The Guanche language, also known as Amazigh, was an extinct Berber language that was spoken by the Guanches of the Canary Islands until the 17th century or possibly later. It died out as the Guanche ethnic group was assimilated into the dominant Spanish culture. The Guanche language is known today through sentences and individual words that were recorded by early geographers, as well as through several place-names and Guanche words that were retained in the Canary Islanders' Spanish.