| Macro-Chibchan | |
|---|---|
| (controversial) | |
| Geographic distribution | Central America and Colombia |
| Linguistic classification | Proposed language family |
| Subdivisions | |
| Glottolog | None |
 The Chibchan, Misumalpan, and Lencan languages | |
Macro-Chibchan is a proposed grouping of the languages of the Lencan, Misumalpan, and Chibchan families into a single large phylum (macrofamily).
The Lencan and Misumalpan languages were once included in the Chibchan family proper, but were excluded pending further evidence as that family became well established. Kaufman (1990) finds the Chibchan–Misumalpan connection convincing, if as yet unsubstantiated, though Campbell (1997) finds it doubtful. The Xincan family was once included in Macro-Chibchan, but this is now doubtful.
Constenla (2005) calls this proposed phylum Lenmichí (Lencan–Misumalpan–Chibchan) and provides 85 cognate sets which exhibit regular sound correspondences among the three families. He suggests that Chocoan may be related as well.
Greenberg proposed a broader conception of Macro-Chibchan, one dismissed by linguists working on the families in question. It included Yanomam, Purépecha, and Cuitlatec in addition to Chibchan–Misumalpan–Xinca–Lenca. Greenberg (1987) included Paezan languages in a Chibchan-Paezan stock with Barbacoan, Chibchan, Chocoan, Jirajaran, and the isolates Betoi, Kamsá (Sibundoy), Yaruro, Esmeraldeño, Mochica, Cunza, Itonama, and Yurumanguí.
An automated computational analysis (ASJP 4) by Müller et al. (2013) [1] also found lexical similarities between Chibchan and Misumalpan. However, since the analysis was automatically generated, the grouping could be either due to mutual lexical borrowing or genetic inheritance.
Constenla (2005) reconstructed five vowels and eleven consonants for Proto-Lenmichian, with the following reflexes:
| Proto-Lenmichian | *a | *e | *i | *o | *u |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Proto-Chibchan | *a | *e | *i | *o | *u |
| Proto-Lencan | *a *e | *e | *i | *o *u | *u |
| Proto-Misumalpan | *a | *i | *i | *u | *u |
There are also a series[ clarification needed ] of nasal vowels.
| Proto-Lenmichian | *b | *d | *t | *k | *ʔ | *ts | *s | *h | *l | *ɾ | *w |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Proto-Chibchan | *b | *d | *t | *k | *ʔ | *ts | *s | *h | *ɾ | ∅ | |
| Proto-Lencan | *p *m | *l *n | *t | *k | ∅ | *ts' | ∅ | *l | *w | ||
| Proto-Misumalpan | *b *p *m | *d *n | *t | *k | ∅ | *s | ∅ | *l | *ɾ | *w | |
Below is a comparison of selected basic vocabulary items. [2]
| gloss | Xinca (Guazacapán) [3] | Lenca (Chilanga) [4] | Proto-Lencan [5] | Proto-Misumalpan [6] | Proto-Chibchan [7] |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| head | húš̱i | oso | |||
| hair | múti | alah | *asak | *ʦa | |
| eye | hurayí | sap | *uᵐba | ||
| ear | mánka | tokoro | *tupal | ||
| nose | narí | nepkuru | *nep | *nam | *ⁿdii(k) |
| tooth | rajáj (Chiquimulilla) [8] | neh | *nek | *ⁿduʔ | |
| tongue | elahá | nepal | *tu | *kuʔ(-Ba) | |
| mouth | š̱ahá | iɴ-ts’ats’a | *in | *ta | *kah-ka |
| hand | pu | koʃaka | *kuuʔ; *haⁿd- ~ *hat- | ||
| foot | wapilí | waʃaka | *kihʦa ~ *kihsa | ||
| breast | šéke | ts’ukiɴ 'nipple' | *kãʔ; *ʦuʔ | ||
| meat | uwí | waʃa | *ᵑgaʔⁿda ~ *ᵑgaʔta; *sih | ||
| blood | káma | ala | *a | *hapi ~ *apiʔ | |
| bone | hararí | ʃila-ts’e | *ts’ek | *kãⁿd-, *ⁿdaⁿdi ~ *ⁿdaiⁿd- / *saⁿdi ~ *saiⁿd- | |
| person | šurúmu, hurákɨ | iʃko | *ᵐbaⁿdi ~ *ᵐbaiⁿd | ||
| name | š̱a | *haka ~ *akaʔ | |||
| dog | čúčo (Chiquimulilla) [9] | ʃuʃu | *su | *tau | |
| fish | séma | ʃok’ín | *ᵑgwa ~ *uᵑg | ||
| louse | tɨmáƚi | tem | *tem | *kũʔ | |
| tree | hútu | suɴ | *ban | *ˈkàr; *kaˈri (C) | |
| leaf | píya | aw | *ka | ||
| flower | túƚu | ʃila | *sula | ||
| water | uy | *was | *li | *ⁿdiʔ | |
| fire | uráy | ik’aɴ | *juk’a | *ᵑgi 'firewood' | |
| stone | híš̱i | ke | *ke | *walpa | *hak ~ *kaʔ |
| earth | náru | omoɴ | *taB(a) | ||
| salt | tíʔla | ts’epe | *ⁿdaᵑg | ||
| road | táƚma | k’iɴ | *k’in | *hi | |
| eat | rúka | rom- | *kuⁿdi ~ *kuiⁿd | ||
| die | teró | ʃil- | |||
| I | nin | unani | *unani | *jam | *ⁿdaH(ⁿd) |
| you | náka | manani | *amanani | *man | *ᵐbaʔ |
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. The name is derived from the name of an extinct language called Chibcha or Muysccubun, once spoken by the people who lived on the Altiplano Cundiboyacense of which the city of Bogotá was the southern capital at the time of the Spanish Conquista. However, genetic and linguistic data now indicate that the original heart of Chibchan languages and Chibchan-speaking peoples might not have been in Colombia, but in the area of the Costa Rica-Panama border, where the greatest variety of Chibchan languages has been identified.
