Salvadoran Lenca

Salvadoran Lenca was spoken in Chilanga and Potón. Lencans had arrived in El Salvador about 2,000 years B.P. and founded the site of Quelepa. One speaker remains in Poto.

Lencan
Native toEl Salvador
EthnicityLenca people
Extinctby 2007, some semi-speakers remain
Lencan
  • Lencan
Language codes
ISO 639-3None (mis)
Glottologlenc1243
ELPSalvadoran Lenca[1]
Map of El Salvador's Native American civilizations and their kingdoms:
  Kingdom of the Lenca people
  Kingdom of the Cacaopera people
  Kingdom of the Xinca people
  Kingdom Maya Poqomam people
  Kingdom of Maya Ch'orti' people
  Kingdom of the Alaguilac people
  Kingdom of the Mixe people
  Kingdom of the Mangue language
  Kingdom of the Pipil people

Salvadoran Lenca is of the small language family of Lencan languages that consists of two languages one of which is the Salvadoran Lenca and the Honduran Lenca. There have been attempts to link the Lencan languages to other languages within their groupings, but there has been no success. [2]

Phonology

Consonants

Consonants in Chilanga Lenca[3]
Labial Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
Plosive voiceless p t k
ejective
Affricate t͡sʼ t͡ʃʼ
Fricative s ʃ h
Nasal m n
Lateral l
Rhotic r
Approximant w j

Vowels

Vowels in Chilanga Lenca[3]
Front Back
Close i u
Mid e o
Open a

Lenca Potón

As of 2012, Mario Salvador Hernández of Guatajiagua is the last speaker of Lenca Potón, which differs from the version spoken in Chilanga, where the language has disappeared. Research in 2004 by the University of Central America recorded 380 words, five vowels and 16 consonants, alternation between “g” and “k”, with reduplication to create plurals from singular forms.[4]

References

  1. Endangered Languages Project data for Salvadoran Lenca.
  2. Campbell, Lyle. Glossary of Historical Linguistics. Edinburgh University Press, 2007.
  3. Del Río Urrutía, 1999
  4. Liliana Fuentes Monroy (2012). "Buscan rescatar lengua potón". La Prensa. Retrieved 2012-09-30.
  • Roque, Consuelo; Manuel Antonio Ramírez Suárez (2004). Cultura lenca de Guatajiagua. Universidad de El Salvador. ISBN 978-99923-27-20-3. Retrieved 30 September 2012.
  • Del Río Urrutía, Ximena. 1999. El lenca de Chilanga. Revista de Filología y Lingüística de la Universidad de Costa Rica 25. 193-209.
  • Campbell, Lyle. 1976. "The Last Lenca". International Journal of American Linguistics 42(1): 73–78.


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