Chibcha 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 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.

External relations

A larger family called '' Macro-Chibchan'', which would contain the Misumalpan languages, Xinca, and Lenca, was found convincing by Kaufman (1990).

Pache (2018) suggests a distant relationship with the Macro-Jê languages.

Language contact

Jolkesky (2016) notes that there are lexical similarities with the Andaki, Barbakoa, Choko, Duho, Paez, Sape, and Taruma language families due to contact.

Classification

* A
** Waimí (Guaymi)
*** Guaymí (Ngäbere, Movere) – 170,000 speakers, vulnerable in Panama, endangered in Costa Rica
*** Buglere (Bokotá) – 18,000 speakers, endangered
** Borũca (Brunca) – 140 speakers, moribund
** Talamanca
*** Huetar (Güetar) †
*** Bribri (Talamanca), 7,000 speakers – vulnerable in Costa Rica, endangered in Panama
*** Cabécar (Talamanca) – 8,800 speakers, vulnerable
*** Teribe (Norteño) – 3,300 speakers, endangered
* B
** Pech (Paya) – 990 speakers, endangered
** Dorasque †
** Votic
*** Rama – 740 speakers, moribund
*** Voto †
*** Maléku (Guatuso) – 750 speakers, endangered
*** Corobicí – northwestern Costa Rica †
** Cuna–Colombian
*** Kuna (Dulegaya) – 60,600 speakers, vulnerable in Panama, endangered in Colombia
*** Chibcha–Motilon
**** Barí (Motilón) – 5,000 speakers, vulnerable
**** Chibcha–Tunebo
***** Muysccubun - †
***** Duit †
***** U'wa (Tunebo) – 2,550 speakers, endangered
***** Guane † – Colombia
*** Arwako–Chimila
**** Chimila – 350 speakers, endangered
**** Arwako
***** Wiwa (Malayo, Guamaca) – 1,850 speakers, endangered
***** Kankuamo †
***** Arhuaco (Ika) – 8,000 speakers, vulnerable
***** Kogi ( Cogui) – 9,910 speakers, vulnerable

The extinct languages of Antioquia, Old Catío and Nutabe have been shown to be Chibchan (Adelaar & Muysken, 2004:49). The language of the Tairona is unattested, apart from a single word, but may well be one of the Arwako languages still spoken in the Santa Marta range. The Zenú Sinú language of northern Colombia is also sometimes included, as are the Malibu languages, though without any factual basis.

Adolfo Constenla Umaña argues that Cueva, the extinct dominant language of Pre-Columbian Panama long assumed to be Chibchan based on a misinterpreted Kuna vocabulary, was actually Chocoan, but there is little evidence.

The Cofán language (Kofán, Kofane, A'i) of Ecuador and Colombia has been erroneously included in Chibchan due to borrowed vocabulary.

Jolkesky (2016)

Internal classification by Jolkesky (2016):Jolkesky, Marcelo Pinho De Valhery. 2016.
Estudo arqueo-ecolinguístico das terras tropicais sul-americanas
'. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Brasília.

(† = extinct)

;Chibcha
*'' Pech''
*Votic
**'' Maleku''
**''Rama''
**'' Wetar''
*Isthmus
**Boruka-Talamanca
***'' Boruka''
***Talamanca
****''Teribe''
****Bribri-Kabekar
*****''Bribri''
*****'' Kabekar''
**Doraske-Changena
***'' Changena'' †
***'' Doraske''
**Guaymi
***''Buglere''
***'' Ngäbe''
**Kuna
***''Kuna Paya-Pukuro''
***''Kuna San Blas''
*Magdalena
**'' Barí''
**'' Chimila''
**''Nutabe'' †
**'' Tunebo''
**Muisca
***'' Guane'' †
***'' Muisca''
**Sierra de Santa Marta
***'' Kaggaba''
***'' Tairona'' †
***Wiwa-Ika
****'' Ika''
****'' Kankuamo'' †
****'' Wiwa''

Varieties

Below is a full list of Chibchan language varieties listed by Loukotka (1968), including names of unattested varieties.

;Rama group
*Rama - language spoken around Bluefields Lagoon and on the Rama River, Nicaragua.
*Melchora - extinct language once spoken on the San Juan Melchoras River, Nicaragua. (Unattested.)