The Misumalpan languages are a small family of languages spoken by indigenous peoples on the east coast of Nicaragua and nearby areas. The name "Misumalpan" was devised by John Alden Mason and is composed of syllables from the names of the family's three members Miskito, Sumo languages and Matagalpan. It was first recognized by Walter Lehmann in 1920. While all the languages of the Matagalpan branch are now extinct, the Miskito and Sumu languages are alive and well: Miskito has almost 200,000 speakers and serves as a second language for speakers of other indigenous languages in the Mosquito Coast. According to Hale, most speakers of Sumu also speak Miskito.
The Choco languages are a small family of Native American languages spread across Colombia and Panama.
The Isthmo-Colombian Area is defined as a cultural area encompassing those territories occupied predominantly by speakers of the Chibchan languages at the time of European contact. It includes portions of the Central American isthmus like eastern El Salvador, eastern Honduras, Caribbean Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, and northern Colombia.
This is a list of different language classification proposals developed for the Indigenous languages of the Americas. The article is divided into North, Central, and South America sections; however, the classifications do not correspond to these divisions.
Barbacoan is a language family spoken in Colombia and Ecuador.
Paezan may be any of several hypothetical or obsolete language-family proposals of Colombia and Ecuador named after the Paez language.
Amuzgo is an Oto-Manguean language spoken in the Costa Chica region of the Mexican states of Guerrero and Oaxaca by about 44,000 speakers. Like other Oto-Manguean languages, Amuzgo is a tonal language. From syntactical point of view Amuzgo can be considered as an active language. The name Amuzgo is claimed to be a Nahuatl exonym but its meaning is shrouded in controversy; multiple proposals have been made, including 'moss-in'.
Xinca is a small extinct family of Mesoamerican languages, formerly regarded as a single language isolate, once spoken by the indigenous Xinca people in southeastern Guatemala, much of El Salvador, and parts of Honduras.
Cueva is a poorly attested and often misclassified extinct indigenous language of Panama. The Cueva people were exterminated between 1510 and 1535 during Spanish colonization. During the 17th and 18th centuries the Kuna repopulated the Cueva area.
The Lencan languages are a small linguistic family from Central America, whose speakers before the Spanish conquest spread throughout El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua. But by the beginning of the 20th century, only two languages of the family survived, Salvadoran Lenca or Potón and Honduran Lenca, which were described and studied academically; Of them, only Salvadoran Lenca still has current speakers, despite the fact that indigenous people belonging to the Lenca ethnic group exceed between 37,000 and 100,000 people.
The Maléku Jaíka language, also called Malecu, Maleku, Guatuso, Watuso-Wétar, and Guetar, is an Indigenous American language in Costa Rica.
Bribri, also known as Bri-bri, Bribriwak, and Bribri-wak, is a Chibchan language, from a language family indigenous to the Isthmo-Colombian Area, which extends from eastern Honduras to northern Colombia and includes populations of those countries as well as Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama. As of 2002, there were about 11,000 speakers left. An estimate by the National Census of Costa Rica in 2011 found that Bribri is currently spoken by 54.7% of the 12,785 Bribri people, about 7,000 individuals. It is a tonal language whose word order is subject–object–verb.
Costa Rica's official and predominant language is Spanish. The variety spoken there, Costa Rican Spanish, is a form of Central American Spanish.
Andaqui is an extinct language from the southern highlands of Colombia. It has been linked to the Paezan or Barbacoan languages, but no connections have been demonstrated. It was spoken by the Andaqui people of Colombia.
The Cabécar language is an indigenous American language of the Chibchan language family spoken by the Cabécar people in the inland Turrialba Region, Cartago Province, Costa Rica. As of 2007, 2,000 speakers were monolingual. It is the only indigenous language in Costa Rica with monolingual adults. The language is also known by its dialect names Chirripó, Estrella, Telire, and Ujarrás.
The indigenous languages of the Americas form various linguistic areas or Sprachbunds that share various common (areal) traits.
Salvadoran Lenca or Potón is a language of the linguistic family of the Lenca languages spoken in El Salvador; and of which two dialects have been described: that of Chilanga (extinct), and that of Guatajiagua; Other dialects may have existed in the past in the other towns where the Lencas lived in present-day El Salvador.
The Cabécar are an indigenous group of the remote Talamanca region of eastern Costa Rica. They speak Cabécar, a language belonging to the Chibchan language family of the Isthmo-Colombian Area of lower Central America and northwestern Colombia. According to census data from the National Institute of Statistics and Census of Costa Rica, the Cabécar are the largest indigenous group in Costa Rica with a population of nearly 17,000.
Adolfo Constenla Umaña was a Costa Rican philologist and linguist who specialized in the indigenous languages of Central America. He is especially known as a leading scholar on Chibchan languages.