Languages of Nicaragua
Encyclopedia
The official language of Nicaragua is Spanish
; however, Nicaragua
ns on the Caribbean coast speak indigenous languages and also English
. The communities located on the Caribbean coast also have access to education in their native languages.
, or Nicañol as Nicaraguan Spanish is sometimes referred to, is spoken by 90% of the country's population. In Nicaragua the Voseo
form is common, just as in other countries in Central and South America such as Argentina
, Bolivia
, Costa Rica
, coastal parts of Colombia
, Honduras
or Paraguay
. Spanish has many different dialects spoken throughout Latin America, Central American Spanish
is the dialect spoken in Nicaragua.
Phonetics and phonology
Some characteristics of Nicaraguan phonology include:
Several indigenous peoples on the Caribbean coast still use their native language, the main languages being Miskito language
, Sumo language
, and Rama language
. Other Indigenous languages spoken include Garifuna
.
Miskito
Miskito is a Misumalpan language spoken by the Miskito people in northeastern Nicaragua along the Caribbean coast, especially in the North Atlantic Autonomous Region. The Miskito language is the most widely spoken indigenous language in Nicaragua, this is because the Miskito people also hold the highest population of Indigenous people in the country.
Sumo
Sumo (also known as Sumu) is a Misumalpan language spoken in Nicaragua
by the Sumo people
. There is wide dialectal variation, and sometimes the major dialects may be listed as separate languages.
Rama
Rama is one of the indigenous language
s of the Chibchan family
spoken by the Rama people
on the island of Rama Cay
and south of lake Bluefields
on the Caribbean Coast of Nicaragua. The Rama language is severely endangered
. Their language was described as "dying quickly for lack of use" as early as the 1860s. By 1980, the Rama were noted as having "all but lost their original ethnic language", and had become speakers of a form of English creole
instead, Rama Cay Creole
which is spoken by 8,000–9,000 people. Language revival
efforts began in 1980–1981 under the Sandinistas
however, they were not successful. The fieldwork for the first dictionary of Rama was done during this time by Robin Schneider, a graduate student from the University of Berlin. In 1992, only approximately 36 fluent speakers could be found among an ethnic population of 649 individuals in 1992, of whom only a few scattered individuals live outside Nicaragua. The number of speakers on Rama Cay island was only 4 in 1992, due to language shift to English that engendered Rama Cay Creole
.
Nicaraguan Sign Language
Nicaraguan Sign Language
has been of particular interest to linguists as the world's youngest language.
s in Nicaragua, such as the Chinese Nicaraguan
s and Palestinian Nicaraguan
s, have maintained their ancestral languages while also speaking Spanish and/or English. Minority languages include Chinese
, Arabic
, German
, Italian
among others.
s.
Matagalpa
The Matagalpa language
, which was also known as Pantasmas, was a Misumalpan language spoken by the indigenous Matagalpa people. In 1981 the population of the Matagalpa people was estimated at 18,000–20,000. The Matagalpa people live in the Central highlands of Nicaragua in the departments of Matagalpa
and Jinotega
. Matagalpa became extinct in the 19th century; the eponymous people now speak Spanish. Only a few short word lists remain. It was closely related to Cacaopera
.
Subtiaba
The Subtiaba language is an extinct
indigenous Oto-Manguean language which was spoken on the Pacific slope of Nicaragua. In 1925 Edward Sapir
wrote an article based on scant evidence arguing for the inclusion of Subtiaba in the his hypothesized Hokan group. Others have linked Subtiaba to the Jicaque and Tol languages, but since Suárez's work it is generally accepted that Subtiaba is an Oto-Manguean language
. When Sapir wrote about it in 1925 it was already very endangered or moribund.
Mangue
The Monimbo language never existed as a language name. Monimbo Indians were Chorotega speakers of Mangue, a language closely related to Chapaneco. Mangue is an extinct language classified as belonging to the Oto-Manguean, Chiapanec-Mangue.
Nicarao
Also known as Pipil-Nicarao
, a Nahuat
dialect belonging to the Uto-Aztecan
, Southern Uto-Aztecan, Aztecan, General Aztec, Pipil. The Nicarao gave the name to the whole country of Nicaragua. The Nicarao became the lingua franca during the 16 century.
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
; however, Nicaragua
Nicaragua
Nicaragua is the largest country in the Central American American isthmus, bordered by Honduras to the north and Costa Rica to the south. The country is situated between 11 and 14 degrees north of the Equator in the Northern Hemisphere, which places it entirely within the tropics. The Pacific Ocean...
ns on the Caribbean coast speak indigenous languages and also English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
. The communities located on the Caribbean coast also have access to education in their native languages.
