In 2004, it had 2 remaining native speakers out of an ethnic group of 140 people in the La Paz Department, Bolivia near Lake Titicaca, the rest having shifted to Aymara and Spanish.

Since one of the Urus' names for their language was "Pukina", Uchumataqu has previously been mistakenly identified with Puquina.

[4] The pronoun system of Uchumataqu is naturally very similar instead to its close relative Chipaya.

[6] Uchumataqu has also borrowed grammatical and lexical morphemes from prolonged exposure to Aymara,[4] with which it is not related, however.

The second variety was spoken on Isla del Sol in Lake Titicaca and was first described in the 1960s though there it is far less documented.