| Xincan | |
|---|---|
| Geographic distribution | Guatemala |
| Ethnicity | 16,200Xinca people (2003 census) |
| Extinct | 1970s (3 semi-speakers reported) |
| Linguistic classification | One of the world's primarylanguage families |
| Subdivisions | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | xin |
| Glottolog | xinc1237 |
 Geographic distribution of the Xincan languages. Solid blue is the recorded range, transparent is the range attested by toponyms. | |
Xinca (orXinka, Sinca, orSzinca) is a small extinct family ofMesoamerican languages; formerly, the language was regarded as a singlelanguage isolate. Xinca was once spoken by theIndigenousXinca people in southeasternGuatemala, parts ofEl Salvador, andHonduras.
They have also historically been referred to asPopoluca orPopoluca-Xinca;Popoluca being aNahuatl term for unintelligible speech.[1]
The Xincan languages have no demonstrated affiliations with other language families. Lehmann (1920) tried linking Xincan withLencan, but the proposal was never demonstrated.[2] An automated computational analysis (ASJP 4) by Müller et al. (2013)[3] also found lexical similarities between Xincan andLencan. However, since the analysis was automatically generated, the grouping could be either due to mutual lexical borrowing or genetic inheritance.
The Xincan languages were formerly regarded as one language isolate. However, the most recent studies suggest they were indeed a language family.[4]
There were at least four Xincan languages, each of which is nowextinct.[2] Yupiltepeque was spoken inJutiapa Department, while the rest were spoken inSanta Rosa Department. Campbell also suggests that theAlagüilac language ofSan Cristóbal Acasaguastlán may have in fact been a Xincan language.
To these,Glottolog adds
Sachse (2010) considers all Xincan speakers today to be semi-speakers, with the completely fluent speakers having already died.
Xincan languages have many loanwords fromMayan languages especially in agricultural terms, suggesting extensive contact withMayan peoples.[6] According to Campbell, Xinca also has a "vast number of Mixe-Zoquean loanwords", suggesting contact with now extinctMixe-Zoque varieties of the Guatemalan Pacific coast.[7]
In the 16th century the territory of the Xinca extended from thePacific coast to the mountains ofJalapa. In 1524 the population was conquered by theSpanish Empire. Many of the people were forced into slavery and compelled to participate in the conquest of modern-dayEl Salvador. It is from this that the names for the town, river, and bridge "Los Esclavos" (The Slaves) are derived in the area ofCuilapa,Santa Rosa.
After 1575, the process of Xinca cultural extinction accelerated, mainly due to their exportation to other regions. This also contributed to a decrease in the number of Xinca-language speakers. One of the oldest references concerning this language was presented by the archbishop Pedro Cortés y Larraz during a visit to the diocese ofTaxisco in 1769.
Xinca was most recently spoken in seven municipalities and a village in the departments ofSanta Rosa andJutiapa. In 1991, it was reported that the language had only 25 speakers; the 2006 edition of theEncyclopedia of Language and Linguistics reported fewer than ten.[8] Nonetheless, of the 16,214 Xinca who responded to the 2002 census,[9] 1,283 reported being Xinka speakers, most probably semi-speakers or people who knew a few words and phrases of the languages.[10] However by 2010, all completely fluent speakers have died, leaving only semi-speakers who know the languages.
Xincan languages were once more widespread, which is evident in various toponyms with Xincan origins (Campbell 1997:166). These toponyms are marked by such locative prefixes asay- "place of" (e.g. Ayampuc, Ayarza),al- "place of" (Alzatate),san- "in" (e.g. Sansare, Sansur), or with the locative suffixes -(a)gua or -hua "town, dwelling" (e.g. Pasasagua, Jagua, Anchagua, Xagua, Eraxagua).
Kaufman (1970:66) lists the following towns as once being Xinca-speaking.[11]
Sachse (2010), citing colonial-era sources, lists the following villages inSanta Rosa Department andJutiapa Department as having Xinca speakers during the Spanish colonial era.
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The phonological system of Xincan languages had some variance, as evidenced by the variations in recorded phonology exhibited among semi-speakers of the two remaining languages.[12][13]
It is generally agreed upon that the Xincan languages have 6 vowels.[12][13]
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i iː | ɨ ɨː | u uː |
| Close-mid | e eː | o oː | |
| Open | a aː |
These charts show the consonants of two languages, used by the final semi-speakers of the language.[12][13]
| Labial | Alveolar | Post- alveolar | Retroflex | Velar | Glottal | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| plain | sibilant | |||||||
| Stop/ Affricate | plain | p | t | t͡ʃ | k | ʔ | ||
| ejective | pʼ | tʼ | t͡sʼ | t͡ʃʼ | kʼ | |||
| voiced | b | d | (ɡ) | |||||
| Fricative | ɬ | s | ʂ | h | ||||
| Nasal | plain | m | n | |||||
| glottalized | mʼ | nʼ | ||||||
| Approximant | plain | l | j | w | ||||
| glottalized | lʼ | jʼ | wʼ | |||||
| Trill | plain | r | ||||||
| glottalized | rʼ | |||||||
| Labial | Alveolar | Post- alveolar | Velar | Glottal | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| plain | sibilant | ||||||
| Stop | p | t | k | ||||
| Affricate | plain | t͡ʃ | |||||
| ejective | t͡sʼ | ||||||
| Fricative | ɬ | s | ʃ | h | |||
| Nasal | plain | m | n | ||||
| glottalized | nʼ | ||||||
| Approximant | l | j | w | ||||
| Trill | r | ||||||
Many younger semi-speakers also used the phonemes /b, d, g, f, ŋ/ due to greater influence from Spanish.[12]
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Italics indicateextinct languages * indicates extinct language in El Salvador but still spoken elsewhere | |
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Authority control databases: National |
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