Languages
| Languages of Nicaragua | |
| Language | Speakers |
|---|---|
| Arabic Arabic language Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book... |
400 |
| Chinese Chinese language The Chinese language is a language or language family consisting of varieties which are mutually intelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages... |
7,000 |
| English English language English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria... |
20,334 |
| Garífuna Garifuna language Garifuna is an Arawakan language spoken in Honduras, Guatemala, and Belize by the Garifuna people. The language is also spoken to a lesser extent in Nicaragua's Mosquito Coast. Historically it was referred to as Carib or Black Carib and Igñeri by Europeans. Garifuna has a vocabulary split between... |
1,500 |
| Miskito Miskito language Miskito is a Misumalpan language spoken by the Miskito people in northeastern Nicaragua, especially in the North Atlantic Autonomous Region, and in eastern Honduras.... |
154,400 |
| Sign language Nicaraguan Sign Language Nicaraguan Sign Language is a signed language spontaneously developed by deaf children in a number of schools in western Nicaragua in the 1970s and 1980s... |
3,000 |
| Spanish Spanish language Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the... |
4,347,000 |
| Sumo Sumo language Sumo is the collective name for a group of Misumalpan languages spoken in Nicaragua and Honduras. Hale & Salamanca classifies the Sumu languages into a northern Mayangna, composed of the Twahka and Panamahka dialects, and southern Ulwa... |
6,700 |
| Rama Rama language Rama is one of the indigenous languages of the Chibchan family spoken by the Rama people on the island of Rama Cay and south of lake Bluefields on the Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua. Other indigenous languages of this region include Miskito and Sumu . Rama is one of the northernmost languages of the... |
24 |
| Creole English Miskito Coastal Creole Mískito Coast Creole or Nicaragua Creole English is a language spoken in Nicaragua based on English. Its approximately 30,000 speakers are found along the Mosquito Coast of the Caribbean Sea. The language is nearly identical to Belizean Creole , and similar to all Central American Creoles... |
30,000 |
| Source: Ethnologue | |
Spanish
SpanishSpanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
, or Nicañol as Nicaraguan Spanish is sometimes referred to, is spoken by 90% of the country's population. In Nicaragua the Voseo
Voseo
Voseo is the use of the second person singular pronoun vos in many dialects of Spanish. In dialects that have it, it is used either instead of tú, or alongside it....
form is common, just as in other countries in Central and South America such as Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
, Bolivia
Bolivia
Bolivia officially known as Plurinational State of Bolivia , is a landlocked country in central South America. It is the poorest country in South America...
, Costa Rica
Costa Rica
Costa Rica , officially the Republic of Costa Rica is a multilingual, multiethnic and multicultural country in Central America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, Panama to the southeast, the Pacific Ocean to the west and the Caribbean Sea to the east....
, coastal parts of Colombia
Colombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...
, Honduras
Honduras
Honduras is a republic in Central America. It was previously known as Spanish Honduras to differentiate it from British Honduras, which became the modern-day state of Belize...
or Paraguay
Paraguay
Paraguay , officially the Republic of Paraguay , is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to the east and northeast, and Bolivia to the northwest. Paraguay lies on both banks of the Paraguay River, which runs through the center of the...
. Spanish has many different dialects spoken throughout Latin America, Central American Spanish
Central American Spanish
Central American Spanish is the general name of the Spanish language dialects spoken in Central America...
is the dialect spoken in Nicaragua.
Phonetics and phonology
Some characteristics of Nicaraguan phonology include:
- /s/ at the end of a syllable or before a consonant is pronounced like [h].
- j (/x/), is aspirated; it is soft as the /h/ in English (e.g.: Yahoo).
- There is no confusion between /l/ and /r/, as in the Caribbean.
- /s/, /z/ and in some cases /c/ (as in cerrar) are pronounced as [s].
Indigenous languages
Miskito language
Miskito is a Misumalpan language spoken by the Miskito people in northeastern Nicaragua, especially in the North Atlantic Autonomous Region, and in eastern Honduras....
, Sumo language
Sumo language
Sumo is the collective name for a group of Misumalpan languages spoken in Nicaragua and Honduras. Hale & Salamanca classifies the Sumu languages into a northern Mayangna, composed of the Twahka and Panamahka dialects, and southern Ulwa...
, and Rama language
Rama language
Rama is one of the indigenous languages of the Chibchan family spoken by the Rama people on the island of Rama Cay and south of lake Bluefields on the Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua. Other indigenous languages of this region include Miskito and Sumu . Rama is one of the northernmost languages of the...
. Other Indigenous languages spoken include Garifuna
Garifuna language
Garifuna is an Arawakan language spoken in Honduras, Guatemala, and Belize by the Garifuna people. The language is also spoken to a lesser extent in Nicaragua's Mosquito Coast. Historically it was referred to as Carib or Black Carib and Igñeri by Europeans. Garifuna has a vocabulary split between...
.
