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Language Family

Lencan

North American Language Families

The Lencan languages are a small family native to Central America whose speakers lived throughout El Salvador and Honduras during the pre-Columbian era. By the beginning of the 20th century only two of the family's languages survived, Salvadoran Lenca, or Poton, and Honduran Lenca, both academically described and studied. Of the two, only Salvadoran Lenca still has speakers, despite between 37,000 and 100,000 people belonging to the wider Lenca ethnic group.

Facts
Region
El Salvador and Honduras, Central America. 1
Proto-Language Status
Arguedas Cortés (1987) reconstructs Proto-Lencan with twelve consonants, including an ejective series, and five vowels; the family's proposed wider ties to Misumalpan and Chibchan within a hypothesized Lenmichí micro-phylum remain disputed. 1
Partially Attested
Speaker Count
1 1
One speaker of Salvadoran Lenca (Poton) remained per the cited source; Honduran Lenca survives only in a few remembered phrases and it is not known whether it is still spoken at all.
Connections

Associated With

Chibchan, Language Families

Why this is disputed. The same Lenmichí micro-phylum hypothesis links Lencan to Chibchan; Campbell (1987) found no solid evidence for the connection.

Source Wikipedia: Lencan Languages
Misumalpan, Language Families

Why this is disputed. Constenla-Umaña (2005) proposed a Lenmichí micro-phylum joining Lencan and Misumalpan; Campbell (2012) says this has not been proved systematically.

Source Wikipedia: Lencan Languages
In the Other Atlases
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Lencan Languages
Wikimedia Foundation
  • Lead paragraph
    Of the two, only Salvadoran Lenca still has speakers, despite the fact that there are between 37,000 and 100,000 people belonging to the Lenca ethnic group.
  • Languages section
    Arguedas Cortés (1987) reconstructs Proto-Lencan with 12 consonants (including ejective) and 5 vowels.
  • Associated With: Misumalpan, External relationships section
    Constenla-Umaña (2005) proposed regular correspondence between Lencan, Misumalpan, and Chibchan.
  • Associated With: Chibchan, External relationships section
    Campbell (1987) reported that he found no solid evidence for such a connection
View the Source
Wikidata: Lencan
Wikidata Q36189, class allow-list match (w-wdresolver-0926)View the Source
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