Lencan languages

{{Short description|Moribund language family of Honduras and El Salvador}} {{Infobox language family | name = Lencan | region = [[El Salvador]] and [[Honduras]] | ethnicity = [[Lenca people]] | familycolor = American | fam1 = [[Macro-Chibchan]] ? | child1 = [[Honduran Lencan]] {{extinct}} | child2 = [[Salvadoran Lencan]] ({{extinct}}) | iso3 = len | glotto = lenc1239 | glottorefname = Lencan | map = Pueblos Indigenas antes de la conquista El Salvador.svg | mapcaption = Map of El Salvador's Indigenous Peoples at the time of the [[Spanish conquest of El Salvador|Spanish conquest]]: 1. [[Pipil people]], 2. [[Lenca people]], 3. [[Cacaopera people|Kakawira o Cacaopera]], 4. [[Xinca people|Xinca]], 5. [[Maya peoples|Maya]] [[Ch'orti' people]], 6. [[Maya peoples|Maya]] [[Poqomam people]], 7. [[Mangue language|Mangue o Chorotega]]. |map2 = Lang Status 01-EX.svg |mapcaption2 = {{center|{{small|Lenca is Extinct according to the classification system of the [[UNESCO]] ''[[Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger]]''}}}}<ref>{{cite report |title=Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger |publisher=UNESCO |edition=3rd |url=https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000187026 |date=2010 |page=13}}</ref> }}

The '''Lencan languages''' are a small linguistic family from [[Central America]], whose speakers before the Spanish conquest spread throughout [[El Salvador]] and [[Honduras]]. But by the beginning of the 20th century, only two languages of the family survived, [[Salvadoran Lenca]] or Potón and [[Honduran Lenca]], which were described and studied academically; Of them, only Salvadoran Lenca still has current speakers, despite the fact that Indigenous people belonging to the Lenca ethnic group exceed between 37,000 and 100,000 people.<ref name="auto" /><ref>{{Cite web |title=Pequeño vocabulario de la lengua lenca; (dialecto de Guajiquiro) |url=https://curiosity.lib.harvard.edu/latin-american-pamphlet-digital-collection/catalog/43-990030907310203941 |access-date=2024-04-20 |website=Latin American Pamphlet Digital Collection - CURIOSity Digital Collections |language=en}}</ref><ref name=":02">{{Cite book |last=Newson |first=Linda |title=El costo de la conquista |date=1992 |publisher=Editorial Guaymuras |isbn=9789992615577}}</ref>

==Languages== There are two attested Lencan languages: *'''[[Salvadoran Lencan]]''' was spoken in [[Chilanga, El Salvador|Chilanga]] and [[Guatajiagua|Guatajigua]].<ref name="auto">{{Cite news | last = Liliana Fuentes Monroy | title = Buscan rescatar lengua potón | work = La Prensa | access-date = 2016-07-29 | year = 2012 | url = http://www.laprensagrafica.com/el-salvador/departamentos/279667-buscan-rescatar-lengua-poton.html | url-status = bot: unknown | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160924035622/http://www.laprensagrafica.com/el-salvador/departamentos/279667-buscan-rescatar-lengua-poton.html | archive-date = 2016-09-24 }}</ref> Lencans had arrived in El Salvador about 2,295 years B.P. and founded the site of [[Quelepa]]. One speaker remains.<ref name="auto"/><ref name="Relaciones genealógicas">{{cite journal |last=Costenla Umaña |date=2002 |first=Adolfo |journal=Revista de Filología y Lingüística |publisher=Universidad de Costa Rica |title=Acerca de la relación genealógica de las lenguas lencas y las lenguas misumalpas}}</ref> *'''[[Honduran Lencan]]''' was spoken with minor dialect differences in [[Intibucá]], [[Opatoro]], [[Guajiquiro]], [[Similatón]] (modern [[Cabañas Department|Cabañas]]), and [[Santa Elena, La Paz|Santa Elena]]. Some phrases survive; it is not known if the entire language still exists.

