Chibcha language

Distribution of Chibchan languages across southern Central and northwestern South America

In prehistorical times, in the Andean civilizations called preceramic, the population of northwestern South America migrated through the Darién Gap between the isthmus of Panama and Colombia. Other Chibchan languages are spoken in southern Central America and the Muisca and related indigenous groups took their language with them into the heart of Colombia where they comprised the Muisca Confederation, a cultural grouping.

The following greetings have been taken directly from written sources from the 16th century when the language was alive.

• choâ - Hello, choâ mzone – how are you?
• choâ mibizine - To greet several people
• chogue – Fine!
• mua,z, choa umzone – What about you? (And you are well?)
• haspqua sihipquaco – Greetings!

Numbers 1-10 and 20 in Chibcha

The muysccubun alphabet consists of around 20 letters. The Muisca didn't have an "L" in their language. The letters are pronounced more or less as follows:[10][11][12]

a – as in Spanish "casa"; ka – "enclosure" or "fence"
e – as in "action"; izhe – "street"
i – open "i" as in "'inca" – sié – "water" or "river"
o – short "o" as in "box" – to – "dog"
u – "ou" as in "you" – uba – "face"
y – between "i" and "e"; "a" in action – ty – "singing"
b – as in "bed", or as in Spanish "haba"; – bohozhá – "with"

between the vowels "y" it is pronounced [βw] – kyby – "to sleep"

ch – "sh" as in "shine", but with the tongue pushed backwards – chuta – "son" or "daughter"
f – between a "b" and "w" using both lips without producing sound, a short whistle – foï – "mantle"

before a "y" it's pronounced [ɸw] – fyzha – "everything"

g – "gh" as in "good", or as in Spanish "abogado"; – gata – "fire"
h – as in "hello" – huïá – "inwards"
ï – "i-e" as in Beelzebub – ïe – "road" or "prayer"
k – "c" as in "cold" – kony – "wheel"
m – "m" as in "man" – mika – "three"

before "y" it's pronounced [mw], as in "Muisca" – myska – "person" or "people"

in first position before a consonant it's pronounced [im] – mpkwaká – "thanks to"

n – "n" as in "nice" – nyky – "brother" or "sister"

in first position followed by a consonant it's pronounced [in] – ngá – "and"

p – "p" as in "people" – paba – "father"

before "y" it's pronounced [pw] as in Spanish "puente" – pyky – "heart"

s – "s" as in "sorry" – sahawá – "husband"

before "i" changes a little to "sh"; [ʃ] – sié – "water" or "river"

t – "t" as in "text" – yta – "hand"
w – "w" as in "wow!" – we – "house"
zh – as in "chorizo", but with the tongue to the back – zhysky – "head"

The accentuation of the words is like in Spanish on the second-last syllable except when an accent is shown: Bacata is Ba-CA-ta and Bacatá is Ba-ca-TA.

In case of repetition of the same vowel, the word can be shortened: fuhuchá ~ fuchá – "woman".[11]

In Chibcha, words are made of combinations where sometimes vowels are in front of the word. When this happens in front of another vowel, the vowel changes as follows:[13] a-uba becomes oba – "his (or her, its) face"
a-ita becomes eta – "his base"
a-yta becomes ata – "his hand" (note: ata also means "one")

Sometimes this combination is not performed and the words are written with the prefix plus the new vowel: a-ita would become eta but can be written as aeta, a-uba as aoba and a-yta as ayta

This list is a selection from the online dictionary and is sortable. Note the different potatoes and types of maize and their meaning.[9]

Words of Muysccubun origin are still used in the department of Cundinamarca, of which Bogotá is the capital, and the department of Boyacá, with capital Tunja. These include curuba (Colombian fruit banana passionfruit), toche (yellow oriole), guadua (a large bamboo used in construction) and tatacoa ("snake"). The Muisca descendants continue many traditional ways, such as the use of certain foods, use of coca for teas and healing rituals, and other aspects of natural ways, which are a respected part of culture in Colombia.

As the Muisca did not have words for imported technology or items in early colonial times, they borrowed them from Spanish, such as "shoe"; çapato,[35] "sword"; espada,[36] "knife"; cuchillo[37] and other words.

The only public school in Colombia currently teaching Chibcha (to about 150 children) is in the town of Cota, about 30 kilometres (19 mi) by road from Bogotá. The school is named Jizcamox (healing with the hands) in Chibcha.

• Quechua
• Spanish conquest of the Chibchan Nations
• Muisca numerals, calendar

• Arango, Teresa (1954). Precolombia: Introducción al estudio del indígena colombiano [PreColombia: Introduction to the Study of Colombian Indigenous People] (in Spanish). Madrid: Sucesores de Rivadeneyra.
• Botiva Contreras, Álvaro; Herrera, Leonor; Groot, Ana Maria; Mora, Santiago (1989). "Colombia prehispánica: regiones arqueológicas" [Pre-Hispanic Colombia: Archeological Regions] (in Spanish). Instituto colombiano de Antropología Colcultura. Retrieved 2016-07-11.
• Martín, Rafael; Puentes, José (2008). Culturas indígenas colombianas [Indigenous Cultures of Colombia].
• Triana, Miguel (1922). La civilización Chibcha (in Spanish). pp. 1–222. Retrieved 2016-07-11.
• Wiesner García, Luis Eduardo (2014). "Etnografía muisca" [Muisca Ethnography]. Central Andean Region (in Spanish). Bogotá: Instituto Colombiano de Cultura Hispánica. IV: 2. Retrieved 2016-07-11.

Chibcha language test of Wikipedia at Wikimedia Incubator

• (in Spanish) Diccionario y gramática chibcha – World Digital Library
• (in Spanish) Muysc cubun Project – with Muysc cubun–Spanish dictionary
• (in Spanish) Archives and sources on the Chibcha language – Rosetta Project
• (in Spanish) Animated video about the last Muisca rulers – Muysccubun is spoken with Spanish subtitles
• Muisca (Intercontinental Dictionary Series)