The Boruca language (in Boruca: Brúnkajk,
also known as Bronka, Bronca, Brunca) is the native language of the
Boruca
The Boruca (also known as the Brunca or the Brunka) are the indigenous people living in Costa Rica. The tribe has about 2,660 members, most living on a reservation in the Puntarenas Province in southwestern Costa Rica, a few miles away from t ...
people of
Costa Rica
Costa Rica (, ; ; literally "Rich Coast"), officially the Republic of Costa Rica ( es, República de Costa Rica), is a country in the Central American region of North America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the no ...
. Boruca belongs to the Isthmian branch of the
Chibchan languages
The Chibchan languages (also Chibchan, Chibchano) 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 ...
. Though exact speaker numbers are uncertain, UNESCO’s Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger has listed Boruca as "critically endangered".
It was spoken fluently by only five women in 1986, while 30 to 35 others spoke it non-fluently. The rest of the tribe's 1,000 members speak
Spanish.
Boruca is taught as a second language at the local primary school Escuela Doris Z. Stone. One can hear Bronka words and phrases mixed into Spanish conversations but it is extremely rare to hear prolonged exchanges in Bronka.
Grammar
The personal pronouns in Boruca (the ᵛ represents a glottal stop.)
The numbers (the "n̈", "n" with the
diaeresis "¨" on top may be unavailable in some fonts, it represents a slightly different sound from the normal n or ñ.)
Greetings
¿Ishójcre rában? = What's up?
Morén, morén. = Fine, well.
See also
*
Brunca Sign Language
Brunca Sign Language is a village sign language A village sign language, or village sign, also known as a shared sign language, is a local indigenous sign language used by both deaf and hearing in an area with a high incidence of congenital deafn ...
External links
Map of Boruca
References
Chibchan languages
Languages of Costa Rica
Endangered Chibchan languages
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