The languages are not closely related; Swadesh (1967) estimated 3,000 years since separation. Arguedas Cortés (1987) reconstructs Proto-Lencan with 12 consonants (including [[ejective]]s) 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.)."<ref>{{Citation|last=Campbell|first=Lyle|chapter=Classification of the Indigenous Languages of South America|publisher=DE GRUYTER|isbn=9783110258035|doi=10.1515/9783110258035.59|title=The Indigenous Languages of South America|year=2012|pages=59–166 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Constenla-Umaña|first=Adolfo|date=2005|title=Existe relacion genealogica entre las lenguas misumalpas y las chibchenses?|journal=Estudios de Linguistica Chibcha|volume=23|pages=9–59}}</ref>

Another proposal by Lehmann (1920:727) links Lencan with the [[Xincan languages|Xincan]] language family, though Campbell (1997:167) rejects most of Lehmann's twelve lexical comparisons as invalid. An automated computational analysis ([[Automated Similarity Judgment Program|ASJP]] 4) by Müller et al. (2013)<ref name="ASJP-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. ''[https://asjp.clld.org/static/WorldLanguageTree-004.zip ASJP World Language Trees of Lexical Similarity: Version 4 (October 2013)]''.</ref> also found lexical similarities between Lencan and [[Xincan languages|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 end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, the use of Honduran Lenca and Salvadoran Lenca began to decline. In the 1950s, Honduran Lenca was already in a critical state of extinction, since the only place where there were speakers was [[Guajiquiro]]. In 1982 a Honduran Lenca speaker was found in Guajiquiro.<ref name=":0">{{cite web |title=HALLAN EN NICARAGUA RUINAS PRECOLOMBINAS QUE SUPONEN DE LENCAS |url=https://arqueologiamericana.blogspot.com/2010/12/hallan-en-nicaragua-ruinas.html |access-date=2024-02-04 |website=HALLAN EN NICARAGUA RUINAS PRECOLOMBINAS QUE SUPONEN DE LENCAS}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{cite web|url=https://www.laprensa.hn/honduras/honduras-researcher-atanasio-herranz-presents-unah-vs-conference-lengua-nahuatl-MD15611940|title=Researcher Atanasio Herranz presents his conference "The Nahuatl language in Honduras" at Unah-vs|access-date=2024-04-18|author=Dalma Mejía|date=September 30, 2023|website=www.laprensa.hn|language=es-HN}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{cite web |url=https://www.xplorhonduras.com/lengua-lenca-de-honduras/|title=Lenca Languages of Honduras}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|url=https://iris.paho.org/handle/10665.2/1314|title=Cultural surveys of Panama, Nicaragua, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras|last=Adams|first=Richard N.|date=1957| journal=Scientific Publication; 33|accessdate=2024-04-18|language=en}}</ref> In the 1970s, died in [[Chilanga, El Salvador|Chilanga]], Anselmo Hernández, the last competent Salvadoran Lenca speaker. In the 1990s, some [[semi-speaker]]s of Honduran Lenca were found. It was assumed that the languages were most likely extinct, and it was believed that it was very unlikely that there were any elders with any knowledge or memory of both languages, and it was also believed that it was very unlikely that fluent speakers could be found. The Honduran Lenca is currently believed to be extinct.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2" />

