The lost language and vanished people of the Canary Islands
Before the Spanish conquest, the Canary Islands were home to the Guanches, an indigenous people with North African roots. Though their language went extinct in the 17th century, their legacy survives in whispers, whistles, and the very DNA of the Atlantic archipelago.
The Guanches were the original inhabitants of the Canary Islands, likely arriving during the first millennium BC. Genetic and linguistic evidence, including a 2017 genome-wide analysis, confirms they shared ancestry with Berber peoples from mainland North Africa. While their language—related to the Berber branch—disappeared in the 1600s, traces remain in Canarian Spanish lexicon and the unique Silbo whistling language of La Gomera.
The 15th-century Spanish conquest, led by figures such as Jean de Béthencourt and Alonso Fernandez de Lugo, brought profound social disruption. The conquest involved mass killings, enslavement, and the introduction of new pathogens, leading some scholars to describe it as a model for later Iberian colonization in the Americas. While the people were largely assimilated, their spiritual world left deep marks. They worshipped various deities, such as the Tenerife sun god Magec, and believed demons like the black, woolly dog Jucanchas inhabited mountain caves.
Archaeological finds reveal a complex society with diverse technologies. In Tenerife, the practice of mummification was highly developed, with bodies preserved using resinous substances and placed in difficult-to-reach caves. While some mummies in Gran Canaria may have been preserved by environmental factors rather than intentional embalming, the Tenerife tradition was distinct. Even their rituals were intense; during the summer solstice, livestock were sometimes sacrificed in fires to appease the gods, with some accounts suggesting live goats were tied to stakes so their cries could reach the heavens.
Source: Guanches
