The extinct Manguean languages were a branch of the

Oto-Manguean The Oto-Manguean or Otomanguean () languages are a large family comprising several subfamilies of indigenous languages of the Americas. All of the Oto-Manguean languages that are now spoken are indigenous to Mexico, but the Manguean languages, Ma ...

family. They were Chorotega of

Costa Rica Costa Rica, officially the Republic of Costa Rica, is a country in Central America. It borders Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the northeast, Panama to the southeast, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, as well as Maritime bo ...

and

Nicaragua Nicaragua, officially the Republic of Nicaragua, is the geographically largest Sovereign state, country in Central America, comprising . With a population of 7,142,529 as of 2024, it is the third-most populous country in Central America aft ...

(where it was called ''Mangue'' or ''Monimbo''), and

Chiapanec Chiapanec is a presumably extinct indigenous Mexican language of the Oto-Manguean language family believed to have been spoken by the Chiapanec people. The 1990 census reported 17 speakers of the language in southern Chiapas out of an ethnic pop ...

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

. According to Kaufman (1974), linguistic evidence points to a separation between these two languages around AD 600-700. Based on archaeological and linguistic evidence, it is often theorized that these languages originated in what is now the Mexican state of

Puebla Puebla, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Puebla, is one of the 31 states that, along with Mexico City, comprise the Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 217 municipalities and its capital is Puebla City. Part of east-centr ...

before migrating southeast to Chiapas in the late Classic period.Steinbrenner, L., Geurds, A., McCafferty, G. G., & Salgado, S. (2021). The Archaeology of Greater Nicoya: Two Decades of Research in Nicaragua and Costa Rica. University Press of Colorado.

References

Oto-Manguean languages {{Oto-Manguean-lang-stub