Borogotoqui, Brotoqui, Corocoqui, Corocotoqui, Corocotoquy, Corogotoqui, Corotoque, Gorgotaci, Gorgotoci, Gorgotoquci, Gorogotoqui, Guorcocoqui, Jorocotoqui, Korchkoki, Orotocoqui.
History During the period of the Jesuit missions to Chiquitos, Gorgotoqui was the most populous language in the area. It became a lingua franca and the sole language of the Jesuit missions (ICOMOS 1990:59). A Jesuit priest, Kaspar Rueß (Spanish: Gaspar Ruíz), (born 11 November 1585, Haunstadt, Bavaria; died 12 April 1624, Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia) wrote a grammar, but no one has been able to locate it "in recent years", and no other documentation has survived. Thus a language that was regionally important during the colonial era disappeared under pressure from more successful indigenous peoples; this appears to have occurred in under half a century.
Classification Čestmír Loukotka classified Gorgotoqui as a language isolate, but Terrence Kaufman left it unclassified because of a lack of data, and excluded the language from his assessment in 1994. Several languages of the missions "had nothing in common" according to Oliva & Pazos.
Bororoan affiliation Combès (2010) suggests that Gorgotoqui may have been a Bororoan language.Combès, Isabelle. 2010. Diccionario étnico: Santa Cruz la Vieja y su entorno en el siglo XVI. Cochabamba: Itinera-rios/Instituto Latinoamericano de Misionología. (Colección Scripta Autochtona, 4.) Nikulin (2019) suggests the etymology barogo- /barəkə-/ ‘animal’ + -doge /-toke/ ‘plural [+animate]’ for the ethnonym Gorgotoqui.
Combès (2012) also suggests that Penoquí was likely a name given to the Gorgotoqui during the 16th century, and that they were related to the Otuqui (Otuke); indeed, the Gorgotoqui may have been Otuqui who had undergone heavy Chiquitano cultural influence. The Penoqui and Otuqui both lived in the Jesuit Missions of Chiquitos together with the Chiquitano.Combès, Isabelle. 2012. Susnik y los gorgotoquis. Efervescencia étnica en la Chiquitania (Oriente boliviano), p. 201–220. Indiana, v. 29. Berlín.
Notes
References
ICOMOS (1990) "Jesuit Missions of the Chiquitos", in Advisory Body Evaluation No. 529. UNESCO.
Gaspar Ruíz (ca 1620) Gramática de la lengua gorgotoqui del Perú.