The Sechura language, also known as Sek, is an extinct language spoken in the Piura Region

Piura Region

Piura is a coastal region in northwestern Peru. The region's capital is Piura and its largest port cities, Paita and Talara, are also among the most important in Peru...

 of Peru

Peru

Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....

, near the port of Sechura

Sechura

Sechura is a town in northwestern Peru, 50 km south of Piura. It is the capital of Sechura Province in the Piura Region. The town gives its name to the Sechura Desert, which extends south along most of coastal Peru...

. It appears to have become extinct by the beginning of the 20th Century.

Classification

Sechura, along with its sister language Tallán, are too poorly known to be definitively classified. Kaufman notes that a connection between Sechura and the Catacaoan languages

Catacaoan languages

The Catacaoan languages or Tallán languages are an extinct family of three languages spoken in the Piura Region of Peru. The three languages in the family are:*Catacao or Katakao, once spoken around the city of Catacaos...

is likely and is supported by lexical evidence.

Sek family

Rivet groups Sechura and Tallán together under the same Sek when he compares them to the Catacaoan languages. In comparing wordlists from Sechura and Tallán, Torero finds six likely cognates between the two:

Tallán		Sechura
water	xoto	tujut	river
son/daughter	ños-ma	ños-ñi	son/daughter
light	yura	yoro	sun
beach	coyu roro	roro	sea
woman	cucatama	cuctum	woman
fish	xuma	jum	fish