Lencan
EthnicityLenca people
Geographic
distribution
El Salvador, Honduras
Extinctby 2007
Linguistic classificationMacro-Chibchan ?
  • Lencan
Subdivisions
ISO 639-3len
Glottologlenc1239

Lencan is a small family of nearly extinct indigenous Mesoamerican languages.

Languages

There are two attested Lencan languages, both extinct (Campbell 1997:167).

Map of El Salvador's Indigenous Peoples at the time of the Spanish conquest: 1. Pipil people, 2. Lenca people, 3. Kakawira o Cacaopera, 4. Xinca, 5. Maya Ch'orti' people, 6. Maya Poqomam people, 7. Mangue o Chorotega.

The languages are not closely related; Swadesh (1967) estimated 3,000 years since separation. Arguedas Cortés (1987) reconstructs Proto-Lencan with 12 consonants (including ejectives) and 5 vowels.

External relationships

The external relationships of the Lencan languages are disputed. Inclusion within Macro-Chibchan has often been proposed; Campbell (1987) reported that he found no solid evidence for such a connection, but Constenla-Umaña (2005) proposed regular correspondence between Lencan, Misumalpan, and Chibchan.

Campbell (2012) acknowledges that these claims of connection between Lencan, Misumalpan, and Chibchan have not yet been proved systematically, but he notes that Constenla-Umaña (2005) "presented evidence to support a relationship with two neighboring families [of languages]: Misumalpan and Lencan, which constitute the Lenmichí Micro-Phylum. According to [Constenla-Umaña's study (2005)], the Lenmichi Micro-Phylum first split into Proto-Chibchan and Proto-Misulencan, the common intermediate ancestor of the Lencan and the Misumalpan languages. This would have happened around 9,726 years before the present or 7,720 B.C. (the average of the time depths between the Chibchan languages and the Misulencan languages)...The respective subancestors of the Lencan and the Misumalpan languages would have separated around 7,705 before the present (5,069 B.C.), and Paya and the other intermediate ancestors of all the other Chibchan languages would have separated around 6,682 (4,676 B.C.)."[2][3]

Another proposal by Lehmann (1920:727) links Lencan with the Xincan language family, though Campbell (1997:167) rejects most of Lehmann's twelve lexical comparisons as invalid. An automated computational analysis (ASJP 4) by Müller et al. (2013)[4] also found lexical similarities between Lencan and Xincan. However, since the analysis was automatically generated, the grouping could be either due to mutual lexical borrowing or genetic inheritance.

History

The Proto-Lencan homeland was most likely in central Honduras (Campbell 1997:167).

At the time of the Spanish conquest of Central America in the early 16th century, the Lenca language was spoken by the Lenca people in a region that incorporated northwestern and southwestern Honduras, and neighboring eastern El Salvador, east of the Lempa river. While the Lenca people continue to live in the same region today, Lyle Campbell reported in the 1970s that he found only one speaker of the language in Chilanga, El Salvador, and none in Honduras. Campbell also concluded that Salvadoran Lenca was a distinct language from Honduran Lenca.

Indigenous movements in both countries are attempting to revive the language, and recent press reports from Honduras indicate that elementary school textbooks in Salvadoran Lenca have been distributed to public schools in the region.

A 2002 novel by Roberto Castillo, La guerra mortal de los sentidos, chronicles the adventures of the "Searcher for the Lenca Language."[5]

Proto-language

Proto-Lenca reconstructions by Arguedas (1988):[6]