;Guatuso group
*Guatuso - spoken on the Frío River, Costa Rica, now perhaps extinct.
*Guetar / Brusela - extinct language once spoken on the Grande River, Costa Rica.
*Suerre / Camachire / Chiuppa - extinct language once spoken on the Tortuguero River, Costa Rica. (Benzoni 1581, p. 214, only five words.)
*Pocosi - extinct language once spoken on the Matina River and around the modern city of Puerto Limón, Costa Rica. (Unattested.)
*Voto - extinct language once spoken at the mouth of the San Juan River, Costa Rica. (Unattested.)
*Quepo - extinct language once spoken in Costa Rica on the Pacuare River. (W. Lehmann 1920, vol. 1, p. 238, only one single word.)
*Corobisi / Corbesi / Cueresa / Rama de rio Zapote - spoken by a few individuals in Costa Rica on the Zapote River. (Alvarez in Conzemius 1930, pp. 96–99.)

;Talamanca group
*Terraba / Depso / Quequexque / Brurán - extinct language once spoken in Costa Rica on the Tenorio River.
*Tirub / Rayado / Tiribi - extinct language spoken once in Costa Rica on the Virilla River.
*Bribri / Lari - spoken on the Coca River and Tarire River, Costa Rica.
*Estrella - Spanish name of an extinct language, the original name of which is unknown, once spoken on the Estrella River, Costa Rica.
*Cabecar - language spoken on the Moy River, Costa Rica.
*Chiripó - language spoken in Costa Rica on the Matina River and Chirripó River.
*Viceyta / Abiseta / Cachi / Orosi / Tucurrique - extinct language once spoken on the Tarire River, Costa Rica.
*Brunca / Boruca / Turucaca - extinct language of Costa Rica, spoken on the Grande River and in the Boruca region.
*Coto / Cocto - extinct language once spoken between the sources of the Coto River and Grande River, Costa Rica. (Unattested.)

;Dorasque group
*Chumulu - extinct language once spoken in El Potrero, Veraguas (Potrero de Vargas), Panama.
*Gualaca - extinct language once spoken on the Chiriqui River, Panama.
*Changuena - once spoken in Panama, on the Changuena River.

;Guaymi group
*Muoi - extinct language once spoken in the Miranda Valley of Panama.
*Move / Valiente - now spoken on the Guaymi River and in the Veragua Peninsula.
*Norteño - dialect without an aboriginal name, spoken on the northern coast of Panama, now perhaps extinct.
*Penonomeño - once spoken in the village of Penonemé.
*Murire / Bucueta / Boncota / Bogota - spoken in the Serranía de Tabasara by a few families.
*Sabanero / Savaneric / Valiente - extinct dialect without aboriginal name, once spoken on the plains south of the Serranía de Tabasara.
*Pariza - extinct dialect spoken in the Conquest days on the Veragua Peninsula. (G. Espinosa 1864, p. 496, only one single word.)

;Cuna group
*Coiba - extinct language once spoken on the Chagres River, Panama. (W. Lehmann 1920, vol. I, pp. 112–122; A. Santo Tomas 1908, pp. 124–128, only five words.)
*Cuna / Bayano / Tule / Mandingo / San Blas / Karibe-Kuna / Yule - language spoken in eastern Panama, especially on the Bayano River, in San Blas and the small islands on the northern coast.
*Cueva / Darien - extinct language Once spoken at the mouth of the Atrato River, Colombia.
*Chochama - extinct language once spoken on the Suegro River, Panama. (Unattested.)

;Antioquia group
*Guazuzú - once spoken in the Sierra de San Jerónimo, department of Antioquia, Colombia. (Unattested.)
*Oromina / Zeremoe - extinct language once spoken south of the Gulf of Urabá, Antioquia, Colombia. (Unattested.)
*Catio - once spoken in the region of Dabaiba, Colombia. (only a few words.)
*Hevejico - once spoken in the Tonusco and Ebéjico Valleys. (Unattested.)
*Abibe - once spoken in the Sierra de Abibe. (Unattested.)
*Buritaca - once spoken at the sources of the Sucio River

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