Chibchan 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

The Chibchan family was first formally recognized by Max Uhle in an 1890 publication in the journal of the International Congress of Americanists entitled Verwandtschaften und Wanderungen der Tschibtscha ("Kinships/relationships and migrations of the Chibcha".

Loukotka (1968)

Below is a full list of Chibchan language varieties listed by Loukotka (1968), including names of unattested varieties. Loukotka also included other language families, like Barbacoan, Kamëntšá (Camsá), and Paezan, which are no longer accepted as Chibchan.

Constenla

The Costa Rican linguist Adolfo Constenla Umaña proposes a typology of Chibchan languages in four branches. From north to south,

• Chibchan
  • A
    • Waimí (Guaymi)
      • Guaymí (Ngäbere, Movere) – 170,000 speakers, vulnerable in Panama, endangered in Costa Rica
      • Buglere (Bokotá) – 18,000 speakers, endangered
    • †Borũca (Brunca)
    • Talamanca
      • 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
      • †Huetar (Güetar)
      • Rama – 740 speakers, moribund
      • Maléku (Guatuso) – 750 speakers, endangered
      • †Corobicí – northwestern Costa Rica
      • †Voto
    • Guna–Colombian
      • Guna (Dulegaya) – 60,600 speakers, vulnerable in Panama, endangered in Colombia
      • Chibcha–Motilon
        • Barí (Motilón) – 5,000 speakers, vulnerable
        • Chibcha–Tunebo
          • †Muisca
          • †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 (Ikʉ) – 8,000 speakers, vulnerable
          • Kogi (Cogui) – 9,910 speakers, vulnerable

Constenla initially classified the Huetar language as belonging to the Talamanca branch, however, in his last classification from 2008, he included it as a “probable affiliation” among the votic languages. Loukotka (1968), Quesada (1996) and Jolkesky (2016) have classified the Huetar as Votic as well.

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. It is said to be used by the Kogi people as a shamanistic ritual language. The Zenú a.k.a. Sinú language of northern Colombia is also sometimes included, as are the Malibu languages, though without any factual basis. Zenú is also sometimes linked with the Chocoan languages.

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

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

On the basis of shared grammatical innovations, Pache (2023) argues that Pech is most closely related to the Arhuacic languages of northern Colombia, forming a Pech-Arhuacic subgroup.

Jolkesky (2016)

Internal classification by Jolkesky (2016):

(† = extinct)

• Chibcha
  • Pech
  • Votic
    • Maleku
    • Rama
    • †Wetar
  • Isthmic
    • 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
    • U'wa
    • Muisca
      • †Guane
      • Muisca
    • Sierra de Santa Marta
      • Kaggaba
      • †Tairona
      • Wiwa-Ika
        • Ika
        • †Kankuamo
        • Wiwa

Proto-language

Pache (2018) is the most recent reconstruction of Proto-Chibchan. Other reconstructions include Holt (1986).

Below are Proto-Chibchan vowels according to Pache (2018). The vowels in parentheses (*ĩ, *e, *o and *õ) appear to have been marginal in the proto-language.

Below are Proto-Chibchan consonants as described by Pache (2018). Notably, the proto-language lacked separate nasal stop phonemes and had one liquid consonant, *L, whose exact pronunciation is unknown. Pache speculates it could have been realized as one or more of the following: [ɾ, ɽ, ɺ, l, r].

Constenla (1981)

Proto-Chibchan reconstructions by Constenla (1981):

Proto-Chibchan horticultural vocabulary (Constenla 2012):

• *dihke 'to sow'
• *te¹ 'cultivated clearing'
• *ike 'manioc'
• *tuʔ 'tuber, yam' (Dioscorea spp.; Xanthosoma sagittifolium)
• *apì 'pumpkin, squash'
• *e, *ebe 'maize'
• *du, *dua¹ 'tobacco'
• *tã¹ 'rattles from gourd'
• *toka 'gourd cup'

Pache (2018)

Proto-Chibchan reconstructions by Pache (2018):

Vocabulary