No.Spanish gloss
(original)
English gloss
(translated)
Proto-Lenca
1.abriropen (verb)*inkolo-
2.aguawater*was
3.ancianaold woman
4.arañaspider*katu
5.ardillasquirrel*suri
6.bailardance*uli-
7.bañarbathe*twa-
8.beberdrink*tali-
9.blancowhite*soko
10.bocamouth*in
11.buenogood*sam
12.cabellohair*asak
13.caitessandals*waktik
14.camarónshrimp*siksik
15.caminopath*k’in
16.casahouse*t’aw
17.cerrarclose (verb)*inkap-
18.cincofive*ts’aj
19.comalcomal*k’elkin
20.comprarbuy*liwa-
21.cortarcut*tajk-
22.coyolcoyol*juku
23.coyotecoyote*sua
24.chuparsuck
25.decirsay*aj-
26.desearwant*saj
27.dientetooth*nek
28.dostwo*pe
29.élhe*inani
30.enfermo, estarsick*ona-
31.espinathorn*ma
32.estethis*na
33.estrellastar*sirik
34.florflower*sula
35.fuegofire*juk’a
36.grandebig*pukV
37.guacaltub*k’akma
38.hermanobrother*pelek
39.hígadoliver*muts’u
40.hormigaant*its’its’i
41.huesobone*ts’ek
42.irgo*o-
43.jocotejocote*muraka
44.lavarwash*ts’ajk-
45.leñafirewood*sak
46.lluviarain*so
47.machomale*kew
48.maízcorn*ajma
49.mapachínraccoon*wala
50.milpacornfield*ta
51.montañamountain*kotan
52.movermove*lum-
53.nariznose*nep
54.niñoboy*we
55.nosotroswe*apinani
56.nubecloud
57.oírhear*eni-
58.orinarurinate*wajsa-
59.pavoturkey*lok
60.peinecomb*tenmaskin
61.pelo, plumahair, feather
62.perrodog*su
63.picopeak*ints’ek
64.piedrastone*ke
65.piñapineapple*mats’ati
66.piojolouse*tem
67.puerco de montewild pig*map’it, *nap’it
68.pulgaflea*t’ut’u
69.quebrachoquebracho tree*sili
70.quiénwho*k’ulan
71.reírlaugh*jolo-
72.ríoriver*wara
73.robleoak*mal
74.ropaclothes*lam-
75.rostroface*tik
76.saberknow*ti-
77.seissix*wi
78.sembrarsow*isa-
79.tapesco, camabed frame, bed*le-
80.tigre (jaguar), león (puma)tiger (jaguar), lion (puma)*lepa
81.tocartouch*jete-
82.trabajarwork
83.tresthree*lawa
84.you (sg.)*amanani
85.uñafingernail*kumam
86.venircome*po-
87.yoI*unani
88.zarigüeyaopossum*ts’ewe
89.zopilotevulture*kus

References

  1. 1 2 Liliana Fuentes Monroy (2012). "Buscan rescatar lengua potón". La Prensa. Archived from the original on 2016-09-24. Retrieved 2016-07-29.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  2. Campbell, Lyle (2012), "Classification of the Indigenous Languages of South America", The Indigenous Languages of South America, DE GRUYTER, pp. 59–166, doi:10.1515/9783110258035.59, ISBN 9783110258035
  3. Constenla-Umaña, Adolfo (2005). "Existe relacion genealogica entre las lenguas misumalpas y las chibchenses?". Estudios de Linguistica Chibcha. 23: 9–59.
  4. Müller, André, Viveka Velupillai, Søren Wichmann, Cecil H. Brown, Eric W. Holman, Sebastian Sauppe, Pamela Brown, Harald Hammarström, Oleg Belyaev, Johann-Mattis List, Dik Bakker, Dmitri Egorov, Matthias Urban, Robert Mailhammer, Matthew S. Dryer, Evgenia Korovina, David Beck, Helen Geyer, Pattie Epps, Anthony Grant, and Pilar Valenzuela. 2013. ASJP World Language Trees of Lexical Similarity: Version 4 (October 2013).
  5. "Beatriz Cortez ¿Dónde están los indígenas? La identidad nacional y la crisis de la modernidad en La guerra mortal de los sentidos de Roberto Castillo". Retrieved 2012-09-30.
  6. Arguedas Cortés, Gilda Rosa. 1988. Los Fonemas Segmentales del Protolenca: Reconstrucción Comparativa. Filología y lingüística XIV. 89-109.

Bibliography

  • Campbell, Lyle. 1997. American Indian Languages: The Historical Linguistics of Native America. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • Campbell, Lyle. 2012. The Indigenous Languages of South America: A Comprehensive Guide. De Gruyter Mouton: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, Berlin/Boston.
  • Constenla Umaña, Adolfo. (1981). Comparative Chibchan Phonology. (Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Linguistics, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia).
  • Constenla Umaña, Adolfo. (1991). Las lenguas del Área Intermedia: Introducción a su estudio areal. Editorial de la Universidad de Costa Rica, San José.
  • Constenla Umaña, Adolfo. (1995). Sobre el estudio diacrónico de las lenguas chibchenses y su contribución al conocimiento del pasado de sus hablantes. Boletín del Museo del Oro 38-39: 13-56.
  • Constenla Umaña, Adolfo (2005). "Existe relacion genealogica entre las lenguas misumalpas y las chibchenses?" Estudios de Linguistica Chibcha. 23: 9–59.
  • Fabre, Alain. 2005. Diccionario etnolingüístico y guía bibliográfica de los pueblos indígenas sudamericanos: LENCA.
  • Hemp, Eric. 1976. "On Earlier Lenca Vowels". International Journal of American Linguistics 42(1): 78-79.
  • Lehman, Walter. 1920. Zentral-Amerika. see pp. 700–719 (Salvadoran Lenca) and pp. 668–692 (Honduran Lenca).
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.