Miskito
Miskito is a Misumalpan language spoken by the Miskito people in northeastern Nicaragua along the Caribbean coast, especially in the North Atlantic Autonomous Region. The Miskito language is the most widely spoken indigenous language in Nicaragua, this is because the Miskito people also hold the highest population of Indigenous people in the country.
Sumo
Sumo (also known as Sumu) is a Misumalpan language spoken in Nicaragua
Nicaragua
Nicaragua is the largest country in the Central American American isthmus, bordered by Honduras to the north and Costa Rica to the south. The country is situated between 11 and 14 degrees north of the Equator in the Northern Hemisphere, which places it entirely within the tropics. The Pacific Ocean...
by the Sumo people
Sumo (people)
The Mayagna are a people who live on the eastern coasts of Nicaragua and Honduras, an area commonly known as the Mosquito Coast. Their preferred autonym is Mayagna, as the name "Sumo" is a deragatory name historically used by the Miskito people.Their language belongs to the Misumalpan language...
. There is wide dialectal variation, and sometimes the major dialects may be listed as separate languages.
Rama
Rama is one of the indigenous language
Indigenous language
An indigenous language or autochthonous language is a language that is native to a region and spoken by indigenous peoples but has been reduced to the status of a minority language. This language would be from a linguistically distinct community that has been settled in the area for many generations...
s of the Chibchan family
Chibchan languages
The Chibchan languages 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...
spoken by the Rama people
Rama (people)
The Rama are an indigenous people of Nicaragua. The 900 ethnic Rama live within a thirty mile radius of the Rama Cay island on the Caribbean coastline.The Rama are hunters, fishers and agriculturalists growing mainly bananas and white cacao beans....
on the island of Rama Cay
Rama Cay
Rama Cay is an island in the Bluefields Lagoon on the eastern coast of Nicaragua. During the 17th or 18th century, the more powerful Miskito awarded the island to the Rama people in recognition of their assistance in fighting off the Terraba Indians....
and south of lake Bluefields
Bluefields
Bluefields is the capital of the municipality of the same name, and of Región Autónoma del Atlántico Sur in Nicaragua. It was also capital of the former Zelaya Department, which was divided into North and South Atlantic Autonomous Regions...
on the Caribbean Coast of Nicaragua. The Rama language is severely endangered
Endangered language
An endangered language is a language that is at risk of falling out of use. If it loses all its native speakers, it becomes a dead language. If eventually no one speaks the language at all it becomes an "extinct language"....
. Their language was described as "dying quickly for lack of use" as early as the 1860s. By 1980, the Rama were noted as having "all but lost their original ethnic language", and had become speakers of a form of English creole
English-based creole languages
An English-based creole language is a creole language that was significantly influenced by the English language...
instead, Rama Cay Creole
Rama Cay Creole
Rama Cay Creole is a Creole language spoken by some 8-900 people on the island of Rama Cay in eastern Nicaragua. It is based on Miskito Coast Creole with additional elements of the Chibchan language Rama and purportedly some elements of English spoken with a German accent...
which is spoken by 8,000–9,000 people. Language revival
Language revival
Language revitalization, language revival or reversing language shift is the attempt by interested parties, including individuals, cultural or community groups, governments, or political authorities, to reverse the decline of a language. If the decline is severe, the language may be endangered,...
efforts began in 1980–1981 under the Sandinistas
Sandinista National Liberation Front
The Sandinista National Liberation Front is a socialist political party in Nicaragua. Its members are called Sandinistas in both English and Spanish...
however, they were not successful. The fieldwork for the first dictionary of Rama was done during this time by Robin Schneider, a graduate student from the University of Berlin. In 1992, only approximately 36 fluent speakers could be found among an ethnic population of 649 individuals in 1992, of whom only a few scattered individuals live outside Nicaragua. The number of speakers on Rama Cay island was only 4 in 1992, due to language shift to English that engendered Rama Cay Creole
Rama Cay Creole
Rama Cay Creole is a Creole language spoken by some 8-900 people on the island of Rama Cay in eastern Nicaragua. It is based on Miskito Coast Creole with additional elements of the Chibchan language Rama and purportedly some elements of English spoken with a German accent...
.
Nicaraguan Sign Language
Nicaraguan Sign Language
Nicaraguan Sign Language
Nicaraguan Sign Language is a signed language spontaneously developed by deaf children in a number of schools in western Nicaragua in the 1970s and 1980s...
has been of particular interest to linguists as the world's youngest language.
