Choco languages
The Choco languages (also Chocoan, Chocó, Chokó) are a small family of Native American languages spread across Colombia and Panama.
Chocoan | |
---|---|
Geographic distribution | Colombia and Panama |
Linguistic classification | One of the world's primary language families |
Subdivisions |
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Glottolog | choc1280 |
Family division
Choco consists of half a dozen known languages, all but two of them extinct.
- The Emberá languages (also known as Chocó proper, Cholo)
- Noanamá (also known as Waunana, Woun Meu)
- Anserma (†)
- Arma (†) ? (unattested)
- Sinúfana (Cenufara) (†) ?
- Caramanta (†) ?
Anserma, Arma, and Sinúfana are extinct.
The Emberá group consists of two languages mainly in Colombia with over 60,000 speakers that lie within a fairly mutually intelligible dialect continuum. Ethnologue divides this into 6 languages. Kaufman (1994) considers the term Cholo to be vague and condescending. Noanamá has some 6,000 speakers on the Panama-Colombia border.
Jolkesky (2016)
Internal classification by Jolkesky (2016):[1]
(† = extinct)
- Choko
- Waunana
- Embera
- Embera, Southern: Embera Baudo; Embera Chami; Epena
- Embera, Northern: Embera Katio; Embera Darien
Language contact
Jolkesky (2016) notes that there are lexical similarities with the Guahibo, Kamsa, Paez, Tukano, Witoto-Okaina, Yaruro, Chibchan, and Bora-Muinane language families due to contact.[1]
Genetic links between Choco and Chibchan had been proposed by Lehmann (1920).[2] However, similarities are few, some of which may be related to the adoption of maize cultivation from neighbors.[1]:324
Genetic relations
Choco has been included in a number of hypothetical phylum relationships:
- within Morris Swadesh's Macro-Leco
- Antonio Tovar, Jorge A. Suárez, and Robert Gunn: related to Cariban
- Čestmír Loukotka (1944): Southern Emberá may be related to Paezan, Noanamá to Arawakan
- within Paul Rivet and Loukotka's (1950) Cariban
- Constenla Umaña and Margery Peña: may be related to Chibchan
- within Joseph Greenberg's Nuclear Paezan, most closely related to Paezan and Barbacoan
- with Yaruro according to Pache (2016)[3]
Vocabulary
Loukotka (1968) lists the following basic vocabulary items for the Chocó languages.[4]
gloss | Sambú | Chocó Pr. | Citara | Baudo | Waunana | Tadó | Saixa | Chamí | Ándagueda | Catio | Tukurá | N'Gvera |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
one | haba | abá | aba | aba | haba | aba | abbá | abba | abá | |||
two | ome | ume | dáonomi | umé | homé | umé | ómay | tea | unmé | |||
three | ompea | umpia | dáonatup | kimaris | hompé | umpea | ompayá | umbea | unpia | |||
head | poro | poro | achiporo | púro | boró | tachi-púro | boró | bóro | buru | porú | ||
eye | tau | tau | tabú | tau | dága | tau | tau | dáu | tow | dabu | tabú | tapü |
tooth | kida | kida | kida | kidá | xidá | kidá | chida | chida | ||||
man | amoxina | mukira | umakira | emokoida | mukira | mukína | mugira | mohuná | mukira | |||
water | pañia | paniá | pania | pania | dó | pania | panía | banía | puneá | panea | pánia | |
fire | tibua | tibuá | xemkavai | tupuk | tupu | tubechuá | tübü | |||||
sun | pisia | pisiá | umantago | vesea | edau | vesea | áxonihino | umata | emwaiton | humandayo | ahumautu | |
moon | edexo | édexo | hidexo | xedeko | xedego | edekoː | átoní | edexo | heydaho | xedeko | xedéko | hedeko |
maize | pe | pe | paga | pedeu | pe | pe | bé | pe | ||||
jaguar | imama | ibamá | ibamá | imama | kumá | pimamá | imama | imamá | imamá | |||
arrow | enatruma | halomá | halomá | sia | chókiera | umatruma | sía | ukida | enentiera |
Proto-language
For reconstructions of Proto-Chocó and Proto-Emberá by Constenla and Margery (1991),[5] see the corresponding Spanish article.
