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
Votic Subgroup (named for the extinct Votos of northern Costa Rica)
- Rama southeastern Nicaragua
- Voto Costa Rica, extinct
- Maleku (Guatuso), north-central Costa Rica
- Corobicí northwestern Costa Rica
Isthmic Subgroup
- Hüetar (Güetar), Costa Rica, extinct
- Bribrí (Talamanca), Costa Rica
- 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
- Bari (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 Languages , 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 suggested 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).
Needless to say, 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.
Enlaces externos
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