CHIBCHAN LANGUAGES

The 'Chibchan languages' (also 'Chíbchan', 'Chibchano') make up a language family indigenous to Colombia and Central America. 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.

Contents

Northern Group

Votic Subgroup

Isthmic Subgroup

Magdalenic Subgroup

Southeastern Group

Possibly related

Bibliography

External Resources

Northern Group

★ Pech (Paya, Taya, Tawka, Seco) north-central Honduras, endangered

Votic Subgroup

(named for the extinct Votos of northern Costa Rica)

★ Rama southeastern Nicaragua, extinct or nearly so

★ Voto Costa Rica, extinct

★ Maléku (Guatuso), north-central Costa Rica, endangered

★ Corobicí northwestern Costa Rica, extinct

Isthmic Subgroup

★ Hüetar (Güetar), Costa Rica, extinct

★ Bribri (Talamanca), Costa Rica and Panama

★ Cabécar (Talamanca), Costa Rica

★ Boruca (Brunca, Brunka), Costa Rica, nearly extinct

★ Chánguena Costa Rica & Panama, extinct

★ Teribe (Térraba, Tiribi, Teribe, Norteño, Quequexque, Naso), Panama and Costa Rica

★ Movere (Move), central Panama

★ Ngabere (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

★ Dorasque Panama, endangered

★ Kuna (Cuna, San Blás Kuna, Paya-Pucuro Kuna, Caiman Nuevo, Dulegaya), Panama and Colombia

Magdalenic Subgroup

★ Chibcha (Muisca, Mosca) Colombia, extinct

★ Tunebo (U'wa) Colombia

★ 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

Southeastern Group

★ Barí (Motilón, Motilone, Dobocubi), Colombia and Venezuela

★ Chimila (Ette taara, Caca Weranos, Shimizya), Colombia

Possibly related

★ Cueva Panama, extinct

★ Zenú (Sinú), northern Colombia

★ Cofán (Kofán, Kofane, A'i), Ecuador and Colombia

★ Yanomam Venezuela
Constenla argues that Cueva, the extinct dominant language of pre-Colombian Panama, was Chocoan, not Chibchan, but there is little evidence to support its classification either way. Constenla also disagrees with Greenberg's (1987) classification of Yanomam as Chibchan.
Cofán has been included in Chibchan due to borrowed vocabulary.
Bogotá speakers assert that their language is different from Buglere and wish to be seen as a separate people (meeting of the Coordinadora Nacional de Pueblos Indigenas de Panama, 2003).
A family called ''Macro-Chibchan'' is also hypothesized, which would contain the Misumalpan languages, Lenca language, Tarascan isolate, Xinca language, Cuitlatec language, and Yanoama 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). None of these "macro"-groups have gained wide acceptance.
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

★ Ethnologue: Chibchan Family

★ COMPARATIVE CHIBCHAN PHONOLOGY Dissertation

★ Macro-Chibchan