In the case of [[Salvadoran Lenca]], in the end of the nineties [[Consuelo Roque]], [[Linguistics|linguist]] from the [[University of El Salvador]] (UES), found [[Mario Salvador Hernández]] from [[Guatajiagua]] (a semi-speaker who is considered the last native speaker by the salvadoran newspapers, and specifically of the variant of that population, and who learned the language from his grandmother) and both would write a learning primer titled in spanish: ''Poton piau, nuestra lengua Potón.''<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.laprensagrafica.com/elsalvador/El-ultimo-lenca-de-Guatajiagua--20190809-0417.html|title=The last lenca of Guatajiagua|author=Frederick Meza|date=August 9, 2019}}</ref> However, linguist Alan R. King, in his 2016 book titled in spanish ''Conozcamos el Lenca, una lengua de El Salvador'' (where he also used the Potón Piau primer as a reference), points out that (translating in english: "Today no one knows how to speak Lenca, although certain individuals have memories of—or have learned—some fragments of that now lost language. This type of partial knowledge is not even remotely close, in any case that we have been able to verify, to a real mastery of the historical language, whose disappearance dates back to the mid-twentieth century...".<ref name="Conozcamos el Lenca">{{Cite book |last=King |first=Alan R. |title=Conozcamos el Lenca. Una lengua de El Salvador |date=2016}}</ref>

While in the case of [[Honduran Lenca]], the [[Linguistics|linguist]] [[United States|American]] [[Alan R. King]], in the company of his colleague [[James Morrow (linguist)|James Morrow]], in 2017 they published the book ''Kotik molka niwamal'' (meaning ''Let's learn to speak Lenca''), which is a compilation of words in Lenca among the communities still existing that opens the possibility of recovering a significant part of the language. Currently in El Salvador there are rehabilitation projects for [[Salvadoran Lenca]] to prevent its extinction.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.divergentes.com/la-herencia-lenca-resiste-en-el-oriente-de-el-salvador/|title=The Lenca heritage resists in the east of El Salvador {{!}} Photo report 📸|access-date=2024-04-18|last=Aburto|first=Wilfredo Miranda|date= 2023-12-13|website=Divergentes|language=es-CR}}</ref>

A 2002 novel by [[Roberto Castillo (Honduras)|Roberto Castillo]], ''La guerra mortal de los sentidos'', chronicles the adventures of the "Searcher for the Lenca Language."<ref>{{Cite web | title = 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 | access-date = 2012-09-30 | url = http://istmo.denison.edu/n16/articulos/cortez.html }}</ref>

==Proto-language== {{Infobox proto-language | name = Proto-Lencan | familycolor = American | ancestor = | child1 = | target = Lencan languages }} Proto-Lenca reconstructions by Arguedas (1988):<ref>Arguedas Cortés, Gilda Rosa. 1988. Los Fonemas Segmentales del Protolenca: Reconstrucción Comparativa. ''Filología y lingüística'' XIV. 89-109.</ref>