Minority languages
Nicaragua has many minority groups. Many ethnic groupEthnic group
An ethnic group is a group of people whose members identify with each other, through a common heritage, often consisting of a common language, a common culture and/or an ideology that stresses common ancestry or endogamy...
s in Nicaragua, such as the Chinese Nicaraguan
Chinese Nicaraguan
Chinese Nicaraguans are Nicaraguans of Chinese ancestry who immigrated to or born in Nicaragua...
s and Palestinian Nicaraguan
Palestinian Nicaraguan
Palestinian Nicaraguan are Nicaraguans of Palestinian ancestry who were born in or have immigrated to Nicaragua...
s, have maintained their ancestral languages while also speaking Spanish and/or English. Minority languages include Chinese
Chinese language
The Chinese language is a language or language family consisting of varieties which are mutually intelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...
, Arabic
Arabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
, German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
, Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
among others.
Extinct languages
Nicaragua has a total of 3 extinct languageExtinct language
An extinct language is a language that no longer has any speakers., or that is no longer in current use. Extinct languages are sometimes contrasted with dead languages, which are still known and used in special contexts in written form, but not as ordinary spoken languages for everyday communication...
s.
Matagalpa
The Matagalpa language
Matagalpa language
Matagalpa is an extinct Misumalpan language formerly spoken in the central highlands of Nicaragua. The language became extinct in the nineteenth century, and only few short wordlists remain. It was closely related to Cacaopera. The ethnic group, which numbers about 20,000 now speaks Spanish....
, which was also known as Pantasmas, was a Misumalpan language spoken by the indigenous Matagalpa people. In 1981 the population of the Matagalpa people was estimated at 18,000–20,000. The Matagalpa people live in the Central highlands of Nicaragua in the departments of Matagalpa
Matagalpa (department)
Matagalpa is a department or region in central Nicaragua. It covers an area of 8,523 km² and has a population of 644,900 . The capital is the city of Matagalpa with about 250.000....
and Jinotega
Jinotega (department)
Jinotega is the second largest department in Nicaragua. It is bordered on the north by the country of Honduras. The departments surrounding it are, Matagalpa to the south, Zelaya to the east, and Estelí, Madriz, and Nueva Segovia. It covers an area of 9,755 km² and has a population of 297,300...
. Matagalpa became extinct in the 19th century; the eponymous people now speak Spanish. Only a few short word lists remain. It was closely related to Cacaopera
Cacaopera language
Cacaopera is an extinct language belonging to the Misumalpan family, formerly spoken in the department of Morazán in El Salvador. It was closely related to Matagalpa, and slightly more distantly to Sumo, but was geographically separated from other Misumalpan languages....
.
Subtiaba
The Subtiaba language is an extinct
Extinct language
An extinct language is a language that no longer has any speakers., or that is no longer in current use. Extinct languages are sometimes contrasted with dead languages, which are still known and used in special contexts in written form, but not as ordinary spoken languages for everyday communication...
indigenous Oto-Manguean language which was spoken on the Pacific slope of Nicaragua. In 1925 Edward Sapir
Edward Sapir
Edward Sapir was an American anthropologist-linguist, widely considered to be one of the most important figures in the early development of the discipline of linguistics....
wrote an article based on scant evidence arguing for the inclusion of Subtiaba in the his hypothesized Hokan group. Others have linked Subtiaba to the Jicaque and Tol languages, but since Suárez's work it is generally accepted that Subtiaba is an Oto-Manguean language
Oto-Manguean languages
Oto-Manguean languages are a large family comprising several families of Native American languages. All of the Oto-Manguean languages that are now spoken are indigenous to Mexico, but the Manguean branch of the family, which is now extinct, was spoken as far south as Nicaragua and Costa Rica.The...
. When Sapir wrote about it in 1925 it was already very endangered or moribund.
Mangue
The Monimbo language never existed as a language name. Monimbo Indians were Chorotega speakers of Mangue, a language closely related to Chapaneco. Mangue is an extinct language classified as belonging to the Oto-Manguean, Chiapanec-Mangue.
Nicarao
Also known as Pipil-Nicarao
Nicarao
Nicarao is the name of the capital city of the most populous indigenous tribe when the Spanish arrived in Nicaragua. Gil González Dávila, who first explored the area, came up with this Central American country's name by combining Nicarao and the Spanish word Agua, meaning water, after the two large...
, a Nahuat
Pipil language
Pipil is a Uto-Aztecan language descended from Nahuatl which was spoken in several parts of present day Central America before the Spanish conquest. It is on the verge of extinction in western El Salvador and has already gone extinct elsewhere in Central America...
dialect belonging to the Uto-Aztecan
Uto-Aztecan languages
Uto-Aztecan or Uto-Aztekan is a Native American language family consisting of over 30 languages. Uto-Aztecan languages are found from the Great Basin of the Western United States , through western, central and southern Mexico Uto-Aztecan or Uto-Aztekan is a Native American language family...
, Southern Uto-Aztecan, Aztecan, General Aztec, Pipil. The Nicarao gave the name to the whole country of Nicaragua. The Nicarao became the lingua franca during the 16 century.
External links
- Explore Nicaragua Languages
- History of the Matagalpa language and people (es icon)