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Chibchan languages
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The Chibchan languages (also Chíbchan, Chibchano) make up a language family indigenous to the Isthmo-Colombian area, which extends from eastern Honduras to northern Colombia and includes populations of these countries as well as Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama. The name is derived from the name of an extinct language called Chibcha or Muisca cubun, once spoken by the people who lived in the city of Bogotá at the time of the European invasion.
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Encyclopedia
The Chibchan languages (also Chíbchan, Chibchano) make up a language family indigenous to the Isthmo-Colombian area, which extends from eastern Honduras to northern Colombia and includes populations of these countries as well as Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama. The name is derived from the name of an extinct language called Chibcha or Muisca cubun, once spoken by the people who lived in the city of Bogotá at the time of the European invasion. However, genetic and linguistic data now indicate that the original heart of Chibchan languages and Chibchan-speaking peoples may not have been in Colombia at all, but in the area of the Costa Rica-Panama border, where one finds the greatest variety of Chibchan languages.
The Costa Rican linguist Adolfo Constenla Umaña (1981, 1991, 1995) has created a detailed classification of Chibchan languages. Most of these fall into the Southern Chibchan subgroupings of Votic, Isthmic, and Magdalenic. The following list is a slight modification of Constenla's groupings.
Classification
- A
- Waimí (Guaymi)
- Ngäbere (Western - Guaymí, Valiente, Chiriquí, Ngábere; Eastern - Tolé, Chiriquí, Ngobere, Ngäbere'), Costa Rica and Panama
- Buglere (Bokota, Bogotá, Bofota, Bobota, Bukueta, Buglé, Nortenyo, Murire, Sabanero, Veraguas Sabanero), Panama
- Boruca (Brunca, Brunka), Costa Rica, nearly extinct
- Talamanca
- Hüetar (Güetar), Costa Rica, extinct
- Bribri (Talamanca), Costa Rica and Panama
- Cabécar (Talamanca), Costa Rica
- Chánguena Costa Rica & Panama, extinct
- Teribe (Térraba, Tiribi, Teribe, Norteño, Quequexque, Naso), Panama and Costa Rica
- ? Movere (Move), central Panama
- B
- Pech (Paya, Taya, Tawka, Seco) northeastern Honduras, endangered
- Dorasque Panama, extinct
- Votic
- Rama southeastern Nicaragua, extinct or nearly so
- Voto Costa Rica, extinct
- Maléku (Guatuso), north-central Costa Rica, endangered
- Corobicí northwestern Costa Rica, extinct
- Kuna-Colombian
- Kuna (Cuna, San Blás Kuna, Paya-Pucuro Kuna, Caiman Nuevo, Dulegaya), Panama and Colombia
- Chibcha-Motilon
- Barí (Motilón, Motilone, Dobocubi), Colombia and Venezuela
- Chibcha-Tunebo
- Arwako-Chimila
- Chimila (Ette taara, Caca Weranos, Shimizya), Colombia
- Arwako
- Damana (Wiwa, Guamaca, Guamaka, Malayo, Arsario, Marocacero, Marocasero, Maracaserro, Sancá, Sanja, Sanka, Huihua) Colombia
- ?Kankuamo (Atanquez, Atanques) Colombia, extinct
- Ijca (Arhuaco, Aruaco, Bintuk, Bíntukua, Bintucua, Ica, Ijka, Ika, Ike, Bíntucua, Bintuk, Bíntukua, Pebu) Colombia
- Kogui (Coghui, Cagaba, Cogui, Kogi, Kaggaba, Kagaba) Colombia
External relations
Constenla argues that Cueva, the extinct dominant language of pre-Columbian Panama, was Chocoan, not Chibchan, but there is little evidence to support its classification either way.
The Cofán language (Kofán, Kofane, A'i) of Ecuador and Colombia has been included in Chibchan due to borrowed vocabulary.
The Zenú or Sinú language of northern Colombia is also sometimes included.
A family called Macro-Chibchan is also hypothesized, which would contain the Misumalpan languages, Lenca language, Tarascan isolate, Xinca language, Cuitlatec language, and Yanomaman languages. Joseph Greenberg groups Chibchan together with the Paezan languages in what he terms the Chibchan-Paezan subfamily of Amerind. Dennis Holt (1986) has also provided evidence for possible distant relationships of Chibchan with the Uto-Aztecan and Pano-Takanan language families. However, many linguists regard the concept of "Macro-Chibchan" (let alone higher-level groupings) as overly hypothetical and therefore of limited value. The most significant neighboring linguistic groups, with which there are important relationships, are Misumalpan languages (to the north) and Choco languages (to the south).
Most of these indigenous languages are severely endangered, and all of them require greater study and documentation.
Bibliography
- Constenla Umaña, A. (1981). Comparative Chibchan Phonology. (Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Linguistics, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia).
- Constenla Umaña, Adolfo. (1991). Las lenguas del Área Intermedia: Introducción a su estudio areal. Editorial de la Universidad de Costa Rica, San José.
- Constenla Umaña, Adolfo. (1995). Sobre el estudio diacrónico de las lenguas chibchenses y su contribución al conocimiento del pasado de sus hablantes. Boletín del Museo del Oro 38-39: 13-56.
- Greenberg, Joseph H. (1987). Language in the Americas. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
- Holt, Dennis (1986). The Development of the Paya Sound-System. (Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Linguistics, University of California, Los Angeles).
- A journal of Chibchan linguistics Estudios de Lingüistica Chibcha is published by the Universidad de Costa Rica.
External resources
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