Chibchan languages

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For other uses, see Chibcha language (disambiguation).

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.

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 languages, 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.

Duality was a central theme within the Chibchan world, and this idea greatly affected Chibchan women.

[edit] 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).