See also
- Embera-Wounaan, who speak the Choco languages, Embera and Wounaan
- Quimbaya language
References
- Jolkesky, Marcelo Pinho De Valhery. 2016. Estudo arqueo-ecolinguístico das terras tropicais sul-americanas. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Brasília.
- Lehmann, W. (1920). Zentral-Amerika. Teil I. Die Sprachen Zentral-Amerikas in ihren Beziehungen zueinander sowie zu Süd-Amerika und Mexico. Berlin: Reimer.
- Pache, Matthias J. 2016. Pumé (Yaruro) and Chocoan: Evidence for a New Genealogical Link in Northern South America. Language Dynamics and Change 6 (2016) 99–155. doi:10.1163/22105832-00601001
- Loukotka, Čestmír (1968). Classification of South American Indian languages. Los Angeles: UCLA Latin American Center.
- Constenla Umaña, Adolfo; Margery Peña, Enrique. (1991). Elementos de fonología comparada Chocó. Filología y lingüística, 17, 137-191.
Bibliography
- Campbell, Lyle. (1997). American Indian languages: The historical linguistics of Native America. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-509427-1.
- Constenla Umaña, Adolfo; & Margery Peña, Enrique. (1991). Elementos de fonología comparada Chocó. Filología y lingüística, 17, 137-191.
- Greenberg, Joseph H. (1987). Language in the Americas. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
- Gunn, Robert D. (Ed.). (1980). Claificación de los idiomas indígenas de Panamá, con un vocabulario comparativo de los mismos. Lenguas de Panamá (No. 7). Panama: Instituto Nacional de Cultura, Instituto Lingüístico de Verano.
- Kaufman, Terrence. (1990). Language history in South America: What we know and how to know more. In D. L. Payne (Ed.), Amazonian linguistics: Studies in lowland South American languages (pp. 13–67). Austin: University of Texas Press. ISBN 0-292-70414-3.
- Kaufman, Terrence. (1994). The native languages of South America. In C. Mosley & R. E. Asher (Eds.), Atlas of the world's languages (pp. 46–76). London: Routledge.
- Loewen, Jacob. (1963). Choco I & Choco II. International Journal of American Linguistics, 29.
- Licht, Daniel Aguirre. (1999). Embera. Languages of the world/materials 208. LINCOM.
- Mortensen, Charles A. (1999). A reference grammar of the Northern Embera languages. Studies in the languages of Colombia (No.7); SIL publications in linguistics (No. 134). SIL.
- Pinto García, C. (1974/1978). Los indios katíos: su cultura - su lengua. Medellín: Editorial Gran-América.
- Rendón G., G. (2011). La lengua Umbra: Descubrimiento - Endolingüística - Arqueolingüística. Manizales: Zapata.
- Rivet, Paul; & Loukotka, Cestmír. (1950). Langues d'Amêrique du sud et des Antilles. In A. Meillet & M. Cohen (Eds.), Les langues du monde (Vol. 2). Paris: Champion.
- Sara, S. I. (2002). A tri-lingual dictionary of Emberá-English-Spanish. (Languages of the World/Dictionaries, 38). Munich: Lincom Europa.
- Suárez, Jorge. (1974). South American Indian languages. The new Encyclopædia Britannica (15th ed.). Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica.
- Swadesh, Morris. (1959). Mapas de clasificación lingüística de México y las Américas. México: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.
- Tovar, Antonio; & Larrucea de Tovar, Consuelo. (1984). Catálogo de las lenguas de América del Sur (nueva ed.). Madrid: Editorial Gedos. ISBN 84-249-0957-7.
External links
Wiktionary has a list of reconstructed forms at Appendix:Proto-Choco reconstructions |
- Proel: Familia Chocó