{| class="wikitable sortable" ! No. !! Spanish gloss <br/>(original) !! English gloss <br/>(translated) !! Proto-Lenca |- | 1. || abrir || open (verb) || *inkolo- |- | 2. || agua || water || *was |- | 3. || anciana || old woman || |- | 4. || araña || spider || *katu |- | 5. || ardilla || squirrel || *suri |- | 6. || bailar || dance || *uli- |- | 7. || bañar || bathe || *twa- |- | 8. || beber || drink || *tali- |- | 9. || blanco || white || *soko |- | 10. || boca || mouth || *in |- | 11. || bueno || good || *sam |- | 12. || cabello || hair || *asak |- | 13. || caites || sandals || *waktik |- | 14. || camarón || shrimp || *siksik |- | 15. || camino || path || *k’in |- | 16. || casa || house || *t’aw |- | 17. || cerrar || close (verb) || *inkap- |- | 18. || cinco || five || *ts’aj |- | 19. || comal || [[comal (cookware)|comal]] || *k’elkin |- | 20. || comprar || buy || *liwa- |- | 21. || cortar || cut || *tajk- |- | 22. || coyol || [[coyol]] || *juku |- | 23. || coyote || coyote || *sua |- | 24. || chupar || suck || |- | 25. || decir || say || *aj- |- | 26. || desear || want || *saj |- | 27. || diente || tooth || *nek |- | 28. || dos || two || *pe |- | 29. || él || he || *inani |- | 30. || enfermo, estar || sick || *ona- |- | 31. || espina || thorn || *ma |- | 32. || este || this || *na |- | 33. || estrella || star || *sirik |- | 34. || flor || flower || *sula |- | 35. || fuego || fire || *juk’a |- | 36. || grande || big || *pukV |- | 37. || guacal || tub || *k’akma |- | 38. || hermano || brother || *pelek |- | 39. || hígado || liver || *muts’u |- | 40. || hormiga || ant || *its’its’i |- | 41. || hueso || bone || *ts’ek |- | 42. || ir || go || *o- |- | 43. || jocote || [[jocote]] || *muraka |- | 44. || lavar || wash || *ts’ajk- |- | 45. || leña || firewood || *sak |- | 46. || lluvia || rain || *so |- | 47. || macho || male || *kew |- | 48. || maíz || corn || *ajma |- | 49. || mapachín || raccoon || *wala |- | 50. || milpa || cornfield || *ta |- | 51. || montaña || mountain || *kotan |- | 52. || mover || move || *lum- |- | 53. || nariz || nose || *nep |- | 54. || niño || boy || *we |- | 55. || nosotros || we || *apinani |- | 56. || nube || cloud || |- | 57. || oír || hear || *eni- |- | 58. || orinar || urinate || *wajsa- |- | 59. || pavo || turkey || *lok |- | 60. || peine || comb || *tenmaskin |- | 61. || pelo, pluma || hair, feather || |- | 62. || perro || dog || *su |- | 63. || pico || peak || *ints’ek |- | 64. || piedra || stone || *ke |- | 65. || piña || pineapple || *mats’ati |- | 66. || piojo || louse || *tem |- | 67. || puerco de monte || wild pig || *map’it, *nap’it |- | 68. || pulga || flea || *t’ut’u |- | 69. || quebracho || [[quebracho tree]] || *sili |- | 70. || quién || who || *k’ulan |- | 71. || reír || laugh || *jolo- |- | 72. || río || river || *wara |- | 73. || roble || oak || *mal |- | 74. || ropa || clothes || *lam- |- | 75. || rostro || face || *tik |- | 76. || saber || know || *ti- |- | 77. || seis || six || *wi |- | 78. || sembrar || sow || *isa- |- | 79. || tapesco, cama || bed frame, bed || *le- |- | 80. || tigre (jaguar), león (puma) || tiger (jaguar), lion (puma) || *lepa |- | 81. || tocar || touch || *jete- |- | 82. || trabajar || work || |- | 83. || tres || three || *lawa |- | 84. || tú || you (sg.) || *amanani |- | 85. || uña || fingernail || *kumam |- | 86. || venir || come || *po- |- | 87. || yo || I || *unani |- | 88. || zarigüeya || [[opossum]] || *ts’ewe |- | 89. || zopilote || vulture || *kus |}

==References== {{Reflist}}

==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''. [http://www.ling.fi/Entradas%20diccionario/Dic=Lenca.pdf] * 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).

==External links== {{sister project |project=wiktionary |text=[[Wiktionary]] has a list of reconstructed forms at '''''[[Wiktionary:Appendix:Proto-Lencan reconstructions|Appendix:Proto-Lencan reconstructions]]'''''}} *[http://www.language-archives.org/language/len OLAC resources in and about the Lenca language] *[https://web.archive.org/web/20161026170018/http://www.ailla.utexas.org/search/resource.html?r_id=2562 Audio Recording of an Elicitation and Wordlist in Lenca] from the [https://web.archive.org/web/20160701174602/http://www.ailla.utexas.org/search/collection.html?c_id=83 MesoAmerican Languages Collection of Lyle Campbell] at the [[Archive of the Indigenous Languages of Latin America]].

[[Category:Lencan languages| ]] [[Category:Lenca|Languages]] [[Category:Macro-Chibchan languages]] [[Category:Language families]] [[Category:Indigenous languages of Central America]] [[Category:Mesoamerican languages]] [[Category:Languages of El Salvador]] [[Category:Languages of Honduras]] [[Category:Extinct languages of North America]]