The extinct Hibito–Cholón or Cholónan languages form a proposed language family that links two languages of Peru, Hibito and Cholón. This family was believed to be extinct but in 2021 a native speaker was rediscovered, she is Martha Pérez Valderrama, she is currently the only known speaker of this family (specifically from the Cholón). They may also be related to the extinct Culle language, and perhaps to the language of the Chachapoya, but the data for all of these languages is poor.

Language contact

Jolkesky (2016) notes that there are lexical similarities with the Kechua, Leko, Mapudungun, Mochika, Kandoshi, Muniche, and Barbakoa language families due to contact.

Lexicon

Several basic Hibito and Cholon words appear to be related, though the data on both languages is poor. The following examples are given in the ad hoc orthography of the three sources we have on these languages: ! !! tree !! water !! daughter !! son ! Cholón ! Hibito Comparative word list of Hibito and Cholon from Loukotka (1949): ! French gloss (original) !! English gloss (translated) !! Hibito !! Cholon !! comparisons