Cofán, known to its speakers as A'ingae, is the language of the Cofán people of the western Amazon, spoken in Sucumbíos Province in northeastern Ecuador and in the Putumayo and Nariño departments of southern Colombia, with roughly 1,000 to 1,500 native speakers as of 2012. It is now widely agreed to be a language isolate with no known genetic relatives; earlier proposals linking it to the Chibchan family or to a broader Andean grouping have been rejected by modern scholarship. UNESCO classifies Cofán as definitely endangered in Ecuador and severely endangered in Colombia, though children in some Ecuadorian communities still learn it.
Facts
RegionAncestral territory of the Cofan people at the interface of the Andean foothills and Amazonia, in Sucumbios province of northeast Ecuador and the Putumayo and Narino provinces of southern Colombia. 1 Speaker CountEstimate from the cited article; the language is still robustly learned by children in Ecuador but severely endangered in Colombia. Proto-Language StatusPast proposals linked Cofan to Chibchan or Andean B, but it is now widely agreed to be a language isolate with no known genetic relatives; no proto-language applies. 1 In the Other Atlases
- Also in Geography Atlas: Amazonia, found in there.
- Also in Geography Atlas: South America, found in there.
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Cofán Language
Wikimedia FoundationClassification section
it is now widely agreed to be a language isolate, with no known genetic relatives.
Lead paragraph
an indigenous group whose ancestral territory lies at the interface between the Andean foothills and Amazonia in the northeast of Ecuador (Sucumbíos province) and southern Colombia (Putumayo and Nariño provinces)
Lead paragraph, speaker estimate clause
estimates of around 1,500 native speakers
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